World youth day celebration in Tawau

May 05, 2017

By Sandra Smirna ak Sait
In conjunction with World Youth Day 2017, the Tawau Parish Youth Apostolate (KBP), under the Youth Team Monthly Gathering (YMG) also celebrated with 120 participants.

The Youth Day Celebration began with an invitation for the youth to pray the Taize on Apr 8 in the Catechetical Hall followed by the Tawau Youth Day programme on Apr 9 at the Holy Trinity Church. The theme for the programme was taken from the Gospel of Luke 1:49, because the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is His name. This is the same theme for World Youth Day.

The objective of the Tawau Youth Day was to unite all the youth from the various ethnic and cultural backgrounds in Tawau parish and to foster strong bonds through various spiritual activities, inspired by the message by the Holy Father for World Youth Day 2017.

Tawau Youth Day began with Mass on Palm Sunday. In attendance were Sr Julita Joseph, Seminarian Arthur John, Mr & Mrs Mario Doimingo, Mrs Julita Kantod from Family Life Services, Ms Magrina IOB and former members of the Tawau Parish Youth Apostolate.

The programme began with praise and worship, followed by lunch prepared by the team from the Social Welfare Unit. There were various programmes including a musical drama conducted by Matthew Dian.

The drama was performed by the youth from the Tawau parish community and centred on the challenges that are faced by the youth of today. The play was divided into three acts:

-- early adolescence
-- current phase in school (university / college) 
-- working life and marriage

The presentation highlighted new talents in terms of dancing, singing, acting and music. The finale concluded with the question: In the activity of Youth Got Talent — how would the end of the story be portrayed?

After the play, Xavier Chin, a member of the Parish Youth Apostolate Team delivered a lecture on the challenges facing the youth of today. He also gave a brief analysis of the musical drama presented by the youth at the beginning of the session. Seminarian Raymond Lee was also invited to deliver the message of the Holy Father on the Blessed Virgin Mary as an icon for the youth to follow. He urged them to use the Magnificat or the hymn of Mother Mary as a mode of prayer. He reminded them to emulate the faith of Mary to give thanks and praise and not to give up in the face of any difficulties and challenges that they might have to undergo.

Then began the judging of the Youth Got Talent segment by Mario Domingo, Magrina and Julita Kantod. During the drama musical, the youth were requested to come up with their own creativity based on the Pope’s message for World Youth Day 2017. The musical drama was also uploaded live on the official Facebook page Tawau Parish Youth Apostolate. Attractive prizes are also available for the winners of Youth Got Talent.

A dialogue session was held among the youth to share ideas and opinions on various issues and how to resolve them. Msgr Nicholas Ong was also in attendance to support the youth. The programme closed with the singing of the song Here I am, the messenger of God by the Parish Youth Apostolate Tawau, followed by a closing prayer by Seminarian John Arthur.