Our morning talks will be short excellent presentations - not sermons or devotionals - on various topics. We aim to challenge, inspire and get you thinking. We want to speak to relevant issues and we are willing to wrestle with real-life situations that youth deal with.
Instead of having only one speaker to speak broadly on the topic, we will have several presenters who will briefly speak on the topic. So, each day three presenters will each have 10-12 mins to present on the theme of the day. This will be followed by a 15 min panel discussion moderated by Kärt Lazic.
Right after the talks and a short break, each Journey Talks presenter will get 45 minutes during the first workshop time slot to answer (your) questions related to his/her presentation. There will be one moderator for each Q&A group.
Wednesday - Caring For The Earth with Noemi Duran, Mervi Kalmus and Ty Gibson
Thursday - Serving Fellow Travellers with Karianne Schandy, Jeffrey Rosario and Igor Mitrovic
Friday - Living Responsibly To God with Belinda É. S, Anthony Fuller and Ty Gibson
Noemí Durán is the director of the European branch office of the Geoscience Research Institute. She is passionate about Creation and about our responsibility toward the Earth and the fellow creatures that share the planet with us.
After obtaining her degree in Biology, specialty of Zoology, in the University of Valencia in Spain, Noemí studied her PhD in Marine Biology in Loma Linda University, California. She also holds a graduate diploma in Social-Environmental Education, specialisation courses on behaviour and conversation of marine mammals and primates, and a Seminar on Intelligent Design in the Natural Sciences by the Discovery Institute in Seattle.
Noemí loves animals and strongly advocates the need of reconnecting with nature, spending time outdoors observing and studying the natural world to learn more about God and ourselves.
Mervi Kalmus comes from Estonia and holds two Master’s Degrees: one in Linguistics from Tartu University and another in Theology from Newbold College of Higher Education. She grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist church as a pastor's kid.
She currently serves the church in the Estonian Conference, working as the director of the departments of education, Sabbath School, and personal ministries, and as an assistant coordinator of church planting. In addition, she is a contract lecturer in Estonian Baptist
Seminary and Newbold College of Higher Education.
At the age of eighteen Ty Gibson encountered the truth of God’s existence for the first time. After having been raised with a purely secular worldview and having witnessed evil and suffering firsthand, Ty was completely opposed to the idea of a Supreme Being. “If God exists,” he reasoned, “He would have to be cruel to have made a world like ours.” Ty’s conversion as a teenager was founded on the answer to that question. The powerful reality of God’s love opened Ty’s mind to a whole new line of thought. Since then he has given his life to the joyous task of sharing God’s good character in public seminars as well as through print and video media.
Karianne Schandy's
heart burns for people who have no voice because society considers them a problem they would rather not deal with. For many years, Karianne worked with the most addicted drug users in Oslo, as a volunteer with The Marita Foundation, a Christian organization working to provide care for some of the most vulnerable around us. She holds a Master’s Degree in Culture and Community Psychology from the University of Oslo, with special focus on preventive social work among minority youth. Before becoming a mother, she was teaching Psychology at a small Christian university in the south of Norway.
Jeffrey Rosario has been a featured speaker all over the world, including places like Nepal and New Zealand. He has been in ministry since he was 17 years old. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in history at Yale University. Jeffrey is married to Marianna, a nurse, and they currently live in Connecticut, USA.
Igor Mitrovic is a theologian and Christian activist (an ADRA Serbia guy). Lover of life. Nourished by
Biblical narratives, prophetic music and movies, and fearless thinkers. Believer in people and the invincibility of ideas.
Belinda É. S.
is a psychologist who specialises in creative modes of expression. She commonly lectures and holds workshops on psychology, creativity, philosophy and Biblical studies. She is fascinated by the human being, both practically in terms of what makes us tick, and theoretically, how our deeper parts affect various aspects of our lives.
Anthony Fuller is a Minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He is a graduate of Oakwood University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Pastoral Evangelism. He earned his Master of Arts in Systematic Theology at Newbold College of Higher Education.
He is currently serving as the chaplain at the Hyland House School and Youth Director for the South England Conference where he is passionate about proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ, making the Word of God relevant in the lives of believers, and inspiring the youth to be disciples rightly trained in the hope of the soon coming King.
Married to the former Caroline Campbell, the couple are proud parents of three boys, Anthony Jr, Christian and Ethan.
Kärt Lazic
To be announced