Are you a parent of small children aged 4-12? Do you sometimes have a difficult time teaching them about God and spiritual principles? If you are like a lot of people I know, you’d probably equate the spiritual activities of your childhood with boredom, even though you know you would benefit from these. Yet now you have kids of your own, and you hope that they will not only travel a Godly path…you also hope that they will also, somehow, enjoy it.
Well, enter a week full of fun, games, songs, snacks, and…yes, God. The church I go to strongly believes in the importance of investing in children, and so it has an awesome children’s program called NxtGen. Other that the great Orange program that NxtGen delivers to the kids every Sunday, the said week full of fun, generally called a DVBS, happens in the summer and it is usually NxtGen’s biggest event of the year. This year's DVBS is themed BREAKING FREE, and I am positive your child will have a great, great time in addition to learning valuable lessons and Biblical principles.
Hello friends. If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you’d know that we are a church going family. If your family is, too, the read on because I will give a fantastic solution on a pretty rampant problem among church going families, especially in this country (the Philippines).
Are your kiddos bored silly when your family goes to church? Especially here in the Philippines, where the majority of the people go to the type of churches where kids have no choice but to sit with their parents, this is an all too common scenario. Needless to say, Sunday mornings for most kids are usually not very pleasant, not only because of the boredom, but because they get chastised by expressing their boredom (squirming, fidgeting, complaining, etc.).
The church I go to invests heavily in children, and for many years I have been a very big part of serving these young people Sunday in Sunday out. Well, earlier today, said church launched quite possibly the best curriculum we’ve ever had, called ORANGE…and as luck would have it, the Kids Church team that would launch it for the 7-12 year olds will be the team that I used to lead, a team that includes my daughters and my mom (unfortunately, I can no longer be involved because I now do Graduate School in addition to full time teaching).
The kids had an absolute BLAST…while learning about God and Biblical principles. My blog will be all about today’s events, and if you live in any of the major cities of the Philippines, your kids can enjoy ORANGE as well (you'll find out how, later). Game? Let’s go.
Before I share ORANGE with you, let me share with you a quick video of why this is sooooo important. Did you know that there is a great battle for the hearts and minds of our children? Please watch this video, made back in 2011 but relevant today more than ever. It’s a part of a bigger video here, but I just have a snippet of it to prove a point. It’s not that long, so please view it before you go on further.
If you gravitate towards the marriage, parenting, or inspirational sections of the major book store chains, you must be blind not to see the name Harold Sala in many of the books there. He is one of the best authorities of marriage and parenting on the planet, and guess what…he’s coming here to Cagayan de Oro City!
He’s here for The Story of Us couples seminar that the community I belong to is cooking up. Better yet, if you carefully follow the instructions in this blog entry, you can win a chance to spend a weekend with this beloved author…for FREE!! It’s a whopping P9,200 value, and you’re getting it absolutely free. Check out the video first before I explain what you need to do.
Several blog posts ago, I talked about a youth event called Becoming His Girl, hosted by Elevate CDO (click here for said post). Elevate (formerly called JZone), the youth ministry of CCF, is dedicated to taking students to the next level, and to that end they host events and they’re huge in the mentoring department. Becoming His Girl was one such event, designed to let teen girls (who often struggle with self-image) know that they indeed have so much worth, because they’re His girl.
Well, Becoming His Girl was beautiful (no pun intended), and now it’s time for REAL MEN, the male version of this event. I’m gonna post some pics of Becoming His Girl first, then we’ll discuss how the boys can get get so much wisdom (and have so much fun) in their own event via Real Men. Shall we proceed?
There’s this joke that starting and running a business is WAY easier that parenting a teenager. Well, my eldest child is at the tail end of her first year as a teen, and I think the joke has more than a little bit of truth to it. Only 9 months into raising a teen and I already grew some white hair. I have 6 more years to go for this one, plus two more future teens? Oh boy.
Well, if you keep track of my blog, you’ll know that two of the best speakers on parenting in the Philippines, Mr. Francis Kong and Dr. Peter Tanchi, will come to Cagayan de Oro on September 7, 2013 to speak on an event called ParenTEEN (click here for my article). They’re fantastic speakers on this topic not only because of their tremendous speaking ability; they’re fantastic because they’re Exhibit A. It’s a rare treat to see just one of them, but both of them? Back to back? WOW!
Here’s an even better deal:I will give three couples a chance to win two tickets each to ParenTEEN. Yes, you can be in the running to see the two best parenting speakers in the Philippines for free, all you’ll have to do is to do some writing of your own.
In the school I work in, the high school students do journaling, where they write down their honest, candid thoughts for the day. I remember one student’s journal entry went something like this:
“I can’t help but feel a bit envious whenever I see Mr. Carlo (that’s me) cuddling and playfully interacting with Happy (that’s the nickname of my son, James, age 8). My dad never did that with me.”
