Year End GCBC Youth Fellowship

The desire to glorify God before this year ends led us to set up a youth fellowship, which we refer to as the year-end youth fellowship with the theme entitled "Reflect and Draw Up".

In this event, our goal was to reflect on the year 2022, the things that had happened, what were the things that we had received from God in a major way. And then the second goal was to prepare for the new year 2023.

It was on December 25, 2022, that my husband James was officially recognized as a youth worker for our local church. And so, one day before the year ends, we made an 11th hour decision to set up this so we can get feedback and expectation setting personally from our youth.

The event started at 9:30 AM. Our assembly was at nine and I am happy that there were young people who came really early. We had made preparations just a day before the event so it was short but it didn't hinder the said activity. My brother and his wife had been an instrument so that we can provide free lunch for the participants.

An icebreaker was done to start up the morning session. We did the two truths and one lie game. It was fun to learn the truths about these young people and I had seen how they had enjoyed the game.

After that, we had an opening prayer and an acoustic worship led by Shane and then we proceed with the exhortation which focused on Psalm 90:14-15. It's a prayer of Moses about satisfaction and his prayer asking God to satisfy him and the people of Israel that this would give them joy and gladness.

After the exhortation, we started the breakout session which was a lengthy one, we ended at past noontime, if the food didn't arrive, we might have not finished that part yet.

During the breakout session, we discussed the guideline questions. One of the questions was what good thing did God allow in your life in 2022? And the second part was what was/were the thing/s that you had done for God. It was a lengthy discussion and it would have been better if there were more than three leaders so the group can be divided into smaller circles but it was all good.

Coincidentally, one of the young people celebrated her 20th birthday and so we sang a song for her and we enjoyed the food together. We had chicken cordon bleu, embutido, vegetable lumpia, there's also banana loaf, and the buko salad. I really appreciated my brother and his wife for preparing all those things and even helping us in bringing them to the church. My mother was also there to help me with Matti. I truly appreciate her effort too!

The afternoon part started at one and we started again with an icebreaker. This time, we had an individual game and there was a prize for it. We played bituka, botika, butiki. It was fun and the winner was Alzy.

Then we did the same thing as the morning part, there was a short acoustic worship, then an exhortation, and then another breakout session. This time, we dealt with our expectations for the coming 2023 in relation to the ministry. We heard a lot of expectations such as for the ministry to increase in numbers and more. My own expectation was to really have spiritual growth, that they'll spend time to have quiet time and the desire to glorify God in their lives.

By the end of the session, we had a response song and a closing prayer. We also had some more games to call it a day.