Youth Rush Spreads the Word in the Nevada-Utah Conference
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s Seventh-day Adventists, it is our mission to tell other people about Jesus in every part of the world and in every season of life. Even in difficult circumstances, followers of Jesus Christ find a way to spread the good news of His soon coming. This summer, young Adventists took up this challenge by planting the gospel seed through literature evangelism. These young people came from many different places and backgrounds across the NevadaUtah Conference, which covers over 200,000 square miles of territory. High school and college students aged 14 to 21 gathered in Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Reno to participate in a ten-week summer program known as Youth Rush. This life-changing work-study program focuses on reaching people where they are most often—in their homes. Though this method may seem outdated to some, going door to door and meeting people directly is professed by political campaigns to be the most effective means of spreading and promoting a given message. According to Brooklynne Mosley, the coordinated campaign director for a major political party, “Basically every single study that comes out about the most meaningful conversations you can have with a [person] is going to be face to face at the door.” Moving beyond politics, this particular method of personal ministry is described in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” and also in the book Christian
The Salt Lake City Youth Rush program participants pose for a group photo in front of the West Jordan church before they depart for the field.
28 Pacific Union Recorder
Nevada-Utah Conference
Students from SOULS West, the Pacific Union’s school of evangelism, train to lead young people in door-todoor evangelism in the Nevada-Utah Conference. Service in which Ellen White states, "Our Saviour went from house to house” (p. 114). The personal effort put forth in reaching others also transformed the lives of the students who went house to house this summer, knocking on tens of thousands of doors. “Youth Rush taught me the power of prayer, persistence, and the value of communication,” said Chloe White, 17, a high school student native to Susanville, California. Joe Vic Johnson, 16, a recently baptized member of the Las Vegas Fil-Am church, said, “I am much more social now. I can physically look at a person face to face and talk about Jesus!” Over 18,000 copies of Steps to Christ, The Great Controversy, The Ministry of Healing, and many other books were sown as seed for the everlasting gospel in cities across Northern California, Nevada, and Utah. In addition to the books planted in many homes, each student came away with a stronger sense of the mission that is given to each member of the body of Christ. Jazmine Bondoc, 14, summed up her summer ministry experience by saying, “Knocking on doors— didn’t think it would be so much more! #saveemsouls.” In a modern age, through the most trying times, an army of youth is truly pushing forward the work of the church in the name of Jesus Christ. ____________________ By Joseph Cadiz