There was another time several years ago, where I volunteered to do this very embarrassing group dancing thing with my daughter. Even though I wanted to crawl under a rock, we had a blast together. The next day, another boy went up to me and said that his dad would never do anything like that with him or any of his siblings.
Both instances were both flattering and sad at the same time. Here are these two young people, teenagers, quickly growing into men yet never really feeling love from their father, a love they desperately need. It’s one of the reasons why I blog, as I feel that we, Filipino fathers (and that includes me) have some ample room for improvement in the fathering department.
I have two daughters, aged 13 and 11, and I’ve been a teacher of teenagers for the past 8 years (with the slight majority of them being girls). If I’ve learned anything about teen girls, it’s that one of their biggest issues is self-image. I might be mistaken, but at no other point in life would a woman be more conscious of how she looks and what others think of her than in her teenage years. Not surprisingly, it is common to see teen girls struggle at this point in their lives, as they often feel ugly, unloved, and awkward. A few never recover for their experiences and acquire scars that stay a lifetime.
Elevate (formerly called JZone) is a youth organization dedicated to take students to the next level, as their tagline goes, and on August 9, 2013, they will have an event called Becoming His Girl. As you can guess by the song in the video teaser above (Beautiful, by one of my favorite CCM bands, Group 1 Crew…see them plus other awesome CCM artists in this blog post), the event is to show teenage girls that they are indeed beautiful and very much loved for who they are, because they are His girl.
(The beautiful promo posters/leaflets for Becoming His Girl)
Last month, 130 children had a fantastic time of games, fun, crafts, dance, and song—all while learning about God’s goodness and how to live a victorious Christian life. CCF-Cagayan de Oro, the church I go to, and its NxtGen children’s ministry, held yet another successful DVBS, this time it was called Studio GO!
One hundred and thirty kids!!
The DVBS is usually NxtGen’s biggest event of the year, and while I wasn’t in the thick of the event this time around, I did see a little bit of what went on and let’s just say that I was very pleased. In fact, it is a testament to what happens when you invest in children, which is the theme of this blog entry.
Praise God for that awesome week. This blog entry serves as a big THANK YOU and congrats on a job well done. It also serves as a word of encouragement to those readers who, in their own ways and in their own organizations, volunteer to serve children and youth. Your efforts go a long, long way. Now here we go.
It’s super rewarding to invest in children; and it’s such a big, big, MUST for churches to do so. Of course, I’ve always known this, but it was so evident to me during Studio GO!
The vast majority of the volunteers were teenagers, and I mean young teenagers on the lower end of the teen scale. What’s so awesome to me is that many of these young’uns were DVBS participants when they were little. Now, I get a bit teary eyed that they consider it an absolute joy to give back by volunteering, blessing the next generation of kids the same way they were blessed many years ago.
As an example, here’s a picture of my daughter, Lynn, and a longtime friend of hers, Anya, during a DVBS many, many years ago…followed by a pic of the DVBS of this year.
If you’re a parent of young children (4-11 years old), and you live in Cagayan de Oro City, allow me to ask you a question.
Do you want your kids to have great fun over the summer, and while doing so, he or she would learn more about God and biblical principles? I don’t think any church going family would say no to that, right? Well, here in the Philippines, most families are church-going families, but the vast majority of the churches Pinoys go to usually do not have much in terms of programs that disciple and nurture children (which is a shame, really).
Well, if you’re a follower of my blog, you’d know that I’m a proud Lifeshaper volunteer of my church’s NxtGen Ministry (the name of my church’s children’s ministry), and every summer, we have the biggest NxtGen event of the year. Consider this blog entry an invitation, and I suggest you register now to get the HUGE early bird discount on this great children’s summer activity!
What I’m talking about is our yearly summer DVBS, and this year’s theme is called Studio GO! For one week, May 6 to 11, 2013, children from ages 4-12 (although, honestly, I notice most 12 year olds prefer JZone as compared to NxtGen) will enjoy three hours of games, stories, skits, snacks, and crafts…all the while learning about Jesus and life-changing Biblical principles. Here’s a video that was aired at church last Sunday, to show you what we mean.
Most people (wrongly) think that once you get married, you’d effortlessly live happily ever after. Ditto with having children: you’d think that when the bundle of joy comes, he or she will always be, well, a bundle of joy.
But reality is quite different, isn’t it? Those of us who are married with children know that both keeping the marriage alive and raising the kids well take lots of hard work. So much so that you’d probably wish colleges offer marriage 101 or parenting 101 as subjects.
