I Survived!

I have officially survived 12 months with yw@p and I am STILL Standing!!!

woah!! In fact, I would have been jumping up and down more often if not for the old bones and muscles strained at the recent youth camp in Pangkor!! That was so so fun!

It had been ages since I played SADOODOO but thanks to the wonderful energetic 'stansanians...(psst.. after all the countrystans ie group names), I was flying all over the beach. The digging for the nice grandma underwear was really tough but really satisfying when it was finally found!! (Thanks to all the dum dums that forgot where they actually buried it!!!)

Back in the hall, we were like rocking to heaven with classics like "One Way", "Salvation is here!", and one new to be classic.. "Running after you"... Unc Steven was way cool too!! Everybody, and I meant every soul in the room, was either touched by God or challenged!.. and I quote.. "whatever the theme for the next camp, just bring Unc Steven along.." ... so mighty was this servant of God as we raise our Hallelujahs to the Almighty God for the many hands that were raised in the challenge to run the Amazing Race with the grace given by God himself through Jesus Christ by his death on the cross and with the Holy Spirit living within us, charging our batteries as we run the race to the finish line...

We had our difficulties... we had our differences in ideas.. we had hiccups.. but at the end of it all, what really mattered was...

Souls were saved!
Christians were challenged!
and God rejoices!!


God bless you all from the various 'stans... wherever you are now...

Keep on WALKIN'

That was the theme of our recently concluded Family Camp....

How appropriate the message of God, through our brother Steven, screamed through the hall and among the laughters and stories, the message from God was both clear and plain simple - "Keep on Walking - and Finish the Race"

The camp theme was to urge the brethren to keep on walking but God reminded us that finishing the race was important too! We cannot and must not remain at the conversion stage but to move on to

• Consecration (Lk 9:23 - deny oneself and take up His cross DAILY - commit to discipleship) and to
  
• Conduct and to
  
• Communion (Matt 22:31 - love things that Jesus loves) and to,
• Character (hates the things that Jesus hates - and allow ppl to see Jesus in us) and to
• Core (motive for doing things that we do) and finally to
  
• Convergence (bearing fruits... reasons for existence...)

In order to run the race, we need to undergo STRICT training (1Cor 9:24-27) and run with perseverence (Heb 12:1-3) and throw away all things that hinders us or easily entangles us.

Don't just start strong - we have to finish the race....

I thought this quote was very good:

"...An amazing race that starts with an amazing Grace"

where do we draw the line?

I have been observing a growing and disturbing trend among parenting techniques the last few months. My observation: school education is slowly removing christianity from the life of the child.

We used to be sent to sunday school when we were young. It used to be so excited to go to church. It used to be exciting to study the Bible and we always compete to finish our assignment/ homework for sunday school/bible classes

We were taught to

• "put God first",
  
• "Quiet time is important and must be done everyday",
  
• "knowing the bible is the way to teach, mold and bring-up a child in the fear of the Lord"

These have been replaced with

• "Stay home and study - passing your exams are more imporatnt - You can serve God later when you finish your studies!"
• "Tuition and regular revision is important"
• "Ensuring your child in scoring straight As, 100% school attendence, colourful extra school curricular activities is the way to bring up the child"

We are now struggling with

• a decent prayer "mumbled" by a youth. the only constant is probably in praying before the exams!
  
• knowing where we put the bible, never mind knowing what's the first book of the bible or the last book.. "Did we leave it in church?" (I know someone who leaves the bible in church since the person feels that it is only sunday that the bible needs to be open ...and that only when and if the speaker asks us to do so...)
  
• our quiet time is away from chattering kids OR nagging parents... Our quiet time has taken the form of SLEEPING (more likely)
• making sure our kids stays in the competition in the rat race

Before long, we will stand to regret that

• Our child will lose the interest of studying the bible because it is not important as career, family, friends, tv, sports, etc are more important
  
• Our child will not discover the personal relationship with God - since quiet time, prayer and the joy of serving God is not taught
• Our child will not know our God as the bible is not taught.
• Our child will not go to church because we prohibited them from coming to church and knowing the imporatance of church life.
  
