Be.Love.Live Like Jesus: 16th Central Visayas Regional Youth Conference
They say that the highest form of praise is imitation, and so, in the 16th Regional Youth Conference held on October 29-30, over 1200 delegates from all over the Central Visayas Region gathered together in the Joventino A. Digal Memorial Complex in Loboc, Bohol to celebrate and learn to grow more in the image and likeness of our Christ. The conference theme, “Like Jesus: Be.Love.Live”, was taken from the anchor verse Philippians 1:27-30.
YFCs from all over Central Visayas gathered together in the JAD Memorial Complex for the 16th Central Visayas RYC
Many of the delegates arrived early, some the day before the conference started and others early in the morning. YFCs were slowly welcomed to the venue with Christian music playing over the speakers. The event was then started with an opening worship led by Luigi Rullida from Bohol. To hype up the crowd even more, the event dance ministry got the participants up and grooving together in a mob dance. After which, Trisha Chatto, substituting for the Hon. Mayor Leon Calimpusan, welcomed the YFC to their beautiful province of Loboc. The conference was then officially opened by Tito Neil Balite, the Provincial Area Director for Bohol. The conference band and dancers then rallied up the audience and taught the RYC chant, soon after the emcees for the event were introduced namely, Ziva Madanguit, Benjamin Carpentero and Cyril Allanic.
The competitions then followed, categorized into the sports, creative and special competitions to showcase the skills and talents of YFCs. Among the sports competitions were volleyball, lawn tennis, basketball, football and ultimate Frisbee. Not only did these sport events bring together YFCs but they were also sure to include our equally skilled couple coordinators. The creative competitions included the band, one-voice, acapella, gag, setdance, individual dance, cheer dance. The special competitions were the praise parade, “click it!” and the amazing race.
Competitors for the Cheerdance Competition
The afternoon of day 1 was kick-started with worship led by MacMac Gido from Siquijor. Then it was time for the participants to select a workshop that they wanted to attend. Their choices were: “R.O.C.K” or Reaching Out Christ to Kids which taught YFCs how to serve as good ates and kuyas to our younger siblings in Kids For Christ; “Crossover” for our brothers and sisters above 21 years old, to show them how to transition into Singles For Christ; “Prayer HaveIt!” which emphasized the importance of prayer and having our own prayer time; “wEbVANGE” which taught how to evangelize and share Christ through social sites and the internet; “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” workshop for delegates who wanted to learn more about responsibility with finances, money and budgeting; and the Couple Coordinators workshop for our titos and titas.
Later in the afternoon, after all the workshops had finished, the delegates gathered together in the main venue to pray the rosary together to honor October as the rosary month. In the evening, the Loboc Youth Ambassadors gave a stunning brass musical performance followed by the praise parade and teaching of songs by the conference band. The evening worship was guided by Jet Jet Toledo from Cebu who shared that everyone who knows and believes in Christ is already a missionary.
The first session called “Victory in the Vision” was introduced with a rock medley of “Bitiw”, “Sandalan”, “Livin’ on a Prayer”, “Bulong” and “Don’t Stop Believing” which all connected to the talk with Teodelyn Evanoso, full-time pastoral worker for Bohol, as the speaker. She emphasized that God already won the battle for us and that He made us ready for anything. His plans all work out for our good, all we need to do is trust. She also shared her own experience when she was to be assigned in Sultan Kudarat, although she was afraid, she trusted in the Lord and accepted her mission but God had other plans and so she was moved to Bohol instead. The sharers for this talk were Keeven Clark Baring and Benjamin Carpentero, who both shared how trusting in God’s plans blessed their lives so much. After, a YFC documentary video was played that showed the daily lives of YFCS and how God fits in the daily routine.
Teodelyn Evanoso, speaker for session 1: "Victory in the Vison"
A dance tableau, depicting the common sins and temptations that the youth are exposed to and how we suffer from them, opened session 2: “Gain in Pain” with speaker Ryan Las Piñas, full-time pastoral worker from South Cotabato. In his talk, he imparted that it is a privilege to serve and suffer for Christ. The mission will never be easy or painless, we just have to trust Him more. Twelve sharers, including Kuya Ryan as the twelfth, went up on stage with their own personal pains written on card boards as they shared their stories of suffering and the victories from their defeat. The 12 card boards put together formed the word LOVE onstage. After the sharing, Kuya Ryan instructed the delegates to write down their own sufferings in their left hand then paint it with red and place their hand print on the boards placed near the audience while reflecting to the song “In Your Arms”. The red boards then formed a red cross when put together on the stage. After the reflection, Kuya Ryan kept the whole conference affirmed in Christ as he headed an uplifting praise fest. A dance salvo from the Kusugbo DC dancers then followed to end the night on a high note.
Ryan Las Pinas giving the 2nd session: "Gain in Pain"
YFCs moving forward to paint their red handprints on boards that later formed the cross
The last day for the conference began with a Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Andy Ayco and Fr. Joel Aquino followed by worship led by John Tabasa from Negros Oriental. After which, Ace Elevera, FTPW from Cebu, entered the stage. He began with a countdown to the revelation of a poster with the new YFC vision: “Young People Being and Bringing Christ Wherever They Are”. He then related this new motto to the 3rdsession: “Like Jesus!” In his talk, Kuya Ace strained how important it is that our ways of life be as that our Father requires. He moved on to explain ways that we could become more like Jesus in all aspects of our life. To push the participants to keep their promise to become more like Jesus, Kuya Ace urged them to write their own personal convictions on the back side of their ID and stamp their own thumbprint with paint to remind them of that promise. Also the delegates painted their handprints on panel boards that were placed near them, which revealed to form the face of Jesus. With God’s fire burning strongly in the hearts of the attendees, Kuya Ace headed the conference in a big praise fest.
Ace Elevera giving the final talk: "Like Jesus!"
Over 1,200 delegates worshipping together in the praisefest led by Ace Elevera
As the conference was nearing its end, all the winners of the competitions were awarded and promotions for ILC Aklan were made. All the delegates then gathered and partied together for one last mob dance to end the event with a big bang. Attendees then went on to explore the island of Bohol or head home with God’s light reflecting in them.
The face of Jesus formed by the handprints of over 1200 delegates
This article was written by Euka Beloria, a YFC Web correspondent for Central Visayas. All photos were taken by the Central Visayas RYC Documentation team.