“JESUS Was Made Known To Them In The Breaking Of The Bread”

KOTA KINABALU(CS).- The Archdiocesan Youth Pastoral Team (AYPT) organized Emmaus Youth Camp 2014 for the fifth time for school-leaver youths aged 18-20 years old.

The camp was held Jan 4-17, 2014 at CSG Centre, Kota Kinabalu themed “He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread…” (Luke 24:35).

30 participants from 16 parishes attended this camp.

Objectives

1) To help the participants to find their true identity 2)) To help the participants to be firm and to live out their Catholic Faith in today’s world 3)) To help the participants to be aware of their responsibility to the society

The camp started with an ‘Epiphany Celebration’ with the campus students. During the celebration, the participants performed a short sketch about the birth of Jesus, His life and death until the story of Road to Emmaus.

Sessions

The session on “Salvation History” brought the participants to reflect on their own salvation history. They then had the opportunity to listen to a sharing from a novice, Jadine of the FSIC, of her experience of God’s love and forgiveness in her own life and journey of faith.

In the next session entitled “Self-discovery”, the participants learned to know themselves deeper. The participants were reminded that they are created in the image and likeness of God. Their true identity can only be defined by God, the Creator and that everyone is a beloved child of God.

They then moved on to the “The Gift of Life” session, which helped them to appreciate their life and their body as sacred gifts from God. They, too, were brought to look on the realities today such as homosexuality, pornography, pre-marital sex and abortion.

At the end of the session, the participants raised their right hands to make a promise, to remain chaste and pure for their future spouses and the vocation that God will call them to.

The Eucharist being central to our Faith, the source and summit of our Christian life, the participants delved deeper into the meaning of the Eucharist in their life in the next session. They learned to appreciate the Eucharist through the session “The Eucharist: Youth Spirituality” where they were given the opportunity to share about their experiences and the meaning of the Eucharist to them.

The participants went on to discover the history of their Catholic faith through local church history and to appreciate the missionaries who dedicated their whole life to preach Jesus to the local people of Sabah.

A whole day was dedicated for the Keep in Touch Always session during which, among other activities, two students, Lovis from UMS Sabah and Michelle from UITM, Perak, were invited to give their personal sharing on their experience in the universities. One of the highlights of their sharings was on how they coped with their studies while at the same time facing all the challenges in the campus, especially in remaining faithful in their faith.

Group sharings were provided after each session where the participants would go to their respective groups and share about their significance of their learning and personal experiences. The group sharing helped the participants to be more open about themselves as well as to be an attentive listener.

Daily Activity

Aside from listening during the sessions, the participants were also trained to become leaders as well. They were given responsibilities to handle such as, during Mass, leading prayers, and doing household chores such as cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, and doing compost.

Exposure

An exposure program was organized for the participants at Kg Kayumadang, Telipok, a place for dumping rubbish. This is to create awareness on how to care for the environment – care for God’s creation. The participants were shocked to see the huge amount of rubbish being dumped at the site daily. Lesson learnt that day was not to throw rubbish indiscriminately and learning to separate the rubbish.

Outreach

The participants were taken to Inobong, Penampang for the Outreach program. They were given an opportunity to share their faith by reaching out to others in their conversations and in being pleasant to others (smiles). This is to train the young people that faith must be shared and to plant the spirit of missionary within them.

Prayers and Eucharist

Prayers and the Eucharist are the source of faith and strength for EYC2014. The participants attended daily Mass and pray together as a community. These helped them to enter into a deeper relationship with God.

The Masses during EYC2014 were celebrated by Fr Jeffri Gumu, advisor of AYPT and Fr Michael, a visiting Benedictine monk from Germany. – Sheerah Yangus