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.

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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:

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.