“As we walk with Jesus in relationship, his peace flows out of us into our relationships with others. It must be based in love,” says Young AnaBaptist Lilia Aranguren a member of Iglesia Menonita Venga tu Reino, Villas de Granada, Bogotá, Colombia.

She participated in the YABs Fellowship Week global gathering on Zoom 19 June 2020.

What are YABs?

Young AnaBaptists (YABs) refers to all members of MWC member churches from teens to young adults up to age 35.

Though we have different faces, cultures, languages and ways of practicing our Anabaptist faith, all young people in the global Anabaptist family form part of YABs. Together we have much to share!

Just like the commissions and other groups of MWC, YABs also has a committee, the YABs Committee. This committee represents all of us young people before the MWC General Council and works with the MWC Executive Committee.

Purpose

On the foundation of our Anabaptist identity, through global and local networking, we as young people walk together and empower and support each other in fellowship, decision-making, and peace-making initiatives.

Focus

1. Create some infrastructure for networking within young people, both through face-to-face and online interaction
2. Encourage fellowship and closer relationship within young people, and with other groups in the church, locally and globally
3. Build capacity for young people
4. Provide space for young people to influence decision-making in the church
5. Promote peace-making and the Anabaptist identity among the young people
6. Create a system that allows for continuity for the next YABs Committee, by maintaining a connection with young people in our respective continents
7. Raise awareness of the importance of connecting with the global church and understanding Anabaptist identity
8. Carry out monthly check-ins with each representative through our social media platforms

YABs Committee

The YABs committee is made up of a representative from each continent and a mentor.

The current committee:

• Makadunyiswe Doublejoy Ngulube (Zimbabwe) for Africa
• Ebenezer Mondez (Philippines) for Asia and the Pacific
• Jantine Brouwer-Huisman (Netherlands)for Europe
• Oscar Suárez (Colombia) for Latin America
• Larissa Swartz (USA) for North America
• Our mentor is Tigist Tesfaye (Ethiopia)

The continental representatives share the needs of young people in their regions with the YABs Committee, and jointly discuss projects and themes related to young Anabaptists. The mentor advises and monitors the work of the YABs Committee.

This committee changes every six years after the Global Youth Summit.

GYS

The next Global Youth Summit (18+) will be held 1–4 July 2022 in Salatiga, Indonesia. The theme of GYS 2022 is Life in the Spirit: Learn, Serve, Worship.

“GYS provides one with the opportunity to really open our eyes to the fact that behind all those countries that appear on the map there are brothers and sisters in faith living in diverse social, economic and political contexts. These contexts are the backdrop for specific challenges in each region to which God is responding in unique ways,” says Karina Bogarin, a member of Maranata de los Hermanos Menonitas, Paraguay. She was a delegate for the Convencion Evangelica de Iglesias Paraguayas Hermanos in 2015.

Learn more here: mwc-cmm.org/yabs/gys