Youth host “exciting” regional in Esperance
Esperance, Western Australia

Esperance Adventist church’s normal youth numbers of around 15 were boosted to over 100 for a recent youth regional, held on the weekend of July 15 and 16.
The program started with vespers on Friday night, when Jo Darby, the guest speaker from New South Wales, spoke on the subjects of celebrations and heaven. She then led out in a sharing time when people spoke about things that made them feel blessed. On Saturday, the youth were treated to music from the Carmel College band and were encouraged by Mrs Darby, who gave an inspiring message on heaven and what it will be like.
People came to the church from Perth, the surrounding areas and locally. Among those attending were 25 youth from the Esperance community who had never attended an Adventist event before.
In addition to the meetings that were held, there was a church lunch and a bonfire for the youth on the Saturday night.
Esperance church minister Pastor David Kelsey is excited by the passion shown by the youth in Esperance. “The church would be lost without the youth,” he says. “They are making such a large-scale impact with their drive and enthusiasm.”
Jonno Lis, the youth leader at Esperance, says, “The reason we held the regional was to promote some form of unity among Christian youth in Esperance. Adventist youth are left out a bit, because a lot of people just don’t understand what Seventh-day Adventism is about, and they think we’re weird!”
He adds, “We also wanted to subtly approach the concept of heaven and its focus as our main purpose—that’s really what we’re doing as Christians—heading to heaven and getting as many people to join us as possible.”
The success of the program will be followed up by a number of the Esperance youth starting weekly cell-group meetings in their homes with friends who don’t attend church.