Here’s the initial list that we have. Please feel free to contact me for their email address or phone numbers. You can also send a text message to me at +63926-688-9902.

Take a look at the form below for any possible resource person you may invite for your events. If you want to help expand the list, you can submit the names of other resource persons from your annual conference by going to this link.

image credit: AARP

Truly the short time of my leadership had tested my obedience and faith to lead this group of young people. Good thing I still have my co-execoms, fellow MYF, adviser and worker with youth, and most of all, You Lord who blessed me with time, strength and vision.
A quotation from TV commercials reminds me the life of King David when he was young – “Great things starts from small beginning”.

In Mathew 25:21, the Lord said, ”You have been faithful with few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” We live in a generation and age of instant result. Many wants to serve the Lord God but are not willing to start. With humble beginnings, David’s story had been in preparation for the ministry. God had chosen him because of his faithfulness with a few sheep and the attitude of his heart. He was faithful to take the lion and the bear. Little did he know that the Lord would have him take on a giant. Many even in the ministry today want the giant, but are NOT PREPARED or FAITHFUL to take the lion and the bear. One problem that Christians face today is that they get discouraged when things don’t go the way they would like. They end up quitting the ministry just prior to their breakthrough.

Breakthrough is coming at hand; faithfully wait, patiently endure. Be faithful on small things do not despise small beginnings. The Lord, our God, is at work in your life, in my life, in our life. The life of execom has never been that easy especially during the past two weeks we had to finalize the plans for Christmas Institute. Pretty tiring because some us have work even on Sunday; and it is not just our body that we feel the pain but also our pockets. With this, I would like to thank our family for understanding and sacrifices they gave to us.

I also want to share the secret of an execom, on what keeps us tough and going, It’s the joy of our hearts when we fell inside our hearts whenever Lord Jesus use as an instrument to make a difference in a MYF’s life.

Ang tema sa taong ito ay MULTIPLY na may thrusts na FaceGod at YesMaster. Maitituring na hinango ang mga naturang kataga sa iba’t ibang websites na alam ng bawat kabataan; ngunit ito ay ginamit upang maibahagi sa bawat kabataan ang kahalagahan ng pagtugon sa “calling” at ang pagsunod sa Panginoon, na siya naman pinakadahilan ng pagsasagawa ng Christmas Institute.

Pag-aawitan, pagbabahagian ng buhay at pananampalataya at pag-aaral ng Salita; yan ang mga nakalaan sa CI ngayong taon. Ngunit matapos nga ang halos isang taong paghahanda, inaasahang magiging umpisa na rin ito ng maraming pagbabago sa mga nakagawiang Christmas Institute sa mga nagdaang taon; bago at innovative sabi ng ilan. Isa na rito ay ang pagkakaroon ng Camp Director sa katauhan ni Kuya Fat Sta. Ana na siyang pangunahing nangangasiwa sa buong CI. Gayundin ay ang pagkakaroon ng sampung (10) task forces na siyang magiging abala sa iba’t ibang aspeto ng pagpaplano at pagsasagawa bago, habang at maging matapos ang CI tulad ng Research, Info and Registration, Education, Creative Arts, Finance, PAW, Food atbp.

Patuloy namang nagbibigay ng suporta ang mga nakatatanda nating kapatid sa iglesia at maging ng mga pastor at mga manggagawa sa naturang aktibidad na ito ng mga kabataan; at inaasahan na pagkatapos nito ay muling makakakitaan ng kasiglahan ang mga kabataan at maging buong distrito.

Bagaman nabawasan ng bilang ang mga inaasahang makakadalo sa CI dahil na rin sa pagbubuo ng isang pang distrito rito sa BulPAC na nangyari noong Hunyo, nakakintal pa rin sa isipan ng bawat nangangasiwa ng CI na ang patuloy na pagbabahagi ng buhay na kasama si Kristo ang siyang nananatiling dahilan upang sa kung anumang balakid ang dumating ay patuloy pa rin ang CI 2009.

Stand up SBD-UMYF! MULTIPLY for God’s glory!

