For the very first time, the youths from the three congregations in Leyte, Philippines, gathered together for a fun-filled weekend, January 21 and 22. Tacloban served as the host and four enthusiastic youths from Isabel congregation were able to fellowship with us, as they were the first to arrive. We learned and enjoyed hearing the sermons intended for the youth in particular. Mr. Anthony Reisdorff delivered the sermonette entitled, “Doing What We Can With What We Have.” He encouraged us to make use of the power we have in ourselves to touch the lives of others in a positive way. The youths were all ears to Pastor Raul Villacote’s main message about which we should serve first—a problem that every youth in the world faces.

We enjoyed a festive lunch prepared by the church members for this special Sabbath, and everyone lent a hand to clean-up after. Some enjoyed chatting with the visitors, and some rehearsed choir pieces as we waited for the afternoon service, which resumed at 2 p.m. Mr. Jose Campos conducted the Bible study about “The Youth in Focus”—what we are in the sight of God, and what our sorrows as well as duties and responsibilities are.

As the Sabbath ended, the youths couldn’t hide their excitement as we met up in Reisdorff’s residence at 7 p.m., for our videoke night. The Baybay youths had finally arrived, and we unconsciously broke the ice as we played an informal “Pinoy Henyo” (Filipino Genius), a popular guessing game adapted from a noontime TV show. As planned, we, the Tacloban youths, tried not to stay late so we could recharge our energies for the next day’s activities. We were already comfortable with each other as we exchanged our endless waves and goodbyes. The Isabel and Baybay youths spent the night in Reisdorff’s residence.

The next morning, we proceeded to the cozy Vic-Mar Beach Resort, a 15-minute ride from the church’s meeting place. The clouds’ floodgate of tears were somehow open but the wet and humid weather didn’t prevent us from enjoying the weekend to the fullest. There were various games everybody really enjoyed. The sequence of the games were carefully planned to promote a gradual camaraderie among the youth.

The program of activities was carefully supervised by our local pastor, Mr. Villacote. This was commenced by a brief prayer and a welcome note addressing the youths’ behavior limitations since the venue was open to the public. After a while, the first game followed. This was a “Getting-To-Know-You” game in which the youths were instructed to arrange themselves in alphabetical order according to several categories such as first letter of family names, first letter of a hobby, etc. This enabled the youths to interact with one another and at the same time learn something about his or her brethren without the formal way of doing it—catering to those timid ones.

The flow of activities became more interactive during the next game. As its name suggests, “Konek!” gave the youths the chance to “connect” with one another given a roll of straw tie, which symbolized the “friendship” that was eventually formed during the first game. The third game was a test of their listening skills and creative minds. This was named “Kingdom Animalia,” which involves the use of the natural sounds of selected animals to find others of the same “specie.” “Fill-Me-In” on the other hand, was a contest of quickness and team-building. The youths were made to “fill in” an empty glass with sea water with the least sediments as possible, using a spoon. Unconsciously, this fostered teamwork because some of the youths had devised a strategy on how they would be able to prevent those brethren from Isabel and Baybay from getting totally wet, since they have brought limited clothes. Lastly, the crowd’s favorite—“Pinoy Henyo” highlighted the games. A cute and colorful personalized notebook was our souvenir and everyone sat down to exchange messages and contact information.

The weekend outing ended at about 4 p.m., so the Isabel and Baybay youths could catch the last trip of buses. A few of the youths were not able to join with us due to conflict of schedules, but all in all, we counted 27.

We are grateful for the success of this youth activity, made possible by God, through the people who have helped in making this a very memorable one.