Day 2 Mission objective: Run two consecutive lifegroups for highschoolers (15-16 years old)
We had to run two lifegroups for two groups of kids: One group in the afternoon, and one after lunch. The first one was a short one-hour long session with praise and worship and shared testimonies. Why only one hour, you ask? Because these kids came after their school ended and had to leave before their extra-curricular activities started. That's a tight schedule, and still they were willing to use up their lunchtime to meet us strangers from Australia (who technically aren't Australians).
Well, what did I do? I led praise of course (because I cannot sing very well, logical really), and Florence led worship. Myrna was our guitarist. Paul was chairperson. One thing that I got out from this experience was singing the song 'I Walk by Faith'. We sing it all the time, but I had to explain to the kids what it meant, and what I said surprised even me. Do I walk by faith every day? Trust in God all the time? Or only sometimes? Only when I pray? That really challenged me right on the spot.
Paul shared a personal testimony about his past that I think really spoke out to the kids. In the end, he became a socialite amongst the guys. I'm pretty sure he got of their Facebooks (Yes, they have Facebooks). Among these guys was one single 15-year-old boy whom God had challenged to see his friends' behvaiours and motives change and bring them to church and life group. The product of that commission was that, almost every boy we saw there was there because of him. Praise God!
I forgot to mention that the venue was a rented shoplot in a three-storey apartment filled with shoplots. The story of how the shoplot was obtained itself was a story filled with miracles. We took a break after the first group left and had lunch prepared by Hani. Pansit, Philippines' version of fried bee hoon. I don't know how to describe it, but it TASTES of AWESOMENESS!!!
We basically repeated the same thing for the second group, which was much larger. This, we had more time, so we played games. Everyone should recognise the game in the picture.
Then, we had praise and worship, followed by a discussion group session. Half of the time, we spent getting to know each other better; half the time, we spent asking about their faith and sharing the gospel. High school students are different from university students, we were told, because high school students are very eager to accept Jesus. There's no need to go too much in depth, sure they might have interesting questions here and there. And friendship plays a big part in this ministry too. That's why it's so much more effective for these kids to invite their own friends to come to life group or church.
Overall, it was an eye-opening experience to hear some of these kid's stories. There was a girl who struggled between life group and extra-curricular activites. She was threatened to be pulled out of her activity if she missed practice. Yet here she was, she made her choice and came for our session, but she was crying because she made a hard decision. I think for some of us, we always seem to pick the easy choice, and thus we lack the same courage a 15-year-old who is mature beyond her years has.
We headed back to Manila as day turned to night. From that day alone, we had 5 salvations, and my thoughts came back to my own life group. How different it is!
Well, here's a picture to sum it all up:
All the best, Hope Laguna and Cabuyao! May God bless you!
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