Well, I have good news for you. I belong to a community that advocates family development and youth development quite strongly, and I would like to share some of our upcoming special events for you, in order of when they happen during the year. If you live in Cagayan de Oro City and you want to enhance your married life or the lives of your children, then check out these events!
This next Sunday will be my Lifeshaper team’s turn to serve our 7-12 year old children in our Kids’ Church (it’s our turn every 1st Sunday of the month). It’s gonna be an awesome Sunday for sure. Or, at the very least, it’s gonna be a hilarious Sunday.
I mean, Cain and Abel with abs? This is gonna be the funniest Sunday yet!!
Our lesson
We use a lot of techniques to get the children’s attention and to make them imbibe the lesson. In 1.5 hours (the length of our worship service at CCF-CDO), we use object lessons, dance/action songs, memory verses, videos, skits, and small group discussions…all in an hour and a half. My team is famous (infamous?) for being the team that puts an extra dose of hilarity in our skits. It can sometimes get ridiculous, to the point that the children’s howls of laughter or our general noise-making are so loud we can sometimes be heard in the main worship area. It helps a lot that two of probably the funniest, most animated people in the entire church are on my team.
And this Sunday, we’re gonna have two of our guys wear shirts with abs drawn on them, because that’s how we roll (and that’s probably how Cain and Abel rolled, too, knowing how perfect the weather was back then). Note that one of them has a really huge tummy. HAHAHA. This is probably gonna be the funniest Sunday in all our funny Sundays…I just hope we don’t get ourselves excommunicated.
(Note: This blog post is quite video-heavy. I suggest that before you read on, you scroll down to the videos and start the streaming by pressing play then pause so that you won’t have to wait. I strongly suggest you do not miss or skip the videos, as they are very, VERY powerful and this blog entry revolves around them. Big thanks.)
LOL!!
My favorite movie of last year was probably The Avengers, and one of my favorite scenes from that movie was when Loki, after shouting at the Hulk that he is a god and would not be bullied by a “dull creature,” gets totally and pathetically mauled, his deity made totally helpless by the latter’s overwhelming brute force.
But let me ask you something: is the God that we worship a “puny god”? Is the brute force of our circumstances too overwhelming for Him to handle?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: No, but then many believers often (mistakenly) think so. Yet, our view of Him, whether He’s big or puny, affects our actions and decisions.
I propose (well, I got this from recent Sunday messages) that our Heavenly Father is not a “puny god” but the God of the HOW MUCH MORE.
Now, you may be saying, “Look, Mr. Lessons Of A Dad, you don’t know my situation. It’s just too dire! There’s absolutely no hope for me!!”
You’re right. I don’t know the troubles you are going through. But, I DO know that Jesus knows…and if you're His child, then He has promised you peace, because He has overcome them.
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
To illustrate my point, allow me to show you the first video. Ariel had it really rough. He was frequently molested as a child, then he became a drug addict, then he became a prostitute, then…something beautiful happened.
Here’s a mime presentation that the Kids Church did several years ago (when my teenage daughter, Lynn, one of the participants, was just around 9 years old). Merry Christmas everyone.
One of my favorite verses on parenting, and you’ve seen it here before, is Luke 2:52. It’s the last verse of Jesus’s childhood, and it says this:
“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and man.”
From a parenting standpoint, we are to do our part in growing our kids “in wisdom” (intellectually), “and stature” (physically), “in favor with God” (spiritually) “and man” (socially). Like four legs of a chair, if one "leg" is broken, the chair cannot stand, no matter how robust the others are.
Most parents spend their hard-earned money on the best schools so that their kids will grow intellectually. All my kids are also bookworms, because my wife and I have read to them when they were young. They can devour books hundreds of pages thick in a mere day.
I’m disappointed that not every home does this, but we in the house eat lots of veggies and make it a point to train our kids to do so as well, so that they will be grow physically. They also come from a long line of good athletes, and so they participate in sports to build strength and discipline (particularly my eldest and my youngest, both are excellent soccer players).
I also hope that parents are successful in teaching their kids about manners, being kind to others (especially the needy), and to be responsible, so that they can grow socially. I’m glad that the school I bring my kids to has something called “practical life” to teach these to the students.
But how about growing our kids spiritually? How do we do that?
To my awesome and supremely talented Lifeshaper team, it is our turn to once again host Kids’ Church this coming Sunday! Let’s put our best foot forward and make sure our kids have so much fun they don’t wanna leave church!
For those of you who live in the Philippines, I would like to invite you to visit any CCF church (I go to CCF-Cagayan de Oro) and have your children experience what a church should be: learning about God’s love and having a wonderful time doing so!
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me explain.
A Lifeshaper is a volunteer in CCF’s Children’s Ministry (AKA Kids’ Church). We train and work mighty hard to give the absolute best church experience to your child. We do so through an entertaining variety show format that includes skits (my team tends to put extra hilarity in these), games, action songs, Bible memory drills, and other ways to make learning about God unforgettable.
