Making a Different in Bandung, Indonesia

One of the greatest gift that Jesus has given me during this Christmas season is the joy of reaching out to about 170 youth in Bandung, Indonesia. The love of God for all humanity was clearly evident during the five days program. The participants came on the first day weary and bogged down by the demands of life. On the last day they left as champions with hearts filled with love.

The participants recognized that we, created in the image and likeness of God, are filled with goodness as all goodness comes from God the Father of Goodness. They recognized that we were born to be winners and that we are to live the life that God has given us to the fullest. This is possible when we learn how to love ourselves just as God loves us.

 Besides loving ourselves, we also had to learn how to love others. Loving others is in a way of reflection of how we love ourselves. It is sometimes difficult to love others when we do not love ourselves. Loving others also requires the need to be true to others. This is often difficult as we do not want to hurt others or by any chance create a negative impact on the friendship. Nonetheless, true friendship is when we recognize that the friend is more important than the friendship. While many of us recognize this, it is not something that is easy to practice even with close friends. Hence, the environment was created for them to be true to each other and I’m glad that many of them took the opportunity to do so.

Loving others was brought another step forward when we recognized the importance of loving our parents. Many a time as we go through life especially during our teenage years, there is a tendency to take for granted all the sacrifices that our parents have done for us. We need to always be grateful for what they’ve done for us and what they will continue to do for us. I think one would never recognize the depth of the love of parents until we ourselves become a parent one day. That is what I experience in my life. Only when I became a father I recognized the love that a person would have for another. He was only then that I recognized that kind of sacrifices to one person will be willing to do for another. The participants realized the love that their parents have for them and how much they truly love them.

Thank you Jesus for allowing me to be part of this camp.