In Nepal, last April 10-12, they had a Level 2 seminar in Gorkha and then on April 17-19 there was one in Tanahun.

This coming June there’ll be a training in Kathmandu.

In the Philippines, we have had three.

We had one in Puerto Princesa City in Palawan, last March 29-31 (a Level 1 youth ministry strategy seminar attended by leaders from all over the island).

Then on April 12-15 we also taught the course to student leaders in Iligan City down in Mindanao.

And on April 25-26 we had one last training this time with youth workers in Malaybalay City also in Mindanao.

If you’ve been to any of these trainings we’d love to hear from you.

Plans were made and restructured several times to make sure everything and everyone was prepared for the training that would take place in Palawan, the island west of Manila. We conferred with each other and prayed earnestly for God’s guidance and blessing on everything we felt the Lord wanted on this particular training. The team was set and eager to serve.

This particular training was unique in the sense that the Lord allowed all the GYMN Asia staff and two volunteers to join together our talents and passion to be shared in Puerto Princesa’s Youth Discipleship Revival Congress. The personalities and gifts we had was complementing our lives and work, it was not just beneficial for us but was also for the delegates. We were blessing each other and were united in ministering to the young people of Palawan that God had entrusted to us.

It never seizes to amaze me when I see young people being so attentive to what we share to them and how they try their best to work on the tasks we present to them. I’m blessed to encounter teens truly hungry for the Word of God and the principles imbedded in it. The youth that attended our sessions tell us of how the Level 1 training is essential to their call and responsibilities and plans as youth leaders in their respective areas of ministry. They were eager to listen and eager to put into practice what God had given to them during the training.

We are definitely thankful for the results of the guidance, empowerment, and victory that God has brought into every part of the training. I may be of the opinion that a successful seminar is not about the numbers (participants), although we had a large crowd. Our triumph in this congress is in the testimonies of those who have attended. They truly participated and declared that they have gained from the Lord through the sessions. The real victory for me is not in the presentations given but is in the rekindling of the fire in the hearts of those who came. The young leaders came, they worshipped, and went back to their respective areas of ministry eager to serve God through the reaching out and the discipling of other young people. Now that’s what triumphant ministry is all about, “You will take my place and do greater things.”

Level 1 graduates

The GYMN Level 1 training in Baguio City was a blessing indeed. One post I wrote, describing the seminar we had, went this way, “I have been blessed with cool weather, cool people and cool inspiring moments.”

I have been teaching the Level 1 material of GYMN for several years now and the participants would always say that they have been blessed and equipped by the truths presented to them for their ministry to the youth. Another usual statement would be, “Our youth group will surely benefit from what we have received from this seminar.” As a trainer, to hear such feedback brings joy to my heart and that my efforts have paid off. But in this particular gathering, I was drawn to the response of the majority of the participants when they gave their thoughts on ministering to their family. The realization that they have a lot of goals for the youth and their fellowship but very little is planned for the youth to do ministry to their family.

Bennette Peña and I divided the 13 sessions between us and session 10, “Role of Family,” was one of the topics that I handled during the Baguio training. During the session, I presented an illustration to the participants about a paper with two columns. One column has the title “Plans for Our Youth Fellowship” and the opposite column, “Plans for Our Family.” During this time I presented a fact to my young audience by asking the question, “Why is it that we have so many activities listed under the column of Plans for Our Youth Fellowship and very little, or if not, nothing listed under Plans for Our Family?” This question struck my audience, someone even shouted,” TAMA! [correct].” “That’s where we fail,” another suggested.

After the lecture and goal setting was at hand in small groups, God was moving in the hearts of young people and everyone was seeing the need to increase their efforts in reaching out to their families. I even saw some of the youth leaders being teary-eyed in admitting how they have ignored their family and concentrated only in their youth ministry. This is what we always hope for during our trainings, to see youth leaders learn and be convicted by the biblical principles that are presented to them.

I, Pastor Santillana, the staff and Bennette thank God in the way that He has moved and inspired the youth leaders during this training in Baguio. Some participants said that they attended the training because it would be held in Baguio but as God would have it, they appreciated not only the cool weather and cool companions, but most of all, youth leaders and trainers alike enjoyed the blessing of cool inspiring moments with the Lord.

Pictures courtesy of Wheng Carrasco

This is one GYMN training I only get to see in pictures too, as it was GYMN trainers Eric and Bench who handled the sessions. Anyway, Bench was kind enough to send us some pictures and we’ll hopefully hear more from the trainers and the participants. Right now, these four shots are all we get.

Ethel teaches on the GYMN pyramid, the structure we use for our youth leaders strategy seminar. We had a team of 4 trainers for this event.

The place above was where we also held a Level 1 training a year ago, 12 students from that training came back and some of their testimonies were very inspiring.

Here, a couple of students discuss their plans for the ministry.

Students and trainers on the last day of the seminar.

With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand

“Scripture talks of leadership as being a combination of the skillfulness of hands and the integrity of heart. Yet, from my experience the high majority (over 90%) of all seminars, workshops and books that are offered to Christian leaders is based on skill alone, (“How to….”).

To balance this equation at GYMN we are offering experienced and long-term Christian workers an alternative. Heart of the Leader is a series of retreats (2 in all) that will help you position yourself before God for the long road of ministry. We will be holding the first of these in July in the Philippines.

The statistics and negative stories of burnout and moral failures are way too high globally in churches and ministry groups. I know you want to be successful for the long-term and be able to lead with an authentic heart, as do I. This journey through the Heart of the Leader, is something that I have done myself. In fact, I can say with full confidence that this set of retreats has impacted my spiritual life more than anything else (aside from my initial conversion).

You do not want to miss this opportunity! We have no promises that this will be offered again…so sign up now!”

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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Training No. 2, In Roxas