During our marathon of trainings in Southeast Asia I met an amazingly talented young man who calls himself Wakka. I was delighted to discover that not only was he a natural musician but he also seemed to be a natural writer. He provided our prayer partners and supporters with a view of our trainings during our stint in Southeast Asia by posting to our Facebook site during or after seminars. If you checked our Facebook page from May 5 to 17 you’ve read of him already.

For those who haven’t, I’ve reposted his paragraphs below to get you a glimpse into our last training outside the Philippines.

A note: This training there was far from Internet access so Wakka did these nightly rather than in real time. Aside from keeping folk updated Wakka also taught some of the sessions (having gone through the GYMN material and having used it in his youth ministry too).

The following takes place between May 10 and May 17, 2010. Everything in square brackets [and italicized] are my edits, the rest our all Wakka’s. Here goes:

[May 10 at 10:46pm] Everyone…. It’s me again Wakka. I will be your host posting of what is going on here in our stationary. Stay tuned and stay posted because I will be the one to update you all. Peace from the East. I’m not even sure if we are in the East. Oh well. Day 2 Begins 2m!

[May 11 at 8:48pm] Hi people, Day 2 of the Seminar. It was Hot, like hot sitting in a oven or Sauna HOT! We were all taking a bath in our sweat, we just needed some shampoo and soap we are complete. haha. We had level 1 and 2 simultaneously but separately of course. I attended and taught Level 1 which went pretty good….

(continuation)…. Our Lecturer/Teacher for Session 2 went pretty long, no pretty… too pretty long if that makes any sense. I felt that the group was not to interactive but according to RCD [That’s our trainer Rey, who did a training here two years ago], they were more active and interacting than before, so i guess that’s a good thing? I think so.

[May 11 at 8:55pm] The crowd are not as “youthee” as i expected, they were more calm, quiet, and focused which kind a scared me, but still they did participate we just got to allow them or forced in a nice way to bring them out. They all have good answers, they just needed an extra push. One main minor/major issue (depending on you), the “program statement” (goal statement but RCD wanted to call it the program statement. I guess they are Program Oriented, I am not sure why. Just letting you know).

The program/goal statement took awhile to understand but hopefully they will get it down and understand before the end of the Seminar. I explained as sweet, easy, understandable, slow as possible and i dont think they catched. but again, it’s the first day to do it. S.1-S.4 [The first four lessons of the seminar] is completed, i believe S.5-S.8 will begin. I will keep you posted. God bless. (too much info huh? hehe.. just wnt keep you guys informed)

[compounding Wakka’s hardship, we needed translators to assist us in teaching since many of the participants did not speak or understand English]

Wakka: If you want to know about L.2, you got ask Alvan, the man who is in charge of all the Chipmonks or Chickmunks (i’m not sure how to spell it, honestly.. no jks sry but u got the idea).

[May 13 at 7:37pm] Yo yo yo people wazz up in the Hizzy?! Nah jokes.. hehe. the last 24 hrs i was not here. I apologize. I was kinda busy doing some clothe cleaning

So far, the seminar is getting better and better. Maybe it’s because the are now understanding the materials or the seminar is almost done. ??? Btw, 2m will be a few sessions then the GRADUATION! We are going to PARTY!!!!!!

[May 16 at 8:50pm] Hello everyone, I’m tuning in on the last finished words of the Seminar. HALLELLUJAH, It is done. The Seminar was awesome and totally awesome. If all of you have enjoyed of the posts, thank for reading. If there are anything that would be improved, let me know, so I will be able to make more enjoyable for you. Peace out and GBU!

A GYMN Level 1 Youth Strategy Training was held last May 28-30, 2010 at the Child Evangelism Fellowship Center in Antipolo City. This was hosted by YouthRED of the Lord Jesus Our Redeemer (LJOR) Church. Twenty-three participants from different parts of greater Manila area attended the training. This was the first GYMN training after the trending of a new Filipino youth culture popularized by the Jejemons- a group of young Filipinos who has a different and often difficult to understand system of writing text messages. Like the Jologs before, Jejemons have also widened their identity with the jejecap and other accessories. When the youth leaders were asked to describe the Filipino youth of today, the Jejemon was a highlight among the common descriptions.

The three-day seminar started with the discussion of the need for youth ministry. The participants devised purpose statements that will lead the young people in their local churches to know more about God and live a Christian life worthy of imitation by the younger generation. The participants agreed, as seen in their goal setting sessions, that it is good to create an atmosphere of love and acceptance in their youth ministry. A youth group that would make Jejemons and the rest of the Filipino young people feel loved and accepted for who they are.

