Here in Gold Country, there are some new “miners” who have been “Going for Gold.”
At the Discover Life Adventist Church (DLAC), 16 young people, two each evening,
held an eight-night evangelistic meeting from September 13 to 20.
Just as miners would do, these young people began by investigating and searching
diligently—the difference being that they explored the golden topics of God’s Word.
Miners had to learn how to search for gold, and these young people had help from
some coaches who gladly worked with them on their presentations. Although
miners do not always have success (or even want to tell others that they found
gold), that was not the case with these youthful speakers. In fact, it was quite the
opposite, for they boldly and passionately presented God’s gold to a very attentive
audience.
Who were these youthful speakers who poured out their hearts as they presented
some golden nuggets about the theme of “Following God’s Playbook for Success”
each evening? They were students from grades five to ten who responded to the call
to preach. The best way to get to know them and to receive the greatest blessing is
to personally listen to their sermons. (See the web address at the end of this story.)
You can listen to the sermon by Azalea Jones, a fifth grader, who preached about
“Death & Resurrection” on Thursday night, September 19. She knew exactly how to
share God’s gold on that topic! However, do not end there, because all of the
students fervently expounded on their particular subject. By the way, In addition to
those actually attending, most nights had 100 to 250 additional views on Facebook,
with the last night having over 830 views, plus 114 on YouTube! Tune in and find
out why. God was with them, and it was preaching at its best!
Of the 16 student speakers, most were students at Mother Lode Adventist Junior
Academy (MLAJA), the local Adventist school in Sonora, but three were not. Most
came from Adventist families, but six did not. Two of the six students had earlier
been baptized, even though their families were not. Some of those parents are now
beginning studies. Also notable is that half of the young preachers had gone on the
mission trip to Kenya during the spring of last school year. Those young people
already knew the power of God from that trip!
Tyson Kahler, DLAC’s youth pastor, took on the enormous but rewarding job of
planning both this year’s youth meetings and last year’s series, which was called
“The Mysteries of God.” Several of the speakers preached in both series, and some
will proclaim, along with Christine Narita, who spoke this year, “I want to do it again
next year!” Pastor Tyson was joined in the coaching process by Jim Bergland, senior
pastor, and Jonathan Derma, connection pastor, and the principal of MLAJA, Delmar
Wolfkill.
Teachers at MLAJA were gracious and accommodating in allowing the students to
work with these advisors during school time. As Pastor Tyson explained, ”It is such
an awesome privilege working with youth who are on fire for Jesus and are
unashamed of their faith. Our youth speakers did far more than preach sermons.
They let our whole community know that they can be taken seriously as disciples of
Jesus! I can't wait to see what God is going to do next through each of these youth.”
What will be the results of this extraordinary evangelistic series? Only time will tell
how many of God’s “gold nuggets” will be found as a result. Indeed, it reminds us
that, “With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish,
how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be
carried to the whole world” (Ellen G. White, Education, p. 271).
by Deloris Trujillo
To access each evening, go to
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