Asia Pacific Baptist Youth Conference 2024

The history of Asia Pacific Baptist Youth dates back to 1953 when the Baptist Youth around the world met for the 4th Baptist World Youth Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. One of the first initiations for the formation of ABYF (Asia Baptist Youth Federation) came from Akiko Endo whose vision led to a meeting on October 10, 1954 in Sri Lanka. Willie Wikramasinghe invited Joel Sorenson, the Youth Secretary of the Baptist World Youth, and they visited India, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar.

Following the visit of Joel Sorenson, and correspondence amongst the leaders in Asia resulted in the first meeting of ABYF on August 20, 1956. At the first ABYC held in Hong Kong, delegates from Hong Kong, Japan, Okinawa, India, Sri Lanka, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Myanmar, and Thailand answered the roll call parade of nations.

In 2007, at the 7th Congress of the Asian Baptist Federation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the nomenclature of Asian Baptist Youth Fellowship was changed to Asia Pacific Baptist Youth.

APBY continues to serve young people through out the Asia Pacific by providing trainings, initiating network, and support young people in many ways, including the conference which is held regularly every 5 years. The APBY “Be” Conference 2024 will be 18th Conference held from the time APBY was established.