Church leaders voted April 18 to endorse a youth evangelism conference to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, December 29, 2003 to January 3, 2004. Organizers say they plan to “saturate the city with service projects” starting 11 days before the conference.

“This shows that the church cares about and supports its young people,” said Baraka Muganda, youth director for the Adventist world church. “I am very excited about this, especially since it’s in an area of the world without a large Adventist presence.”

Bangkok is within the 10/40 window, an imaginary rectangle on the world map that extends through much of Asia, the Middle East, and part of Africa. This region embraces some 60 percent of the world’s population, but only 1 percent of Christians. The youth evangelism conference is expected to draw some 5,000 participants between 16 and 30 years of age.