Jesus Summer 2018

VBS, Jesus Summer 2018, and Growing Young 

by Salvador Garcia

“What a way to end the summer!” That’s what youth from Baldwin Park Bilingual Seventh-day Adventist Church were sharing after an unforgettable experience. It all started several months earlier, when Sal Garcia, Lead Pastor of Baldwin Park Bilingual SDA Church, was driving and was impressed to do something out of the ordinary for the youth of his church. “We had been given a seminar in our conference on how to help churches ‘Grow Young’, and as a church we felt that we needed to focus on the youth and young adults of the church more, by intentionally giving them more participation and doing more ministry for them and with them”, says Pastor Garcia. 

Along with his leadership team, Pastor Garcia had been praying for a Youth Pastor to come and assist them in the Jesus Summer 2018 youth initiative. Not long after the church started praying, Edgar Sanabria, a theology student at Montemorelos Adventist University in Montemorelos, Mexico contacted the Southern California Conference about his desire to come back home to serve and to help any church that needed a youth pastor for the summer. When Pastor Garcia saw his email, he contacted him immediately and informed Edgar that he was a special answer to prayer. 

Pastor Edgar joined the Baldwin Park Bilingual SDA Church for ten weeks, starting June 01, 2018. He visited youth, Bible study interests, gave bible studies, taught Sabbath School, preached for prayer meeting and on Saturday morning, helped with the food bank, VBS program, and Jesus Summer 2018. It was truly a blessing to have him as part of the church for the summer.

After sharing with the church board some of the principles of ‘Growing Young’ by the Fuller Seminary Youth Institute, Pastor Garcia began to see immediate action in the congregation. Irene Sias, Vacation Bible School Director, decided to implement the principle in the book called “Keychain leadership”. “Let’s hand the leadership of church’s departments and ministry more and more to the youth and young adults of the church. Let’s give them physically and literally, the keys of the church”, her pastor had said. Irene decided to follow that advice by handing over the leadership of the Vacation Bible School program to the teenagers of the church. For over twelve years, Irene had been the Director and Leader. Yet this summer of 2018, she decided to invite her 16 year old niece, Faith Cordero,  to be the Leader of the VBS program. “It was amazing to see the teenagers of the church lead the VBS in all of its aspects. Their ministry was so valuable and inspiring”, says Cindy Hernandez, Music Director at Baldwin Park Bilingual. Overall, more than fifty children from the community attended, and may of them requested their own personal copy of the Bible. VBS was a great success in reaching the community, but especially in helping the teens of the church to become involve in leadership and ownership of the church’s ministries and programs. 

Around the same time during the summer, Pastor Salvador Garcia was driving and felt a strong impression to plan something special for the youth of Baldwin Park Bilingual SDA Church and its community. He was impressed with the title “Jesus Summer 2018” as he was driving one day, and thought, “What if we could carry out a program this summer to reach the hearts of youth and young adults, to see them engaged in meaningful service to their community, and then to celebrate those successes by spending a day of fun filled activities in recreation?” After sharing the vision with the parents and church board, everyone was excited and filled with enthusiasm. In previous two summers, plans had been canceled to have a youth week or prayer when speakers were not able to fulfill their commitment. However, this summer would be different.

“It all came together so seamlessly”, says Pastor Sal Garcia. The date, timing, was just perfect. Willy Ramos, Youth Specialist and Evangelist from Florida was the guest speaker for Jesus Summer 2018. It started Friday night, and expectation were high. Pastor Sal Garcia, a Doctorate of Ministry student at Andrews University, was scheduled to return that Friday to Los Angeles from Berrien Springs, MI to be the host of the event. Unfortunately, his flight was canceled that Friday morning, and he would not be able to make it to the opening meeting on time. He would arrive just as the meeting was starting. 

The Jesus Summer 20108 Youth Leadership team was “worried” and fearful. They said, You are the pastor and leader, we need you. How can we carry the program out without you?” From more than 1,800 miles away, Pastor Garcia assured his youth leaders. “This is all God’s providence. You guys are ready to lead this event. You have put in the preparation work. Now you must trust in God and go forward.” The youth were encouraged but still hesitant. “What if no one comes. We haven’t done this in years”, one of them exclaimed. Hundreds of text messages, Facebook posts, and phone calls were made by a team of committed youth and church members leading up to that week. Stephanie Lozano, Ana Zelaya, Jose Arreola, Diana Arreola, Pastor Edgar Sanabria (currently at Montemorelos University), and Cindy and Salvador Garcia, contacted all of the church youth to come. 

As the event began on Friday night, the church began to fill. “They’re coming”, one youth said. “I can’t believe it”. The rest is history. The Holy Spirit used Youth Evangelist Willy Ramos in a powerful way, as Friday night over 15 youth came forward to recommit their lives to Christ. Parents and leaders had tears in their eyes. It was finally happening. This is what they had prayed for all summer. Saturday morning was no exception, as more than 10 youth accepted Willy Ramos’ invitation to “come home” and be baptized. 

Saturday afternoon, after a delicious lunch provided by the local church, youth met with leaders to go out into the community to invite people to a blood drive event with the Red Cross being held the following week at Baldwin Park Church, and to hand out Christian literature. Youth and Leaders distributed over 200 invitations to give blood, water bottles with a Bible message, and also shared GLOW tracts with strangers and friends. Benjamin Zelaya, a student at San Gabriel Adventist Academy, braved the 100 degree weather and joined the group that afternoon to distribute the Blood Drive invitations and Gospel literature. “I want to serve my community and help self lives”, he said. 

Saturday evening, the Holy Spirit touched many hearts. There were 8 youth baptisms in total. Alan Giron, an 11 year old student at West Covina Christian Academy who had wanted to get baptized at OshKosh Camporee, said, “I felt it was the right time. God’s time! This was the right moment.” Another teen, Camila Ramos, also felt called by God and decided to make plans to be baptized in the near future.

What an amazing Experience! To begin and end the summer with Jesus Christ. There can be no better experience. However, it wasn’t over yet. The teens and youth were still full of energy and anticipation, and the final ministry of Jesus Summer 2018 was still to be carried out: an all day outing to the theme park with roller coasters and unforgettable rides. 

Over twenty five youth enjoyed a fun filled day at the local theme park. It was an unforgettable experience. At the end of the day and the weekend, they met together in the parking lot where they joined hands and prayed together. “God, thank you for an amazing weekend. Thank you for all of the youth baptisms and for the recommitments. Thank you for helping us finish the summer with Jesus by our side. Amen”.