Nearly 200 youth and young adults gathered in the Holden Convention Center in Gladstone at the end of April for this year’s RED Jóvenes event. For those unfamiliar with RED, the acronym comes from the Spanish words Redimir, Entrenar, and Discipular (that’s “redeem, train and disciple” in English). RED events are held throughout each year, sponsored by Oregon Conference Latino-Hispanic Ministries to help foster connection, education, and mentorship among all our Latino and Spanish-speaking church members.
Ashley Castro-Rodriguez has been attending these events since her preteens. "I think the first time I came to RED Jóvenes I was 12 or 13. I came with my parents because they were helping with the event," Ashley recently shared. "What I remember most is watching people be so excited to see each other. The people came from all different churches, so it was this place where Adventist young people could get together and make friends. It made it easy to connect with people who have a similar mindset and age range beyond just the people in our own churches."
Like many others who grew up attending the event, Ashley remembers that RED Jóvenes quickly became a catalyst for young people coming together to serve in their churches and surrounding communities. “I remember at one of our churches our youth group really got close because of it,” she continued. “We started doing a lot more together and even started planning things like visiting the nursing home, planning holiday get-togethers, bowling nights, Bible studies, and that kind of thing.”
This year’s theme, “Metamorphosis,” fits into a broader annual theme for Spanish youth events. Four of the five featured speakers were young people currently leading in areas including church planting and pastoral ministry, outreach, communication, and worship – all centered on themes of transformation and growth. On Friday night, worship leader Danny Ramos shared how to transform music and worship experiences. Sabbath included presentations from Alexis Altamarino (pastor at Walla Walla University’s Nuestra Iglesia church plant), Andy Anaya (who also helped plant Nuestra Iglesia and now serves at Portland Adventist Community Services), Ashley Castro-Rodriguez (former communication intern at the Oregon Conference), and Pastor Harold Altamirano (who serves as lead pastor at the ECHO and Vivid churches).
It was evident that each of this year’s presenters had spent many years pouring into their church communities, and cared deeply for today’s youth. “Personally, I really wanted to convey that our communication in church needs to be a lot more intentional,” Ashley shared as she reflected on her message later. “It seems like a big part of why people leave church has to do with misunderstandings, miscommunication, and bad communication. When we communicate that we don’t want people around because of how they dress or how they look or how they act, we really aren’t showing people what church was supposed to be about. If we were able to be more intentional about all that, I wonder what our church would look like now.”
See photos from this year’s RED Jóvenes event on our Flickr…
