COUNTERCULTURE

 
Warm Gensan greetings!

We hope and pray that all is well with you and that the Lord is moving mightily in your
midst. Things are on the roll here and last July 27 just barely days after the Every
Nation 2007 World Conference (EN07) in Manila, we jumpstarted our youth service.
We had it change from Youth Jam to Life MixX (Reloaded) making it more hip, cool and
interactive to blend well with the youth culture.

Our heart is to make sure we communicate the gospel in layman’s term where we engage their
hearts and minds – making the gospel practical and relevant in everyday life. They say
the bottom line of Christianity is a changed life and as I always tell them, our aim is not
to make good boys and girls out of them.  Being good isn’t good enough, our goal is
godliness, to bring them closer to Jesus. We had around 165 students during  the
Life Mixx kick-off.

The force behind this whole idea are the very students who were reached out and raised
up by Pastor Noel “Toch” Evangelista and his wife Pinky when they came over here more
than two years ago.

They are the brothers Jo-Paul and Jay Tan. Both are passionate about reaching,
discipling and training students to be servant leaders. Jo-Paul graduated with a degree
in Mass Communication at Notre Dame of  Dadiangas University (NDDU), while Jay
graduated with a degree in Communication Arts at Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU).
Also Kim Al Alejandro and Odie Benedicto,  these two are fresh graduates. Kim runs the
administrative and technical aspect of the youth service. He graduated from Mindanao
State University (MSU) with a degree in Information Technology, while Odie is a B.S.
Nursing graduate from Notre Dame, she’s in charge of the service program. 
 
As we close, our heart is to introduce Jesus to the young people. Discipling them so that
they would  follow God and make the right choices in life.  We train them for leadership
in their future stations. Because our purpose is to reach out every  generation in every
nation. We have a world to win, a huge task, so we think globally, yet we start here
locally.

Six months into GenSan and we are beginning to see not only revival among the youth (the high schools in particular), we are also seeing an openness in the hearts of young Muslim kids.

We call our life group meetings -- A Dialogue, a meeting of hearts and minds to engage the issue of faith, culture and the elusive peace in Mindanao. 

We need to help create a "Culture of Peace".  We tried guns and bullets, money politics_it only led to more bloodshed and systemic corruption. Great big wars in little places... Muslim lands being the source of electoral cheating.  But, we have a shot at it_It takes time... We are now engaging the next generation of leaders, movers and shakers.  We used to call it "The Muslim Problem" (just like a white mans burden). 

But, when we talk about these problems, we reason from the negative.  I am proposing a new phrase, I call it "The Muslim Question".  If we are one people, one blood, same brown skin, under one flag, believing in one God, then, if we move along, where will they be?  And left to themselves, where will they go? 

Most people gave up on them long ago, but God remains our only hope.   He is raising a generation of young Christians and Muslims who would one day seat in the table of peace_willing to dialogue.  More is accomplished, in a culture of peace, than in the fields of war.  In a land where violence is a way of life...

PEACE IS A COUNTER CULTURE!