I have a big announcement!

It’s big for me, because it became a big part of my GYMN life. As I was thinking on how to announce it, I couldn’t help but remember the excitement I felt when I first received the Youth Connection newsletter in the postal mail. I felt special and felt somebody cares to help me in my ministry with the young people. Two years later I understood why God gave me that sentiment. It was for me to understand the importance of sending to those who undergone the training. It was not just a piece of paper; GYMN had invested its resources so that the YC could reach every youth worker.

The big announcement is:

We will no longer be sending Youth Connection through postal mail.

Our desire to equip and provide tools for you has not been diminished.  We will still be providing and looking for additional resources in youth ministry for you. But for the YC, it has become more strategic to send this out in a different way. For the GYMN-Asia blog, we will continue to post the article online. Also, we will provide a PDF copy that you can print out and make copies of for other youth leaders.

Here is our February YC in PDF Form that you can download: click here.

We will also send out copies through e-mail (just send us your e-mail address by commenting below or by sending to asia[at]global-youth.com).

God had given us favor to see Singapore first. We enjoyed an overnight stay in the beautiful and expensive house of Kuya Jeff and Ate Daisy. They are Filipinos working in Singapore. We had an opportunity to hear their stories of how God became real and personal to them. Once again I was amazed at the work of God’s hands by their testimonies. Hearing their stories, God reminded me that He has purpose for everything and He gives us faith to believe and challenges us to accomplish it with Him. While on the way to Nepal, I kept remembering these three words – purpose, faith and challenge. I believe God was preparing me for His purpose that He wanted to accomplish in Nepal. He has a purpose and He will accomplish it!

After a quick lunch at Jomesh’s house, we had to rush for an eight hour travel to Pokhara, where the training was held. Every evening we had to walk in the darkness from the venue through the fields to the place where we’re staying. I never felt tired but rather enjoyed the cool weather. There were 54 faithful youth leaders in Level 1 and 16 in Level 2. Some have traveled 2 to 4 hours just to get to the venue of the seminar. Ghie gave a powerful challenge in the first session. God is at work, and He never stops. It amazed me to personally witness how God is moving, working and calling people to work with Him on the other side of the world. 98% committed their lives to be the influencer of their faith where God had placed them to be.

Tears of the Saints video was shown on the graduation day. Once again God stirred my heart in missions. He reminded me of His great commission.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

He desires to see disciples in all the nations, for that He will be most glorified. He’s going to make this happen. He’s accomplishing it right now together with His chosen people. God will not stop revealing His purpose, giving faith and challenging us to go and work with Him.

How amazing to be able to know and see that, in just one training event, God is accomplishing His purpose in me, in Ghie, Ptr. Jik and Jomesh, in each of the youth leaders who attended the seminar, in the country of Nepal and in the whole world! What a big God we have, telling a big story beyond my comprehension!

I was with Pastor Alvan in Palawan for a very challenging and, as Pastor Alvan calls it, unique training. Some of the participants came sweating and catching their breath because it took them 4 hours of walking just to get to the venue. It was on a hilltop where you have a nice view of mountains.  One of the participants said that they came from the other side of that mountain, as he pointed to one of the mountains.

One of the times that I said ‘Amazing…’ during this training was after a morning session. The participants would go and look for wood to build a fire so that they can cook food for our lunch. It was my first time to experience this. We used a solar microphone, for there was no electricity in that place. We used a generator for the LCD projector to show videos we have brought for the sessions. Also a battery of a motorcycle was tapped to play their mp3 player for some songs during goal setting time.

I got excited to minister with these tribal young people. My heart leaped for joy whenever I would see their potential. And it overwhelmed me just to imagine how God will enable them to do mighty things so they can bring glory to the God of the universe.

We saw how the participants grew from the first day till they did their presentations on the last night of the training. Staff of the hosting organization commented that this was a big breakthrough to them. The students became confident in standing in front of a crowd. There were 40 young people who committed and prayed to work on reaching their purpose statements.

Maybe one of the reasons I love teaching the Ministry and Leadership session is because personally this session has a lot to say to me as a leader and as being a child of God. I had a very simple plan for my life. I would to like to work in a bank and make my family happy. But when God called me, He gave me visions of the greater life He had prepared for me. He took me out from the tiny world I was building for myself and gave me a world of wonder. He gave me a wide horizon to ponder His immense glory. He’s using me beyond what I am.

To be working in GYMN is a greater life for me. To teach in Palawan was another experience of the beauty of His Glory. To teach the tribal youth of Palawan was the best unique training I have had.

Psalm 139:16-17
Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.

It was the shortest GYMN seminar as far as I know. The Cainta, Rizal, Level 1 training was done in two days. I was with two Pastor Reys (Rey and Aboy) in this seminar. I know it’s hard to imagine teaching 13 sessions in just two days (and we don’t recommend it, unless Rey would be the head trainer ). Ptr. Caloy Amaro invited us to train their youth workers plus he invited the senior pastor of their mother church. All in all, there were 18 hungry-to-be-trained participants. When we arrived, the participants had already memorized the pyramid and they had a big board where they had painted the Annual Ministry Goal Planning Sheet. They were very intentional with the goals they made. These people are really serious! When Ptr Rey gave a challenge, 15 of them opened their hearts to the Lord to serve Him full time.

God had called us in this ministry to be part of what He’s doing. I was humbled and my passion was ignited just to witness what God had done in two days.

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”

~2 Peter 3:8