Southern Mindanao convened for the 1ST Regional Youth Conference
By: Jeanelle Grace Lorilla
The year 2014 is a special year devoted by JECPP to empower the next generation. With this theme, all the five JECPP regions conducted last April 14-16, 2014 its 1st Regional Youth Conference simultaneously held in Davao City, Cebu City, Cagayan de Oro City, Iloilo City and Quezon City.
For the Southern Mindanao Region, a total of 213 participants gathered at Evangel Family Church, Davao City for the three-day much awaited summer gathering of young people. Delegates came from Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur, SOCCSKSARGEN, Marahan and Davao City.
The theme “Empowering the Next Generation” aimed to equip each of us for the greater things God has for us individually and to the entire JECPP ministry. With our guest speakers, who boldly delivered the word of God, each one of us was fired up to serve the Lord with all of our hearts, minds, strength and souls.
Southern Mindanao was so blessed to have Rev. Dr. Robert Lim – JECPP’s founding chairman who shared God’s messages to us for three nights. The message for the first and second night was titled, “Unplugging Your Wells”. The scripture taken from Genesis 26: 12-33 talks about Isaac and his servants who re-dug the wells of his father Abraham. The first well that they dug, Isaac named it “Esek” which means strife, injustice and contention because the herdsman of Gerar quarreled with them for this well. They didn’t settle on this well. The next well they dug was named “Sitnah” which means hatred because they also fought over it. These two wells became areas of demonic activity. These wells represent our own lives where the enemy can throw in dispute, anger, and opposition until our spiritual and emotional channels get clogged. Isaac and his servants never stayed on these wells. They moved on to dig another well. This time, they never fought for the third well. So he called it “Rehoboth” which means that the Lord has made a room for them. They stayed there and also named the place as “Shebah” which means the Well of Oath. The wells embody our spiritual lives. If we allow the enemy to mark us with negativity such as “no hope” or “no future”, our wells will never flow.
At the final night of the conference, Pastor Lim shared the powerful message titled “It is Finished at the Cross”. He emphasized that the cross is the final answer to our slavery to sin and the curses that come with it. Furthermore, the cross is the fullness of judgment and the completion of our salvation. He encouraged everyone to claim God’s promises of victory, triumph and conquest over the enemy of our soul because of what Jesus did at the cross. Hallelujah! Jesus won us back on the Cross!
The morning sessions also featured very timely messages from Rev. Peter Wee, the Regional Director for Southern Mindanao and Rev. Gregorio Simpas Jr., Davao del Norte Core Leader.
Rev. Wee made us realize through his message “If You Want to Truly Live, Some Things Must Die”, that we should kill the giants of our lives when we still have the opportunity, or else, the giants will multiply and overpower us. Rev. Simpas, on the other hand, revealed to us the “Missing Ingredient” of our service to God which is momentum. He warned us the irony of being idle in the Lord and yet busy in worldly things. He gave specific warning on computer game addiction that corrupts so many young people today.
Each service was started by Praise and Worship that made us all jumped, dance and sang the Lord’s awesome wonders. Thanks to the Music Team of Davao City, Tagum and Kidapawan in leading the congregation. We were also entertained by special song numbers given to us by Davao City and Kidapawan.
Aside from lighting our spiritual vigor, we also enjoyed our trip to Crocodile Park where we saw many wildlife animals. Some trained animals showed off their intelligence by performing tricks. We were also engaged in workshops so we could learn new skills for our local churches. We had Song Leaders session, Musicians session, Creative Balloon Design, PowerPoint Designs and E-mail lessons. Not just the Young People learned from this workshops, so did the Pastors.
Another highlight of the conference was the courageous response of the eight young people to go to Bible School for more workers in the harvest field. God’s calling to some young people to become pastors aroused as we watched a special video presentation of Evangel Center for Missions and Evangelism (ECME).
The conference ended with testimonies from each delegate who was revived, delivered and blessed. On the last night, as we were asking for more of God’s presence, the Holy Spirit touched the young people in a way that made us respond with joyful cries.
