A ‘YES-perience’ of a lifetime

Mar 16, 2018

By Valerie Lau Yiwen
The threeweek camp for 19 participants was held at Oasis, Kluang. The inaugural Youth Evangelisation School (YES) was organised by the Malacca Johore Diocese.

Many of us were excited to be in a new environment; some were reluctant to attend but, overall, we were looking forward to three weeks away from home!

The day began with ice-breakers. As the 19 of us were from different churches, the ice-breakers helped ‘break’ our awkwardness and apprehensions to be at the camp.

The first week was themed with sessions on who we were as individuals and the encounter of our own images without our family’s shadow and influence. We also learned about the diverse and varied emotions that govern our thoughts and deeds. All these sessions were conducted by Sr Shanti FdCC. In addition to that, we discovered more discussing the Bible and the fascinating history of the Catholic Church. Sr Margarete Sta Maria FdCC imparted her vast and well-informed expertise on so many aspects of the Catholic Church and expanded our knowledge and understanding!

In the second week, we learned about different ways to evangelise and how to share Christ’s love and mercy by our everyday actions. We discovered the different levels of discipleship and where we were on the discipleship road map. We were divided into groups to start our mission work. One group stayed in Kluang and volunteered at Miriam Home for the aged and Damu’s Home for boys. Another group went to the Bekok Orang Asli Settlement. The third group went to Johor Bahru to visit Dignity Home, an HIV shelter and Villa Paulos Children’s Home.

During the mission week, we discovered that, while we are all humans, we don’t share the same life experience and that all of us live differently. Our main objective was to understand the plight of others and to serve them in whichever way we possibly could. We left feeling blessed and thankful for our families. Most of all, we felt an immense sense of gratitude for being children of God.

In the final week, Dave Cameron presented to us the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church. He touched on the many issues that are plaguing us in today’s society. He encouraged us to use our voices as youths to change our society. Even if it starts small, it’s still worth it!

We went away from this camp with many awe-inspiring lessons, countless memories and significant virtues. As we grew closer as a family, we also grew closer to Christ together. We learned many different ways to pray, how to be good leaders, how to socialise with others, what to do with our voices and most importantly, how to say YES to God and to open our hearts to Him.