OLPS Youth: Our BE-Attitudes for 2010!

Hi all,

Yesterday we mentioned briefly about our "BE-Attitudes"! What are they? Well this year the youth ministry heads gathered together at the beginning of the year to discern our vision / mission / direction for the year of 2010 and we decided that we would have some guidelines for christian living this year.

In 2008 our goals were to build community. Because of that we had our June retreat which was titled "From Friends to Family". And then in 2009 we did not have a retreat due to H1N1 but our theme for last year was Spiritual Growth. This was exemplified in the East District Youth Day in September 2009, which theme was "We have put our hope in the Living God"...

This year 2010 we have our new BE-Attitudes!

This is it:

1. Commitment (Accountability & Responsibility) 2. Community (unity)
3. Christian Discipline (attitude, dress, respect, christian behaviour, etc)
4. Humility/Servanthood (in service)
5. Compassion (love and empathy, show care & concern, understanding, be forgiving) 6. Holiness (growing in Christ)


There you have it!
 
We also set up leadership input sessions each month for our leaders from each ministry so be assured that your leaders are also being taken care of, with lots of support from Fr. Fred our Youth Ministry Spiritual Director. Praise God for getting things moving for the youth ministry here!
 
SO wishing all a great week ahead, and let's try to follow these BE-Attitudes for the year ahead of 2010!

ALIVE!

27 FEBRUARY 2010 @ OLPS Youth Gathering @ Verbist Hall

Thank you everyone who came, it was really wonderful. Below is some brief points of what we did, reflected on and a kinda content summary. It's not very well written but just go thru the points and you'll get a brief idea what we talked/listened/heard/reflected on! ;) Also good if you missed out anything along the way.

Quotes on being "Alive!"
- I am thankful… For the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means I am alive.
- LIFE must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
- I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. ~ Joseph Campbell
- When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. ~ Marcus Aurelius
- Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't. ~ Richard Bach

Sharing & Video by David Cheong: "Am I Truly ALIVE?"
We watched a video called "Shaking Tokyo", which starred the life of a hikikomori and how he came out of it. “hikikomori” Literally means - ‘pulling away, being confined’- It is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive individuals who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement.

Short clip:


We reflected on:
- How was the main character's life changed by the ‘shaking’?
- Why did he want to visit the Pizza Delivery Girl?
- How does this story relate to our own lives?

We then sang 2 songs with music from our Youth Music Ministry (YMM) - (the youtube vids below are just here to show you the tune of the songs/lyrics):





We had also a time of reflection. For those of you who didn't catch the words on the powerpoint, here they are:-

More Reflections on "ALIVE":
- We “die” each day… we get depressed and upset over various things.
- We lose hope, we fail to be happy, we get negative, we feel numb, feel pain.
- We question what is the Purpose of Life? OR we get cynical and angry about life.
- Or we dislike that God created us the way we are. We thus hate many things. Including ourselves.
- We doubt the existence of God. We disbelieve God’s promise of eternal life!

BUT Think about it…
- We are probably better off than many who are without food, education, family, etc…
- Many of our peers out there are still living life but do not know about God.
- If we are ALIVE now and there’s hope for tomorrow, God is probably there waiting for us already, so why are we worrying?
- If we are ALIVE now, God is the only one who knows why we are still alive, coz he created us, so why don’t we pray more?

SO.. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY about "LIFE"?

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (NIV)

Romans 6:8-11
If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. You too must think of yourselves as (being) dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4-6
God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ..

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength

John 4:14
Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.

Finally, we listened to a Featured Song: "OXYGEN" by Avalon
We listened to this song and the words really spoke about being alive as a result of our God... he is our everything. Listen to it here!:


GOD BLESS! See you at the next event in APRIL (and don't forget Lenten vigil in March!)

A Different Approach to Fasting During Lent

Article by Elsie Yeo

Fasts have a tendency to be oriented towards things like giving up food or television. However, there are other creative ways we can welcome Jesus' healing touch during Lent.

Here are some suggestions you may want to consider:

1. Fast from Anger and Hatred
Give your loved ones an extra dose of love each day.

2. Fast from Judging Others
Before making any judgments, recall how Jesus overlooks your faults.

3. Fast from Discouragement
Hold on to Jesus' promise that He has a perfect plan for your life.

4. Fast from Complaining
When you find yourself about to complain, close your eyers and recall some of the little moments of joy Jesus has given you.

