Campus Gathering for youths of Mark-Peter

Nov 26, 2015

SANDAKAN: The Parish Youth Ministry organized a Campus Gathering for youths studying in colleges/universities in Sandakan on Oct 14. 74 students, including the organizing teams participated in this event which was held at the hall of St Mark’s Church.

The objective of this gathering was

-- To identify and establish relationships between students on campus,
-- To welcome new students and affirm the senior students who have completed their studies,
-- To introduce the Youth Team of Mark-Peter to the students.

The Youth team from Mark-Peter arrived at 7.30 am at the Church of St Mark to collect the students from their campuses. The programme began at 8.30 am with a welcome speech from Tommy Gedeus, a Polytechnic student, followed by morning prayer and a praise and worship session.

Beginning with the first session, Who Am I?, Janarius Majin, a youth from Mark-Peter, called on the participants to introduce their organi zations and members. The students from University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) have their own organization called Catholic Students’ Family (CSF). Youth from the Polytechnics call their group Youth of God (YOG) while students from MRSM named their organization Catholic Students’ Society (CSS). At the end of the session, a video clip was shown on the various youth activities from all the campuses that were involved in the programme.

Immediately after was the ‘icebreaker’, after which the participants were placed into groups. Eman, a youth from Mark-Peter conducted the session called Relationships. In this session, he explained that through sharing, relationships can be strengthened with other students on campus.  He continued by saying that they would have a better understanding of relationships in order to serve others and to create a new community. At exactly 12.00 noon, the youth were shown how to pray the Angelus together.

After lunch, a session called Service was given by Alday Alexius. In
her sharings, the youth were taught the difference between serving in the Church and outside the Church. At 3.00 pm, the students were given a short talk on how to say the Divine Mercy Prayers, which they all prayed together.

Later in the afternoon, they participated in some recreational activities. The first game was called Guess who I am? The objective of the game is to deliver the correct interpretation in communicating an idea, using their creativeness and presentation skills. This method would also help them to strengthen their relationships and cooperation in working as a team. The second  game was called Paralysis. The aim is to establish cooperation in the team, and to be able to deal with all kinds of obstacles in the performance of service. After the game ended, the students were given the opportunity to express their views.

The final programme for the day was cutting a cake as a ‘thank you’ to the junior students and an appreciation to the seniors who would be finishing their studies next year.