• Our child will not serve in the church because circular career and making money is more important
• Our child will not be a Christian because we taught our child the ways of the world.
• Our child will not go to heaven because they do not know Christ...
  

Where do we draw the line?

Youth Leaders

To Youth,

Your Youth Leader needs to be made aware - in creative, loving ways - how to meet your needs. Remember, you're in the process of sharing with him how to love you, and he's in the process of learning. If you're on the same train, don't expect him to get to the destination before you do.

"It takes two to tango"

Wisdom

"Wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, you will have a bright future."

Proverbs 24:14

Aspiration #2 - Parents Involvement

The chinese saying goes, "an adult would have eaten more salt than a young person would have eaten rice".... and I think that the real essence of youth ministry is not to take the position and responsibilities of the parents to educate the youth, especially not in the areas of spiritual development.

Parents must recognise the fact that they have the most influence on their child's life. They spent more time at home, with the family (or at least they should) then anywhere else..... but modern living has driven us away from building core values from within the families. We the adults, the parents have unknowingly passed on the responsibilities of education to other media... particularly the TELEVISION.

Nowadays, anyting to do with children is a thriving business - look at McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut.... all their advertisements are targeted towards the kid..... look at children boutiques and shops mushrooming at every mall and shopping centre ..... notice the growing populations of kindergartens, nurseries, and child education centres at EVERY residential areas!!!! No wonder that child education franchises is one of the fastest and most popular franchise business in Malaysia!

I think the modern living aspirations are slowly driving us towards measuring success in our life to be reflected in our child's life! Is it a kiasu mentality? Is it a matter of life and death? is it a matter of our child being able to, at the very least, be able to survive in a dog-eat-dog world?

Assuming that we did it for the love of our child..... If the kindergartens, and nurseries, and tuition centres, and education centres help take care of the education, who then takes care of their spiritual development? The Maid? The ChildMinder? The Babysitter? The TV? The Computer? The Internet?

Where is your child's spiritual role model? Who is your child's spiritual role model?

It is my prayer to see more parents and adults getting involved in the lives of their own child or in the life of a youth.

The youth ministry in a church is not a place to babysit a child. The youth ministry is not someone who can "take over" the education and role models for the spiritual development of a child. It is not the role of the youth ministry to be the education centre or school for the child. Spiritual development in a youth does not work that way.

The parents must recognise that the youth ministry is there to assist in the spiritual development of the youth. I read somehwere that the youth ministry is the "Robin" as to the parents being the Batman, the "spiritual" hero, for the child.

So parents, recognise your role and responsibility - make yourself count in your shild's life!

PIP

WOW - we had our first edition of the Parents In Partnership Newsletter out this month and we had great reviews on it! Everybody gave the thumbs-up for the limited, privately circulated PIP Newsletter..... well..almost all.... someone commented that the fonts used were too small...they are after all moving up in age.... (hmmm....)

BUT overall, I had great fun doing it and the encouragements were amazingly healing to the soul.

So what happened????

continuing on happenings in 1Q 2006, looking back..... lotsa things to praise God for:

1. The parents in Partnership program kicked off with 20++ parents attended the meeting and it was an informative session.
2. The Youth Leadership training was planned and carried out with less than 2 weeks planning!!
3. We managed our first "off the block" meeting with yw@p meeting in yw@p cafe (no relations) but it was a cool affair
4. the waterfall trip was also an interesting affair - we had parents coming along!!!
5. in between we talked, learned, and laughed about relating to parents, friends, watched Left Behind 1 & 2....
6. We even managed an outstation speaker!!! (ok...prob that not so fair since it was afterall my dad!!! but still we had a great turnout!