5. Fast from Resentment and Bitterness
Work on forgiving those who may have hurt you.

6. Fast from Spending Too Much Money
Try to reduce spending by 10% and give those savings to the needy.


GOD BLESS!

Guardian Angel?

Do I really have a guardian angel who is with me constantly, or is that just a pious belief that is taught to young children? If I could be certain that I have my own personal guardian angel with me constantly, the implications for me would be enormous!

Yes, you do indeed have a personal guardian angel. And the full acknowledgement and realization of that truth would utterly transform the life of anyone, just as the many angelic apparitions mentioned in the bible transformed the lives of those who saw them. Either seeing or truly believing that you have the awesome privilege of a personally assigned guardian angel would convince you, for instance, that there is no such thing as solitary confinement; the loneliest widow in the world would no longer languish in loneliness or self-pity; those tempted to lust would find it unthinkable to sin in the presence of their heavenly companion; those tempted to discouragement or despair would be re-invigorated by the radiant presence of their angel companion, etc....

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE!

SHEEP! We need to feed...

Greetings!

I'm David Cheong and I belong to the Youth Ministry at OLPS.

About two weeks ago, whilst travelling to school on a bus, I had a sudden flash of inspiration. I felt that I could contribute to our Ministry by contributing to our blog! So I sent an email to Samantha (our elected 'CEO') and she made me a contributor. That was when that 'flash' of inspiration left as suddenly as it came.

But now i've got something to say! And I think it's worth sharing.

So here goes...

WE NEED TO FEED SHEEP!

Sheep? Why Sheep?

Let me explain: Today, our Church (Universal, a.k.a 'Catholic) celebrates the memorial of St Blaise, Patron Saint of Throats. Why throats? I can't remember, anyways, just Google it up.

Now this is where the sheep come in. At the Office of Readings (Part of the only official prayer book of our Church) there contained a sermon from St. Augustine. And the sermon had the following lines:

'After his resurrection the Lord himself said, 'Peter, do you love me?' Peter replied, ' I do.' Three times the Lord asked, three times Peter made the same reply and each of the three times, the Lord said, 'Feed my sheep.'

Saint Augustine goes on to explain the meaning behind those Gospel words:

'How else can you show your love for me except by feeding my sheep? What can you offer me by loving me, seeing that you look to me for all things? You know then what you must do in loving me: 'Feed my sheep.'

This explanation made me realize the meaning behind Christ's commandment, 'To love the Lord your God with all your soul and to love your neighbour as you love yourself.'

Just think about it, how else can we show our love for God? The only way that we can do it is to 'feed His sheep.' That is to say, 'feed His followers.' For me, this ties in perfectly with service. We cannot give anything material to Jesus, to show him that we love him, since everything belongs to God anyway.

Of course, to express our love for Jesus by serving our fellow brothers and sisters of the faith, is not an easy task. I'm thinking of this from the perspective of our participation in Church work.

A few days ago, at a dinner conversation with a group of friends, I mentioned the possibility of their coming forward to serve in ministry. One of the reply that I received was that the politicking between ministry members was a turn-off. Of course, I went on to point out that politicking occurs anywhere.

I understand that serving in Church comes with many responsibilities, requires many sacrifices on our part and many times, we find ourselves saddened or even angered by the behavior and or words of our brethren. But this is where the conclusion of St. Augustine's sermon provided me with a very strong reminder of the reality of our Christian calling. For Jesus Christ, after he had asked Peter three times, to feed his sheep, goes on to foretell Peters' eventual death on a cross.

'He foretold for Peter his own cross, he prophesied his own passion for Peter. That was the intention of Jesus' words: 'Feed my sheep.' It means: 'Suffer for my sheep.'

The experiencing of pain, hurt, suffering, is part of life. We will always encounter misunderstandings, disagreements and 'lack of chemistry' with people we meet and work with at all areas of life. However, it is only by going through all of this, the good and the bad, that happy and the sad, that we learn to become more loving, more human, more Christ-like. And it is only through this life-long process that we can effectively show our love for Jesus.

I hope this entry wasn't too long. I'll try to put more interesting pictures in my next post. I look forward to your comments and suggestions. And I hope that you will continue to strive in serving Jesus' 'sheep.' (I don't know about you but i think sheep are adorable!)

Till my next post (need inspiration!), God bless!