Celebrating Life with Jesus

Sa panahong ito na nararanasan natin ang lamig ng panahon, inaalala ng buong sang-Kristiyanismo ang isang natatanging bagay, ang pagdatal ng ating Panginoong si Hesu-Kristo. Siya ang natatanging kaloob ng Diyos na sa pamamagitan ng Kanyang Buhay ay nananatiling masaya, may liwanag at puno ng sigla ang buong mundo.

Ngayong kapaskuhan, sa panahong ito ng Advent, ang buong distrito ay muling tutunghay sa isa sa mga napakahalagang bahagi ng ating pananampalataya, gabay ang temang “Celebrating Life with Jesus”. Tunay ngang napapanahon ang temang ito, dahil bagaman nasadlak ang ating bansa sa kalamidad na dala ng bagyo at baha, nararapat lamang na tayong patuloy na magalak, magsaya at taos-pusong magpasalamat sa Panginoon dahil siya’y nanatiling mapagmamahal at tumutugon sa bawat isang nananampalataya.

Nawa’y manatili ang kaligayahang nagmumula sa Panginoon, ngayon at maging sa araw-araw. Mula sa bawat isang bumubuo ng SOUTHVIEW, SBD-UMYF, C.I. Task Forces at maging ng SBD InfoComm Committee; isang mapagpalang pagdiriwang ng kapaskuhan at dakilang pag-asa sa darating na bagong taon.

Ang sulating ito ay galing sa SouthView, newsletter ng South Bulacan District UMYF. Salamat kay kapatid na Eric Guinto sa pagpapadala sa akin ng kanilang newsletter.

Most workers with youth and young adults in the Philippines tend to approach their job via trial and error. There is a lack of training for youth workers. As such, they tend to rely on intuition in handling their own youth ministry. This is further complicated by the lack of formal training in youth ministry in Bible Schools and the Seminary. Unlike in the United States, most churches do not have youth pastors. As such, youth work usually falls on the shoulders of the church deaconesses and young pastors.

The goals of the Filipino Youth Ministry Forum are:

1. Explore the biblical, theological and practical bases for youth ministry.
2. Equip youth workers with knowledge and skills they can use in handling their own youth ministry.
3. Expound on the present plight of Filipino youth and how the church could respond to these trends and issues.
4. Initiate the workers with youth into a network so as to support each other as they conduct their youth ministries.

Date: November 26, 2009 (Thursday)
Venue: Harris Memorial College, Dolores, Taytay
Registration Fee: P150

Who Should Attend:

Deaconesses, Pastors and Lay Persons who are involved in Ministries with Youth and Young Adults
Youth and young adult leaders seeking to learn ways to engage in ministry with their peers
Anybody who’s interested

Program

7:30 – 8:30 Registration

8:30 – 9:00 Opening Devotion and Orientation

9:00 – 10:15 Plenary: The Task of the Youth Worker: A Biblical, Theological and Practical View
Rev. Homer Wesley O. Refuerzo

10:15 – 10:30 Break

10:30 – 11:30 Interactive Session

Creative and Effective Church Ministry with Youth
- Pastor Melvin Jay Guerrero

11:30 – 1:00 Lunch

1:00 – 2:30 Interactive Session 2

Ministry with Youth in the Campus
- Mr. Kevin Sanders, Campus Missionary

2:30 – 3:00 Break

3:00 – 4:30 Plenary: Filipino Youth and Young Adults: Towards a Filipino Framework of Youth Ministry
Mighty C. Rasing, Division on Ministries with Young People

4:30 – 5:00 Fellowship

The Forum will have two plenary sessions: the first one deals with the Biblical and theological bases of youth ministry as well as practical matters that youth ministers need to attend to. This session will set the tone of the Youth Ministry Forum.

The last plenary session will deal with the profile of Filipino youth and young adults and expound on the need for a Filipino framework of youth ministry. This plenary session will integrate the different sessions of the Forum and look at the possibility of arriving at a more integrated approach to Filipino youth ministry. It will also be a call to action for youth ministers to be more intentional and focus more on discipleship.