All in all, we had lots of fun in 1Q, although we had pretty poor attendance with averages of 12 in 1Q (although we had better turnout in early part of the year, it sorta fizzled out towards march because of the exams)

But - we're gonna work harder.... and see how God will continue to bless....

1st Quarter 2006 Over

Well...time flies when you are having fun....

For me, time flew by also because of work ...but all in all, a mixture of fun, work and sweat..... no tears needed to be shed although it was a tough period for me at work but the cool dudes at yw@p and bsgc was my backup batteries.

Already totally running on flat batteries - God worked thru the youths to push me through!

I seriously know how exactly I survived 1st Quarter of 2006 but for the strength of God, the laughter of the youths and the support from me wifey - I guessed that's how I pulled thru!

I also proudly declare that I survived my first quarter in the youth ministry! Never thought that at my age and with my commitments and workload, I would be able to work on Yw@p but as God has it planned out... yw@p turned out to be a ministry TO me!!!

Aspiration #1 - ywap @live

youth with a purpose alive (ywap @live) is the aspiration of the ministry in the new Master Plan as we move to the next step of our church's ministry among the young people and youth in the church and in the community.

ywap @live is all about the ministry of helping youths

• search for,
  
• discover,
  
• live for,
  
• work towards
  

their Purpose(s) in life.

While God's purpose(s) for each person's in their life may be vastly different, it is the main Challenge for the ministry staff that all that come into contact with the Ministry may come to know the saving grace of God and experience the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit in their lives. This is this first step of the journey that is most challenging and most exciting! This is THE Purpose for any individual in our walk on earth!

"A person that has discovered his purpose(s) in life, has discovered LIFE and is alive, but unless he continues to live for and work towards that purpose, he is not alive but merely subsisting a life of decay and death."

2006 directions in the Youth Ministry

I had been doing a lot of reading (books, forums, online searchs, ..) and praying lately. Searching for directions, searching for inspirations for the youth ministry, searching for God's approvals in some of the plans that I have laid out...

"Why am I in this ministry?"
"What should/can I do with the Youth Ministry?";
"What am I doing in this ministry?";
"Am I prepared to face the parents' expectations?"
"....Am I prepared to face the youths' expectations?"

For 2006, in relation to the ministry, I prayed to God

1. to give me the courage to work hard in the ministry and face hurdles and obstacles headon
   
2. to be accepted by the youth as a friend, as a mentor, as a big brother
   
3. to be used as an instrument to changing lives
4. to gain the support of the parents and the church
5. to gain new friendships and build lasting relationships
6. to learn from the youths
7. to learn from the parents of the youths
8. to learn from God himself
9. to be humble and meek like Jesus
10. to be courageous to stand up for what's right and what should be.

So God Help me survive 2006...

Milestone

Today our car celebrated her 100,000km! What a milestone!! We praise God that she is still in the pink of health with no major symptoms/causes for concerns.

Could the reason be luck? after all, it's a Proton (the national car project) and it has its fair share of criticism and supported by historical statisticsof breakdowns.... :)

Or could the reason be regular preventive maintenance? and care? I don't know really - I am not a "car-person" myself and we hardly do much "care" but just following the recommended maintenance schedule.

I would like to think that it is a combination of multiple reasons - from regular care, regular preventive maintenance, careful use by owner/driver(s), careful environment, etc.. (what about the possibility/existence of luck? - will tackle this on another time)

What about us? Physical Health - Are we in the pink of health as we celebrate our life milestone. Nowadays, age is no barrier to major diseases - we need regular care, conduct regular preventive "maintenance", go for regular checks, careful use of the body (no substance abuse like alcohol and smoking/drugs) , do regular exercises, etc...

What about our spiritual health? have we been doing regular care? regular preventive maintenance? regular exercises? regular talks with God? regular quiet time with God? still on the right track?

What about family health?

As we arrive at our milestones - what are our reasons to celebrate? Good Physical health? Good Mental Health? Good Spiritual Health? Good Family Health?