OMPH Ipoh confirmands get a touch of missionary spirit

The Form 4 confirmands of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Church (OMPH) attended a Confirmation Camp September 14. The group comprised of 40 students in total.

Oct 05, 2019

By Dylan Matthew Prasad Menon
The Form 4 confirmands of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Church (OMPH) attended a Confirmation Camp September 14. The group comprised of 40 students in total.

It was conducted by a group of young missionaries, the New Thessalonian Apostolate (NTA), a Catholic Missionary Organisation under the patronage of Rt Rev Sebastian Francis, Bishop of Penang Diocese.

The theme chosen was Here I Am Lord! to remind the confirmands of their mission as God’s children —  to love, spread kindness and share the Good News just as our Lord did. The theme was also chosen to help the confirmands to be open and available for God. By singing out Here I Am Lord it showed that the confirmands were truly ready to accept God into their lives.

In the three days, the presenters shared their experiences of God in their lives. The testimonies were accompanied by praise and worship sessions, activities that brought the confirmands closer with one another.

In the Mass celebrated OMPH parish priest, Fr Patrick Massang reminded the confir mands that the Church will always welcome each and every one of them through the sacraments that are readily available.

During the parents’ session, Dave Kameron the DirectorGeneral NTA, reminded the parents to “always ensure that their children have a home to go to and to never cut ties with them, regardless of what happens.”

Apart from carrying out Confirmation and Missionary Discipleship camps, NTA’s mission is to inspire society to uphold and safeguard human dignity in any and every way possible, by running schools, vocational training centres, providing medical facilities and various other programmes for the marginalised and the poor.

NTA’s Director of External Affairs, Sherril Netto advised that “NTA takes great concern to ensure that the spiritual and human aspects of faith are taught well during their confirmation and missionary discipleship camps. This represents one of the many reasons why past confirmands who have attended their camps return to serve as facilitators in future camps.”

Sharing from the confirmands

“I honestly did not want to go for the confirmation camp. During the week before, I kept on telling my parents that I did not want to attend the camp. However, it all changed the moment the sessions had started. The first speaker asked a question that really hit me. She asked us, why did we want to be confirmed? In my heart, all I wanted was to just receive all the sacraments necessary and be done with it but it was then that it hit me, am I even ready to be confirmed?

“As the sessions went on, I learnt more and more and all of this really made me realise how important confirmation was going to be for me. I learnt about the troubles that we, teen agers could face in college. Islamization and so on.

“In addition to that, I realised that being a good Christian meant more than just coming to church. It was about doing what was right in God’s eye.

“All these testimonies moved me so much that from me not wanting to even attend the camp, my feelings shifted to me not wanting to leave the camp.

“I was upset that it came to such a quick end because the speakers and their team were such nice people and everyone was having so much fun getting to know each other. All in all, the camp really changed my perspective  on thin gs and it was truly a camp I will never forget,” quoted a candidate.

“I wasn’t expecting much as I was supposed to attend a wedding but I ended attending the camp. I really liked the camp a lot and I would say that this has been the best camp I have attended. I actually felt relieved and gained a lot of self-confidence in myself. As someone who is suffering from very low self-esteem I felt like this camp helped me gain my confidence. Initially, I thought that I was not going to be able to face the world but after the camp I feel that I can take it all on, I can go through life,” shared another participant.

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Shannon Joshua[email protected]
Great sharing.. Well done Dylan