Hi Egroup-mates!
Longtime no message/news/
Longtime no message/news/
I should have posted a sweet, quick note two months ago when I reluctantly represented the movement at the 2nd PM3 summit in Gems Hotel, Antipolo. I say "reluctantly" because I had been inactive in coordinating the movement for over a year. I admit that I lost momentum when I handled a gruelling tour conference for my company early last year. But the Lord was true to His Word in Romans 8:28. All things (including our shortcomings) work together for good to those who love Him...
Inspite of my decision to bow out of the PM3 National Facilitation Team at that significant gathering, I knew God wasn't through with me yet. I met Roselle (did I get your name spelled right, dear?) and Julius of 180 Degrees--the two people who replaced our hardworking and dependable core group member now OFW tentmaker Eman! Frankly, I was so encouraged to see much younger faces among the participants because I believe the youth ought to earn a voice and strain an ear in history-making consultations like the PM3. (Na-nosebleed ba kayo, R & J? Masanay na kayo. Ganyan talaga kapag ang balitaktakan ay tipong God-sized in scope) I wasn't surprised either that the PM3 goal by 2020 is now 1M deployed Pinoy global field workers. [I don't doubt God's ability to bring that to reality. I just don't know if we could keep track! But, I leave that to our adult leaders to work out.]
My immediate concern now is reviving the movement by recruiting a core team (upon the strong prodding of the new PMA National Director Dr. Rey Taniajura) that can meet with the core team of the PCEC-Youth Commission. After all, the NYMC (National Youth Missions Congress) was started by PCEC National Director Bishop Ef Tendero and Ptr Rey Corpuz, the PMA National Director at the time. It's time to join forces.
After an initial chat with Ptrs Ronnie, Ronald and Efren of the PCEC-YC about two weeks ago, I attended their regular breakfast fellowship at Starbucks, Podium this morning. For some reason, I turned out to be the only woman in the group of 18 young (and not-so-young) men that gathered. I hadn't socialized with that many (male) youth ministers for a long while. Some came all the way from Pampanga, Laguna and Cavite, which included Ptr Roman Guevarra of Rise Up Philippines (recently arrived from a concert-seminar tour in the Middle East). Ptr Joseph Bonifacio from VCF (aka Every Nation) also came but left before the meeting winded down to sharing ministries one by one.
I took the cue to share about NYMM when Ptr Ronnie mentioned the need to coordinate major events among youth ministries so that we wouldn't compete for churches' attention where to send their young people. I shared that the last NYMC was back in 2006 (Bacolod) and I broke the 2-year interval "tradition" of organizing the next NYMC. We didn't have an NYMC last year (2008) [which was providential because the global recession hit us that year]. The "extra" year actually made me reflect more on my role in the movement and how to proceed when the right time comes. If ever an NYMC is organized in the future, I would prefer that much effort were put into bonding with other youth ministry networks who would lend a lot of support to the movement before, during and after the event. There's so much that can be done when the various parts of the Body of Christ (in youth ministry) work together and not compete with each other.
Talk is cheap, so I'm holding myself accountable to you by committing to update you on the next steps God leads me to make. And THE next step I'm making (and this is what Ptr Ronnie & co. has advised me to do) is recruiting a new core team that will represent the movement (the missions perspective) in youth network consultations and serve as the team to contact when groups and churches need training or help in missions. Dr. Rey Taniajura has pledged support to this team as part of PMA's mobilization efforts. It sounds not unlike the support K Bob Lopez extended to me when he was PMA National Director. [Eeek! Here we go again!]
My good friend, Derek Ross of True Love Waits, already shared with me the idea of sending youth leaders to other countries (such as Indonesia) that request for help regarding sexual purity issues, especially the TLW message. That would be a great ministry platform for a cross-cultural worker in student/campus work, don't you think? Someone from the Global Youth Ministry Network (GYMN) also approached me after this morning's meeting to ask how his org can work with us. Their focus is on empowering local youth leaders in Asia. Now, isn't that encouraging?
If you've read this far, I salute you! I'm just making up for the long silence :D
Back to the rush job on my desk,
Joy
