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!

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.