This seminar was very special to me because: First, this was my first time to handle four sessions in a training, I usually handle two sessions only. Second, the participants gave us a warm welcome and the camaraderie among the youth leaders was very heart-warming. Third, the venue was in sunny Antipolo but I felt one of the first rainfalls of Amihan on the first day. Fourth, this was the first partnership of LJOR with GYMN Asia and I hope this will be the first of the many more trainings to come. Lastly, some participants were just so sweet- aside from writing good comments and testimonies in the evaluation sheet, they wrote letters for the trainers. Some participants suggested ways in how we can improve our teaching, some made notes of appreciation and some just made funny remarks like I looked like one of the characters from the TV series “Heroes”.

~~~

Here are some highlights of the training:

A jejemon’s point of view on what is a disciple

Kris, one of the participants, attached an origami along with his letters for us.

The Young leaders of LJOR YouthRED

But I did enjoy most of the time there.

It was the people. Their gentle manner and smiles of greeting concealed a fire for the Lord.

This time we had three trainings, our youth ministry strategy seminar (Level 1),

a follow-up training (Level 2) for those who already took the Level 1,

and a trainer’s training were we taught others to teach the material.

All these taking place in a span of six days: May 11-15, 2010.

This was the first time for me to work with translators in a training since many here were not fluent in English and the words I could speak in their language could be counted with my fingers. Often times the idea I wanted to give was not the one the students got and I would only realize this later in their responses.

Despite this, their love to learn and to grow was made evident in their diligence toward the entire seminar. With the level 2 group I handled, we had finished all the lessons and were going toward graduation. I left them for a while to check on the preparations for the graduation ceremony.  When I returned to call them, they were still writing down the goals and programs they were going to do for the year ahead.

In the heat of summer, it was their fire for serving the King that blessed me a lot.

Malaybalay is the place were I was born so that was one reason to be eager for this particular event. But I’ve also long been hoping for a training in this area knowing there was great number of youth and a great lack of training in this region. The students were few in number but most were young pastors (key people to be able to implement all the plans they had set).

The event was made possible due to the Natid-asan Christian Community Church, pastored by Daniel Asuncion, who provided a place for the venue and everything needed for the training.

One highlight for me were the testimonies shared during the last day of the event. One student said his concept of youth ministry expanded–it was no longer only about the youth inside his church. Another talked about the difficulty of reaching the youth for the ministry and said that the seminar would be a big help.  One pastor shared a vision to reach out to youth in the strategic areas of the city.

Our hope and prayer for these young ministers is that their dreams for the youth would become a reality and so impact their community for Jesus. Pray with us!

This almost didn’t make it. Before the trainings had even begun, we actually placed down “cancelled” for the event as the key person coordinating the training in Puerto Princesa had a conflicting schedule the week before we flew into Palawan. So it was not even included in the plans going there.

And then as we were into our second training, Ptr. Bobot Almasco, of the Acts Family Church, who also just flew in from Palawan, learned it was cancelled and called up our contacts while we were doing the second training and he wanted to grab the opportunity to host. He was even willing to buy me a new plane ticket home as my flight could not be cancelled or re-booked. At that point the decision was in my hand, should I go home as scheduled or extend one more day? I wanted to go home but their eagerness to have me come and the thought that we never had a training yet in this area made me decide to stay.

So here I am in Puerto Princesa at 9:00 in the morning on the 23rd day of September.

This is where 3 days of youth ministry training will take place. It’s the Acts Family Church Youth Center, whose members have decide to make the event possible. And so by this time I am eager to meet the participants.

Although the invitations went out, with a few days notice and the seminar falling on class days, few other churches could send their youth workers. Most of the participants were from the hosting church (with two persons representing other churches). These were around 30 young leaders, the ministry they handled also known as Gangs for God, mainly because many of them were redeemed from the dregs of society, most being reformed gang leaders and members. I would later find out that they are also one of the most active and possibly biggest youth ministry in Palawan.

The center’s interior was a pleasant surprise:

They already had a purposeful youth ministry running! And as we were discussing goals and plans I learned they also had a clear goal to have a thousand active youth members by the year 2010. My role was mainly to help them make clearer the vision that God had already placed in their hearts.

Here they are going through the GYMN Sessions:

Chris called this a marathon training and by this time I am a runner on my second wind, running on automatic pilot. And it was great! A very satisfying and enjoyable time.

Related Posts:

The Best Unique Training Yet…

Training No. 2, In Roxas

Palawan, eastern most island of the Philippines is where we just had our most recent trainings, three of them in the span of two weeks. Roxas is a town that is 3 hours travel away by car from the airport of Puerto Princesa but only 30 minutes from where we held our first Palawan training (Bennette has a great post on that training, check out her perspective here).

Who would expect that this small town would have such an excellent spirit of cooperation and working together? Roxas has an amazingly well-knit together Church. 40 representatives from 11 different local churches were in attendance, 10 pastors/elders also staying throughout the entire seminar. It was very enjoyable for me in that there were young leaders/potential leaders eager to serve their youth ministry, and head pastors of churches – two of the groups we most want the training to reach. And I was still fired up from our first training.

Despite of, or maybe because I was the only trainer, I had very good interactions with the group as almost all of them would approach me to have their goals checked after every session. The big challenge was being the only GYMN trainer present as Bennette, had to catch her flight the day before this training began. On the evening of the first day my throat was a little hoarse but I was sure God would sustain…

…And He did. Time just flew and 36 hours after the first session began, the training was over.  We ended the seminar and I still had the energy to spare. Here we are at the closing ceremonies: