COMMUNITIES REACHED ON GLOBAL YOUTH DAY
by Yolanda Acevedo
Part of Global Youth Day (GYD), a General Conference initiative, was designated for young people to reach out to communities worldwide. Tampa First, Brandon Spanish, and Riverview, Fla., Churches, converged on the Tampa Bay area for a day of service to distribute lunches, literature, and clothes as they visited with the homeless.
Of particular joy for one man, was a book tucked into the sack with his lunch. “People help us with food, and we’re grateful,” he said, “but we eat and have nothing again. This book gives us something to hold on to.”
Over at MacFarlane Park, 14-year-old Victor came to meet a friend and found many other young people talking about Jesus. He spent the afternoon with the Global Youth Day Activities, including the prayer walk.
Young people talked with individuals as they gave out literature and clothes packed in clear bags and labeled according to gender and size. The recipients’ gratefulness was evident in one homeless person’s response, “That’s so sweet! We need clothes so bad!” Florida Conference office employees cleaned out their closets and donated almost 100 articles of clothing for the young people to give to the homeless.
Ten other GYD events throughout Florida Conference included: blood drives, concerts, visiting shut-ins and missing members, free lunches and dinners, beach cleanup, street ministry, homeless youth ministry, a donation center for needy mothers, literature distribution, Vacation Bible School (VBS), and drive-through prayer.