Hi Everyone!

Happy Easter!

Our God is awesome! AMEN!

Many of you might have read Ate Joy's announcement of Mikko, Candy (hi guys!) and Me going on for the SMMR in Seoul, Korea by August 2008. I consider it a privilege to take part in this historical event in advancing the work of the Kingdom in Asia and the world.

I was asking myself a few weeks back if this is an opportunity I should grab or perhaps I'm making a fool of myself. Imagine, I'm reading a book entitled "Finding God's Will..." by Ray Pitchard or Something just to satisfy my curiosity and perhaps find an answer but as the book says, I may never have a 100% confirmation that this is really God's will but that He will reveal it to me one step at a time. With prayer and much time in reflection, I made the first step - saying "yes" to the invitation.

Why YES?

Perhaps it is because of my passion to encourage my generation to take part in advancing God's Kingdom. I remember joining NYMC when it was held in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. I was one of the faithful few who responded to the call and went in front in the last night of the concert. After that life changing event, I got involved with InterVarsity-Dumaguete as one of the core leaders for the past 4 years. Through the years, my interest in missions grew stronger and got involve in any missions activity my church and InterVarsity has to offer.

In 2006,I asked the Lord to open up an opportunity to take part in NYMM again.This opportunity opened up when Ate Leah Aguirre became our missions speaker for LCDC2k6. It was through her that I believe God granted my request. After that fateful meeting in Camp Bato, I got involved in promoting NYMC2k6 in Bacolod to the different churches in Dumaguete and Negros Oriental. It was a great task but an experience of a lifetime. I learned promotional and marketing work I never did try before. I also had the opportunity to stand in big and small crowds to invite them for the event. After that time, I got involved in helping out to start a movement here in Dumaguete but it seems that it's not yet time for NYMM to be in bloom here. Nevertheless, my desire to see young people from here go to the nations to answer the call has become my passion!

On a personal note, I'm currently working in a call centre here as a sourcing strategy coordinator for the recruitment department. I try to balance work and life for a year now (and 3 months!) and kind of lied low in many christian opportunities. For this year, I decided to make some priorities and make one of my goal to join any event involving youth and missions. After weighing things down,I decided to get involved again with the church ministry by mentoring the new leaders arising in our youth and in leading the congregation in worship. I also accepted 2 opportunities lately to speak in a high school camp in Cebu and in a bible study in our church. My main priority this year is to get back into gear and spend most of my time with ministry opportunities. (I surely miss doing these things!)

So why fuzz about these things?

I see SMMR as an opportunity to invest my life for the kingdom. I have not gone out of the country for such an event but nevertheless, I believe this is an opportunity God has set before me. This is an avenue for both learning and inter-acting in strategizing missions work.

In one particular leadership conference co-sponsored by AGLOW Missionaries, I got the chance to look back and reflect on my answer for SMMR. The Lord seems to impress in my heart the question, "Where have all my generation gone through this season?" at that particular event. That question kept coming back into my mind when I realized that out of the 16 missionaries from AGLOW, only one of them was a teenager at 17.

God seems to be in the move of showing me (and my generation) the need to come out and take part, and I don't want to miss that chance this coming August 2008. With this in mind, I end this email with an encouragement to continue praying for us and in case you want to partner to any of us, kindly email Mikko,Candy and me for such an opportunity!

Thanks for reading....