Written by Vice President for External, Ate Charmain Tan
This year’s 4/14 event was held at Victory Pioneer. All youth participants from different areas in the Philippines joined us this morning for a spiritual learning experience. 4/14 Pilipinas is a movement committed to reach, rescue, root, and release the 4/14 generation to transform our nation and the world. We reach out to these children ages 4 to 14 because 71% of Christians commit their lives to Christ before the age of 15.
The even was hosted by Zion Ben Mallari and R’ Love Rojas. The 14-year-old Zion volunteers at Right Start, one of our beneficiaries that help out kids in the communities in Crame. R’ Love on the other hand is an officer at Visions of Hope Foundation.
The event started with the welcome remarks of the 4/14 Pilipinas national facilitator Kuya Jess Curabo, country director of Our Daily Bread Philippines. It was followed by praise and worship songs performed by some of the members of Victory Greenhills. They played the songs of Hillsong like One Way and Hosanna. We were also welcomed by a special performance of the Salinlahi Dance Group from Visions of Hope. These children did several Filipino dance numbers in traditional Filipino costumes.
The first speaker was Pastor Dennis Sy, senior pastor at Victory Greenhills. He talked about the importance of teaching the next generation. The victories of our battles are meaningless if there is no generation to pass them on to. He talked about some of the world leaders in different fields like Martin Luther, Thomas Edison, John Wesley and asked who are the next Luthers and Edisons of our generation? He talked about Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer but the father was a Greek. Today we have a lot of “Timothy’s” who did not grow up in solid Christian homes but are passionate to learn about Jesus because there are people around them who believe in them. It is important to encourage the youth into discipleship, to learn and pass on to the others as a believer in Jesus.
The second speaker was George Ebenezer, once a Compassion child and is now CEO of Beyond Barriers. He travels around the world speaking and training different groups in ministering the children and youth. He told his story of the abuses he suffered as a child. He was able to overcome those and is now an instrument in reaching out to children around the world who need our help and prayers. He talked about the stages of discipleship, namely, Listen, Believe, Walk, Take a Stand, and Persevere.
He said a Godly teenager is not one who cannot do wrong but someone who WILL not do wrong. Sometimes these people who are suffering just need a shoulder to cry on, someone who will listen and that leads them to believe. We also need to encourage teenagers to find those who share the same cause and be willing to take a stand. The 4/14 generation is thirsty to listen and learn. Oftentimes for every choice the parents make it is the children who pay the cost. Lastly he taught us the importance of living by example.
After our lunch break everyone was divided into several tracks for the workshop. The tracks were Pastors and Missions, Family, Youth and Teens Leaders, Sports, Orphans and Vulnerable Children, and Plus One Nurture. I was in the youth and teens leaders and we talked about the steps to effectively disciple someone, SALT. It Starts with a conversation, followed by Asking a question, then Listening to the answers, and based on the answers we Tell them the good news about Jesus. I was able to talk to my seatmate Shaira. She’s just 15 years old from CCT Cavite. She is active in volunteering in the community during weekends to help out the children. They traveled all the way from Cavite to attend today’s event. It is always great to see our youth being empowered to learn more and share what they have learned with the other children in their communities. After the small groups we then went back to the main hall and each group’s representative talked about what they’ve learned in the workshops. As we concluded the event we shared a group photo with everyone as we thank God for another successful and fulfilling event.