This Saturday will be a huge day in enhancing people’s lives in Cagayan de Oro. I will talk about two events, the first one is for us grown-ups, and the second is for teenagers.
Okay, first of all: How is your relationship with your wallet? When you think about your finances, do you smile, or do you cry?
If you’re often having an out-of-money experience, and you feel the need to manage your cash better, then you’re in luck: a FREE seminar (yup, that’s not a typo, it’s free) on managing money. It would be given by a fantastic speaker in Rito “Bong” Saguing, Jr. who was very into fishing for lots and lots of cash in the business world before God called him to fish for something else.
If you believe that the Bible says money is the root of all evil, you’re mistaken. If it was, then why did God bless so many great men of His with great wealth? Here are just a few examples:
He blessed Isaac with great wealth even in famine: "Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him." (Gen. 26:12)
He blessed Joseph to be, in the greatest power of the ancient world, 2nd only to Pharaoh: "Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy
word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater
than thou." (Gen. 41:40)
Solomon was easily in Bill Gates' territory when it comes to wealth: "God said to Solomon, Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee, and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there be any after thee have the like."(2 Chron. 1:12)
Christ's Commission Fellowship (CCF for short), the network of churches that I go to (CCF-Cagayan de Oro being the one I attend) is going to celebrate it's 28th anniversary later this month.
They often come up with a special Sunday for this event, and also put up very cool video teasers to whet our appetites. Here are the first two of those teasers, and I especially like the 1st one.
Man, can't you just wait till the conclusion of both videos will be revealed on August 26th? Arrrgghhh!! I can't wait to see what would happen next.
I'd like to invite all of you to find out with us. CCF-Cagayan de Oro (and all CCF churches across the Philippines) will connect with the main CCF in Manila via livestream. Our senior pastor, Peter Tan-Chi, is one of the best Christian speakers in the country (and probably THE best parenting speaker) and he will give the anniversary message, not to mention telling us the conclusion of these two stories.
We are located right across the street from the Mallberry entrance, and our worship services are on 8am, 10 am, and 12nn. Peter Tan-Chi will speak in all 3 services. (If you ask me, it's best to come at either the 8am or the 12nn, because the 10am service is FULL)
My body is exhausted, my voice is hoarse, I’m dehydrated, and I’m extremely sleep deprived…but it’s all for something wonderful, and if you’re a parent of grade school children and you live in the Philippines, you might wanna read this post.
I showed the following video to you earlier this year, but I’d like to invite you to take a look at it again because it’s related to the rest of my post. It’s a video of a wonderful kids event called Main Street that I took part in earlier this year. Pls see it in its entirety before you read the rest of my post.
Since then, NxtGen, the Children’s Ministry of the church I go to, CCF-Cagayan de Oro, has really taken off (as well as all the CCF churches in the Philippines, which I will explain later). The reason why I showed you the above video is because I believe that the kids who go to said church now are lucky recipients of that kind of quality—and ridiculously fun—experience every Sunday.
Can you imagine if your child gets this kind of format every Sunday when he or she goes to church? I don’t know in your church, but in most of the churches this country, the kids are dragged to the house of worship where they are bored silly and don’t learn much anything. Even worse, the child would then equate going to church with tedium and boredom. I’ve seen it way too many times.
It’s an interesting coincidence (or is there divine power at work?). In the short amount of time since I made my “Traits of real men” article, I had very long Facebook chat conversations with three single mom friends of mine.
In each of these convos, I truly felt their pain through their keyboards. My heart ached for them as they retold accounts of physical and emotional abuse; of the lies and the infidelity; of their struggles in doing twice the work with only half the resources; and, among lots of other things, their great loneliness and their fears of becoming a less desirable catch because of the baggage that they carry (emotional and, with kids in tow, physical).
If you’re expecting from this article a list or some tips on how to cope as a single mother, I’m sorry, but nope, because I will not serve you well if I try. However, if you’re a single mother from Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, I’m going to do one better.
While you have the daunting task of raising your child(ren) on your own, you don’t have to face the trials of single motherhood on your own. My church, CCF-Cagayan de Oro, has a great support group for single mothers. It’s called Women of Worth (or WOW for short).
WOW offers a safe and compassionate environment for single moms to have fun, unwind, relate, and most importantly, grow to become the Woman of Worth that God has made you to be. They meet every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month…and that means they’ll meet tomorrow.
My apologies for posting this blog just today, less than 24 hours from the time they’ll meet for this month. I got the idea to make this post from last night’s conversation with the third friend from the above-mentioned single mother trio, a long conversation where I eventually suggested she join WOW (the other two are not based in CDO, so the thought never crossed my mind).
