When a delegation of Adventist young adults from around the world converged on Atlanta this past June to impact the city and its residents, they found that their own lives were impacted, as well. Impact Atlanta, a community outreach initiative for young adults attending the 2010 GC Session, provided them with opportunities to not only serve others, but to also benefit from training in the areas of leadership and discipleship. Led by Allan Martin, Ph.D., who serves as young adult ministry coordinator for North America, the 10-day outreach experience was designed to transform the habits and attitudes of young adults toward service and ministry, while at the same time, build community. Housed in dormitory apartments at Georgia State University, the young adults, along with their leaders, worked, prayed, and played together 24/7, learning the character-building lessons that come only as a result of close association.

Following daily seminars and orientation each morning, young adult delegates spent their afternoons reaching out to the homeless, gardening, doing street art ministry, or cleaning the homes of needy residents. And on Tuesday, June 29, an army of young adults headed for Centennial Park near the Georgia Dome to solicit signatures for the enditnow campaign, a church-sponsored project to end violence against women.

Trisha Carter, a member of the Capitol Hill church in Washington, D.C., says that she has emerged from the Impact Atlanta experience with a new attitude toward service that will carry over into her daily life. “Before this experience,” she says, “I wasn’t really doing much to help others. This has helped me to see that there is something I can do [in my own community].”

“We are challenging the young adults so that, as a result of us serving and being here, we will also be impacted and go back to serve in our own communities,” says Martin. “It’s not as much about coming and serving as it is about coming and being transformed.”

This was the first time for Rolanda Kingston of the City Tabernacle church in New York City to participate in an Impact event in connection with the General Conference Session. “I didn’t know about it before,” she recalls. “I saw a bunch of young adults and asked them what they were doing. They invited me to Encounters Café and told me about Impact Atlanta. I’m all about outreach and service, so I decided to join them. I was involved in the Sweeney Project, cleaning bathrooms and kitchens, and working in the garden.”

Rolanda says that one experience that made a strong impression on her was watching one of her young adult companions encounter a homeless person. “He was asking for money and food. We weren’t doing an official impact project at the moment, but she went out of her way to buy some groceries and make him a sandwich.” It was that experience that helped Rolanda to realize that outreach isn’t something that’s confined to a specific time or place. Rather, it’s a way of life.

The Arlington church in Arlington, Texas, provided funding for Ryan Gil and Jeremy Barnes to participate in Impact Atlanta. “We often feel like we have to do something big,” Jeremy says. “These are localized projects and they are not glamorous. But we are fulfilling basic human needs. We gave a stay-at-home mom a couple of hours of peace. This is the kind of thing Christ tried to do when He was on earth.”

Ryan adds, “It helped me to sense the need for helping in the community. I now have a greater awareness and this experience has made me more on fire for God. We also did discipleship training, which was very meaningful. Lots of times we go and baptize, but we forget about the part where Jesus tells us to go and make disciples. This experience helped us to carry out that command in a very real way.”

Nathan Caouette, of Anoka, Minnesota, and a member of The Edge Christian Worship Center in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, described his experience this way: “I feel blessed by helping others. And I think our involvement has inspired the community. They see us doing something and they want to help too. It’s infectious. We’re creating waves.”

Rebecca Turk, member of Pioneer Memorial church in Berrien Springs, Michigan, says, “There have been so many opportunities for friendship, fellowship, and service. Impact has redefined what service can be and is. I tend to be goal-oriented, so when I went to work on a garden, I was trying to accomplish the task I had been assigned, which was gardening. However, when a neighborhood kid came over and asked me to help him catch insects, telling me how much he loved nature, I took a break from gardening to chase grasshoppers. I struggled for a moment, thinking I was slacking on the service project, until I realized that at that moment, catching grasshoppers was my service project.”

Associate pastor Salvador A. Garcia from the Hollywood Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church in Los Angeles, California, adds “I really felt like God was telling me to come to Atlanta, Georgia, not just to attend the  General Conference Session and see old friends, but because God wanted to speak to me here and teach me something about His grace. As I return to Los Angeles, I am going back a changed person who has experienced and tasted God's grace in the lives of the many new friends I've made, and as one who has learned and shared the love of Jesus with perfect strangers. I am grateful that God impacted my life and is sending me back home as a renewed, inspired, and changed young adult who is returning home to work for God and to motivate young people to impact their communities, schools, families, neighborhoods, and cities for Jesus Christ!"

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