The Interactive Sessions present a number of contexts where young people may be found: in the Church, in the School, outside the school, and in their online worlds. This first installment of the Filipino Youth Ministry Forum deals with ministries with young people in the local church and campus settings. As this Forum grows, it will seek to address additional ministry settings with young people. With these sessions, the youth ministers will learn more about tools and strategies on how to engage Filipino young people in these different settings and contexts.

Target Results

This forum will become the seed towards the establishment of a Methodist youth worker movement in the Philippines. Such a movement will also be a means for Methodist youth ministries to engage other ministries and the world at large, providing a venue for the discussion of youth ministry strategies and tools in contemporary Philippine society. Such a movement can also empower ecumenical youth ministry and the sharing of resources, insights and stories with other young people’s ministries in other faith traditions.

This event will also enable the DMYP to be exposed and generate buzzwords about its ministries and how youth ministries and youth workers can avail of the resources and ministries of DMYP.

You can register online by visiting this link.

At least, I realized that those gigantic auditoriums have special purposes apart from the usual basketball court and as venue of school and community events.

Here are a few lessons I learned from that episode.

Yup! that's the truck I drove!

1. It’s tough driving a manual transmission 6-wheel Mitsubishi Canter!

Rev. Cerrie Francisco warned me about it! But I was just too stubborn to back off. Well, not exactly. There was simply no driver but me! So I had to polish my skills in driving a manual transmission vehicle and a Canter at that! It’s simply the biggest machine I’ve ever driven in my whole life!

Thankfully, we didn’t encounter any accident. I didn’t run over any cow, chicken or kid along the way. It’s just that I had to stretch my arms after going home.

2. Young people can be mobilized pretty quickly for relief efforts.

Ate Jenny, Manang Chita, Earlie and I were amazed at how quickly young people responded to the call for volunteers for the repacking of relief goods. We’ve had a couple of youth from Razon UMC, from St. Peter UMC, from the Southwest and Northwest District of PAC. We also had fun together! And lots of eating, too!

3. The effects of the floods are very real!

If you have any doubts on the impact of the floods in the lives of people, we have half-a-meter reasons to raise against you. You should have seen the waters in the neighborhood of Landayan. People were actually using boats to move around the barangay. People’s belongings and properties—both the rich and the poor were drenched in floodwaters!

4. Evacuation centers are crowded.

There are simply people everywhere! Almost every nook and cranny of the auditorium had a family “resident” already. Not surprisingly, they don’t have much choice of sleeping quarters, and they barely have enough portable toilets around. I expect the place to get dirty soon enough!

5. Barangay officials must be supervised when distributing relief goods.

Just to make sure that the relief goods really go to the people who need it, donors must oversee the distribution of relief goods. This is also a means of “humanizing” the relief efforts. At the very least, people in evacuation centers would feel that donors are sympathizing with them and care about their physical and emotional needs.

And if ever El Kapitan decides to give away the goodies to his friends and compadres, the donors could certainly prevent that!

6. Favoritism may still rear its ugly head!

When we arrived at the community, some people started ranting at us, saying that the officials only handed out relief goods tickets to their friends and acquaintances. Some of them also asked for special favors and wanted us to give goods directly to them. Well, that would undermine whatever system is there to distribute the goodies.

7. It’s never enough!

When I wasn’t driving and just loitered outside the Canter, some mothers went near me, asking me for some tickets, ranting about being pregnant and their inability to get tickets for the relief goods. I told them repeatedly (again and again and again, they were so persistent!) that as much as we want to help all of them, we simply can’t because of the limited resources we brought!

Sigh. I thought, if we could only have more goods to give…

Evacuees have so many needs—clothes, new home appliances and equipment they need, shoes and slippers, underwear, food, and most of all, hope and the willingness to stick it out no matter what.

Those of us who are able should try to give as much as we can without dehumanizing them. We just went there for some relief operations. We may have given them food for a day. But they need help in rebuilding their houses and their lives!

It’s never enough. In these times, when we’ve done what we could, we try to do more and anything we can’t do, we lift up to God in prayer.

Here are a few pictures we’ve taken from the relief operations.

Flood! everywhere

same flood, different angle

Cramped living quarters

More relief goods needed for more people!

more picture moments with the volunteers!

picture moments with the Brgy. Landayan officials and relief ops team