Eagle’s Eye formation camp in Malaysia

Apr 02, 2014

Fondacio Malaysia held a three-day/two-night Leadership Formation Camp — Eagle’s Eye 2014, in Janda Baik, Pahang, recently that saw overwhelming response and participation. In total 92 youths attended the formation programme from eleven parishes of the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocese, two participants from Johor Diocese and four from Penang Diocese.

Jesus Caritas Kepong Parish, St Ignatius, PJ, and Sacred Heart Parish sent the largest number of participants totaling fifty youths.

The Eagle’s Eye camp offered young people aged between 16 to 36 a new opportunity to rediscover the meaning and purpose of the Christian Word, Worship and Witness. Its focus was on four areas of formation namely, human, social, spiritual and Christian fellowship.

Also present at the Camp were four alumni members of IFF Asia — the leadership formation institute of Fondacio Asia. They came from Laos, China, Philippines, Vietnam and East Malaysia.

The purpose of the Eagle’s Eye Camp was to help Catholic youths to explore, discover and take decisive steps in their leadership roles in their own communities, parishes, place of work and at home.

Several professionals delivered various modules on Leadership. There were also several hours of Team Building exercises to further coach participants in discovering the crucial attributes of leadership and how to respond as effective leaders.

Fr Bernard, SJ celebrated Mass in addition to delivering an empowering testimony of Christian leadership in action for refugees.

Helena who holds a Master’s in Psychology, took participants on a journey of self discovery. Her topic Leadership through Self-Discovery provided participants an in-depth appreciation of their Christ-centred social and spiritual dispositions as individuals, within the community and as leaders.

K. Haridas who is a well known Malaysian activist and educationist spoke on Ethics of Leadership. His group exercises made a lasting impression among participants as they were able to re-enact the power of ethics and the lack of it in society through a drama session that was held during the B-B-Q dinner on the second night of the camp.

J. D. Lovrenciear from the Institute of Public Relations Malaysia presented an entertaining and edifying talk on Communication Qualities for Leadership.

Maddy from the United Kingdom delivered a talk on Leadership Traits that helped participants to discover and anchor on their leadership qualities and inclinations.

Gabriel from St Joseph’s parish managed a three-hour outdoor Team Building exercise with help from a volunteer team. The various activities were purpose-built to enable participants experience Leadership in Action and to translate the classroom lectures into real encounters.

The Alumni members of IFF Asia provided personal testimonies of what they are doing in their respective countries in their evangelization commitments. They also took time to share their motivation and roles as Christian leaders through a video presentation highlighting their studies and mission field trips at the IFF Asia institute in Philippines and their lay mission work in their respective countries.

The learning opportunities also included a fun-filled B-B-Q dinner where participants demonstrated through songs, drama and speeches their learning outcomes. It was an opportunity to showcase their talents which could also be networked for greater involvement within and outside the Church.

The surprise visit by two priests, Fr Albet Arockiasamy (Christ the Light) and Fr Surin Durai Raj (Jesus Caritas Kepong) on the first night of the camp was much appreciated by participants especially the 26 participants representing these two parishes.

Fr Bernard, SJ the resident priest for the Eagle’s Eye camp, was a great inspiration for participants. Not only was he there throughout the camp offering counsel and direction to the youths, he even took up the challenge to play mid-night football to help diffuse the high-energy cascading amongst the electrified youths, given the unusual heat wave throughout the day.

Another popular feature incorporated was the idea of wellness. Michael who is a well known Tai Chi Master conducted exercise sessions each morning at 6.00am and it was very popular amongst the participants.

Music and hymns were a central part in the learning curve at the camp. Patrick Sta Maria assisted by Philip and Prakash together with IFF Asia alumni members took care of worship through music.

Following the Closing Mass the participants were presented with their Certificates of Attendance by Fr Bernard. It was clear from the jubilation that the Camp was well worth attending. The written and verbal feedback from participants further inspired the Organizing team comprising of Judy, Helen, Teresa, Michael, Patrick and Annie Yap.

Given the highly rated feedback from participants, Fondacio Malaysia aims to continue organizing the Eagle’s Eye Leadership Formation Camp for the benefit of more youths. There are plans to bring this Camp to other countries in the region too, given its relevance, success rate and popularity.

Msgr James Gnanapiragasam the Spiritual Director for Fondacio Malaysia provided great encouragement for the Organizing Team who were initially dented by the poor support from several parishes. It is now proven that Eagle’s Eye is a much needed and relevant programme of formation.

For future enquiries please email: [email protected]