International Christian Youth Conference on Evangelism (14-21 July 2010)

The ICYC has been run by World Methodist Evangelism since 1980. This latest edition was the ninth one and for the first time held in Asia. 450 youths and young adults from 43 countries came together in Seoul, Korea, at the Kwang Lim Vision Land the conference site of the Kwang Lim Methodist Church, the host of this conference.

From Malaysia, representatives from each of the six Annual Conferences attended with Michael William, the Executive Youth Director from the General Conference Office. He was invited to take a seminar on “Being Christian in a Multi-Cultural Society” at the conference.

It is the commitment of World Methodist Evangelism to multiply witnesses of Jesus Christ, and since 1980 more than 6000 young people aged 19 – 30 have experienced these life changing conferences.

H. Eddie Fox, the World Director of World Methodist Evangelism, says, “It was an incredible experience of faith, hope, love and celebration as persons worshipped, prayed, studied, played, and shared deep fellowship in a world community in the unity of Christ Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.… It was one of the most powerful world conferences that I have ever personally experienced.”

The Conference theme was “Jesus Christ: God’s Yes to the World!” There were Bible study, testimonies and prayers led by participants from different continents each morning. Seminars on Christian Faith-Sharing, Christian Mission, Christian Spirituality and Christian World View were conducted by various resource persons. Delegates testified of the presence of the Holy Spirit and of life-changing commitments to Christ, and commitment to ministry and service in the name of Christ in the world. Two of the participants from Malaysia share their response and experience in the accompanying articles.

My Dream for the Methodist Youth in Malaysia

I thank God for giving me the opportunity to attend the 9th ICYCE in Seoul, Korea. It has been a great experience to fellowship with 450 young people from around the world in Kwang Lim Vision Land.

Even though we came from different countries, in Jesus Christ we are one family. The testimonies shared by different young people were so inspiring; and always reminded me of the presence and faithfulness of GOD, no matter what the circumstances of our lives.

Like so many others, I found refreshment and restoration in my relationship with GOD through prayer, praise and meditation on GOD’s word.

I pray for GOD to show me the way, for what I can do for my country and the young people. There are some ideas from my mind after the conference. It may be just a dream, but perhaps the dream will be achieved in the future.

1. A Conference for Methodist Youth in Malaysia.
This will gather the young people around Malaysia for fellowship and to unite them with vision and commitment for the country. This will involve understanding the trend of Christianity in our country, to raise awareness of the commission for being a Christian and to grow spiritually and build up our relationship with GOD.

2. Set up a fund for youth ministry.
This will be used to sponsor or subsidise young people for conference and training purposes whether overseas or locally. It is also to help to support the Annual Conference MYF activities in case there is a lack of funds. And the big dream is to build a Youth Centre for conference and camp events, which includes lodging, dining hall, meeting rooms and recreation facilities.

Winnie Wong Siew Fong
SPAC MYF

Report on
International Christian Youth Conference on Evangelism

I am thankful to God for a chance to join the ICYC in Korea. It was a great conference and I benefited a lot from it. There are a few things that I learnt which I want to highlight here.

1. I now truly understand and can say that I am proud to be a Malaysian. Living growing up here with different races and cultures have helped me a great deal throughout the conference. There was no problem mixing with different people from around the world; it was easier for me to adapt to the different cultures that we had there. For some people actually found it hard to sit down for a meal with people from different cultures.

Some participants shared with me that they were amazed by how Malaysians could mix together so easily with people from other cultures. I learnt more than one language in school. This helped me to communicate with different people in their own language. I spoke English to the Americans, Britons and Australians; Mandarin to those from China; Cantonese to the people from Hong Kong; and Malay to Indonesians. Because we are used to learning different languages, it becomes easier to learn other languages, and so I believe that Malaysian Christians may have more advantages in missions.

2. After talking to the young people from different countries, I realized that they generally have a certain understanding of their own countries and communities, and they were aware of how they could be the salt and the light in their own countries in a practical way. I think it is very important that we start helping our young people to develop a sense of responsibility for the country and their own communities. I heard many testimonies of how Jesus brought changes to their communities and countries because of the work of young people.

I liked how the Africans make their youth groups so relevant to the communities. They understand their people, they know what they like and how to make them understand God and the gospel. They bring their youth groups into the communities and also bring the communities into their youth groups.

3. I heard from different young people how they made a clear decision to serve God, and because of that the other decisions in their life revolve around the commitment to serve God fulltime, like what to study in college and who to marry. I asked myself whether we put to our young people serving God fulltime as an option for their consideration when they are thinking about further studies. By our silence are we instilling a belief subconsciously that fulltime service is something to consider only when there is nothing else to do? Or have they been made to believe that going fulltime must come with an earth-shaking calling from God instead of having a willing heart and using the gifts that God has given?

4. We definitely need to help our young people develop the habit of praying, not just for themselves, but also for the Kingdom of God. I believe that one of the reasons young people are not interested in praying is because they do not know what to pray for. I believe it is our responsibility to pray for our young people in this area, and also to help them develop an interest in prayer. They need to see prayer as their responsibility and an important element of serving God. It is not something that they do when they need help only. A youth who is passionate about serving God (in worship, youth group or other areas) should have the passion to pray too.

5. I strongly encourage our young people to go on mission trips. Through mission trips, they will understand more of God, life and themselves that they do not see in their own comfort zone.

My personal experience in Korea, I was so overwhelmed by God’s love and I had a strong sense of affirmation of God’s love for our young people and His heart of wanting to use them. There may be a lot of things we need to do but I strongly believe that God is at work and our young people will be great for Jesus. I believe that our young people will learn self-sacrifice for the Kingdom of God.

Lawrence Tan
TRAC MYF