// thoughts

First time in a long time that we were all there! The BNP New York Youth Officers! Wo O Ho o O !

Ahhh this weekends workshop brought with it a lot of great surprises.

Friday night, Jessica and Jennifer were going to sleep over Anne's house so they don't have to drive from NJ in the morning. So I told them to call me when they get there so we can hang out. I headed over there around 10:00pm. I thought it was just going to be Jessica and Jennifer (aka Jessifer). But to my surprise I see Sunday and Carmella too! I haven't seen Carmella in a few years and I haven't seen Sunday since the summer but it was great seeing them!

Jennifer brought her "bnp book" with all her memories of when she was still living in NJ and we were just starting out the youth. OMG the pictures of when we were all younger!? Geeze what was I thinking with that hair and that moustache! HAhAhAha - G was so skinny and small! Shing was so tomboyish! Jessica and Jennifer were sooooo tiny! Carmella, same girl, different look, same attitude hAha Emilie, she was like 4 years old?! Alaina and Aizza still living in Ridgewood! Sunday with the short short hair, wow that's sooo long ago.

WoW so many memories fun times for all! It was great just remembering the past and reconnecting with the OG's! Seeing them at the workshop and just hanging out again, ahhh the good ol' days - so when we doing it again?

Thanks for the fun again! And thanks to Jessifer for the surprise it was the bestest ever! Wo O ho o O! We must do it again before Jennifer goes back to Seattle!

+ mon

I was intitially going to post about what the each of the speakers said in detail and just reflect on that, but I'll do that later when I can find my notes.

Before the workshop even started, we were trying to call everyone possible from all those that graduated the past retreats. After we were able to find out who was going to attend, we had to tell the adults and they had to setup the rides - boy o boy, setting up the rides must of been fun for them!

So the workshop was scheduled to start at 8:00am on Saturday. There were only a handful of people who were there ontime (not sure who because I wasn't one of them .

Got to the workshop around 9:00am - 9:30am with Dudoy and Diday. G said that the people from NJ left at around 8:00am.

There were about 37 youth who braved the weather and showed up for the Workshop. Kuya Dennis was so excited to do the workshop (according to C-Low). The ones who came from California were Ate Peachy, Kuya Manny, Aimee and Kuya Dennis. We weren't really sure what the workshop was going to be about since it's been so long and it was them who were planning it.

The speakers from Cali got there around 10:00am and we started shortly after that - everyone runs on filipino time! It was great seeing a lot of old graduates there for the workshop and the ones from Cali were also happy seeing a lot of the old grads and a lot of the new grads.

The speakers went in order of Aimee, Ate Peachy, Kuya Manny and then Kuya Dennis. They each spoke about different topics, but the main topic was about the youth, and what our role is, what our purpose is, what do we do, what can we do, and how we do it. It was just great hearing from all the speakers, talking about their experiences, talking about the youth and God.

Kuya Dennis spoke to us about the upcoming projects for the youth, and the projects going on now - you can see that there were some who were very excited for the projects that we will all be involved in. As Kuya Dennis said, what we've experienced so far within the Youth Ministry of the BNP is just a small small portion. There is just so much more to experience and it's up to us on whether or not we want to be part of it or not.

One of the things that I was able to get from this workshop was a sort of re-commitment. Kuya Dennis spoke to us about how right now the NY Youth is not considered a satellite right now because in order to be a satellite, there has to be at least 30 members who are consistently involved and who are commited. So right now, that is one of our main goals, get back the old grads, the new grads and see who wants to commit themselves, see who wants to be part of the projects, part of the satellite that New York will have again. Who knows, maybe we'll have more than one satellite here (NyC and NJ? Perhaps).

The fire within our hearts never dies out, sometimes it just gets smaller, sometimes it flames up! But for a small while, that fire was getting just a tad smaller, but this workshop helped to build it up again.

It's going to take commitment from the active members to get things going, it's going to take dedication, heart, and love to work together to grow.

Some people asked me during and after the workshop if we think that we could do this, if I thought we could get that satellite status. For me it's not a matter of if we can do it, it's when it will happen. I know it's going to happen, be it sooner or later, it will happen.

Thanks for all those who came here from Cali and for all the youth, staff and vigil adorers. Especially to those who listened to the speakers, and those who participated by asking questions so they could learn more.

Pictures available at my gallery - check the links on the side.

+ mon