Leadership gathering for Campus leaders from Melaka

Apr 29, 2015

MELAKA (Herald Malaysia): The Leadership Gathering (LG) for Melaka campuses was held from 10 -12 April at Good Shepherd Seminary (GSS), Melaka. There were 22 participants from CSS CHRIST (MMU) and CSS BASIC (UTeM). Besides the great opportunity for the leaders of these communities to build relationships with one another, this programme aimed to build up Jesus-inspired leadership values in the student ministries at their respective campuses.

The programme started with ice-breaking where the students were able to show off their talents and get to know each other better. Then, Deacon Adrian led the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. “This was the most memorable for me,” said Vera, “the moment I entered the chapel, I felt the love of God and I began to cry.”

The next morning, after prayer and breakfast, Mark Anthony from the Campus Ministry Team, asked the participants to reflect on their experiences of God, their priorities in life and to share those experiences with their group. For Karyn Kan of MMU, these sessions were helpful for her to evaluate her personal relationship with God.

The next session, Vine and Branches was by Deacon Adrian. He talked about the importance of the personal life of the leader. How the leader relates to his family and people of the opposite sex is important witness. Deacon Adrian also challenged the leaders to put in a daily hour of Scripture and prayer. Then the participants were invited to spend a few moments of silence before the Blessed Sacrament before sharing with a partner about the commitments they want to make.

After lunch, the talk was on Steward, Servant and Shepherd. Looking at three images of a leader, Deacon Adrian shared some of his experiences and invited the participants to become more Christ-like leaders. In the evening, the team building games helped the students to learn to work together as a team to overcome the challenges faced. The participants enjoyed themselves.

At night, a movie on the life of Mother Teresa was shown. The story was inspiring and, at the end of the movie, the participants were able to list down the leadership principles that they learnt from Mother Teresa. For many of the participants, the movie was the highlight of the camp.

On the last day, during the session Mission in Society, Clement Josos, another member of the Campus Ministry Team, made the participants aware of the current social issues, as well as the importance of raising awareness and responses to these issues in their CSS. They then broke into groups to discuss the activities for mission in their CSS. Everyone then attended Mass at St Francis Xavier’s Church.

After lunch, Edrin Marconi, the former Campus Ministry Officer, taught the students the importance of having a balance in the type of activities in the CSS. There should be different activities for the different student levels (from first year to final year) in their campuses. They then broke into groups to discuss the types of activities that can be organized and this was followed by the presentations.

At the end of the camp, to understand more on the “Year of Consecrated Life”, a seminarian from The Salvatorian Order, Brother Francisco Overee, gave a brief introduction. He shared his vocation story and present life in the seminary. The camp ended with prayer for the leaders by Brother Francisco.

The Campus Ministry Team (CMT) who were the main organisers of the Leadership Gathering has been working for a few years to improve the programmes. Thanks to Fr Richard who helped to solidify the programme. In this camp, every session impacted people differently. After this LG, some of the CMTs, namely Mark Anthony, Estelle Liew and Edrin Marconi, will be taking a break. We thank them for their years of service.