Youth Gathering 2011

On 30 January 2011, the youths had a bbq + movie gathering at St. Columba's Parish Hall for some fun-filled fellowship with one another as we welcome the new year 2011! We had some games before the event started, followed by a short sharing by Ven. Solomon to encourage the youths and then proceeded to our movie session!

Listening to the instructions

Game on!

 Say my name!

For the movie session, we turned the Parish Hall into a mini cineplex, using the church projector and our screen was the big white wall..hehe, and with about 40+ youths as audiences. The movie of the day was Despicable Me. This movie's about Gru, a crminal mastermind who uses a trio of orphan girls as pawns for a grand scheme, but then he finds himself profoundly changed by the growing love between them. It's funny, goofy & everyone could relate to the moral of the story which revolves around family, love, sense of belonging & purpose. A good watch indeed! The Parish Hall had never emitted that much noise before (especially those loud laughters from the audiences)!

                   

After the movie, it's time for makan! Eventhough it rained very heavilly (with strong winds & all!), we managed to get the bbq done but half of our manoks have to be fried instead of panggang! Haha!

The Not-so-Junior Master Chef Bajeng & his chicks

..and sidekick Blackie the church dog, faithfully guarding the coals. Could you even tell the difference? :p

After dinner & mingling, next on the program was an exchange gift session among the youths...

Some received back-to-school gifts, though some are no longer students but

I guess it's also very suitable to be used at the office too. Haha.

By 8pm, its time to call it a day! Everyone had a great time and we hope to have more to come! :D

Career Talk

On 15th January 2011, Saturday, AYC organised a Career Talk at St. Columba's Parish Hall . This talk is especially targeted to the youths who have just finished their SPM examinsations and also for fresh graduates. We invited various speakers to share on various topics on career paths, choices & what to expect from the working world. We have Ms Felecia Ngalih from Curtin University, Mr. Kong from Angela Educational Consultant and Mr. Martin Entamin from Sarawak Shell, whom have shared their knowledge and experiences with us. We do hope hope that the youths that have attended this session, went back with better knowledge on what to do next in their study/career choices! :) Here are some pictures to share....

 

12 Things I Wish I Knew At 25

Happy Friday, friends! We would like to share this with y'all. This is a sharing by Rev. James Martin, an American pastor, on his 50th Birthday.

For a lark yesterday, on my 50th birthday, I Tweeted 12 things that I wish I had known at 25. Or more accurately, 12 things that, had I put them into action, would have made my life a lot easier. Some are bits of advice that wisdom figures have told me and took years to sink in. Others are the result of some hard knocks. A few are insights from the great spiritual masters that I've adapted for my own life. Maybe a few will help someone you know who's 25. Maybe one or two will help you.

1. First up: Stop worrying so much! It's useless. (I.e. Jesus was right.)


2. Being a saint means being yourself. Stop trying to be someone else and just be your best self. Saves you heartache.


3. There's no right way to pray, any more than there's a right way to be a friend. What's "best" is what works best for you.


4. Remember three things and save yourself lots of unneeded heartache: You're not God. This ain't heaven. Don't act like a jerk.


5. Your deepest, most heartfelt desires are God's desires for you. And vice versa. Listen. And follow them.


6. Within you is the idea of your best self. Act as if you were that person and you will become that person, with God's grace.


7. Don't worry too much about the worst that can happen. Even if it happens, God is with you, and you can handle it. Really.


8. You can't force people to approve of you, agree with you, be impressed with you, love you or even like you. Stop trying.


9. When we compare, we are usually imagining someone else's life falsely. So our real-life loses out. I.e. Compare and despair.


10. Even when you finally realized the right thing, or the Christian thing, to do, it can still be hard to do. Do it anyway.


11. Seven things to say frequently: I love you. Thank you. Thank you, God. Forgive me. I'm so happy for you! Why not? Yes.


12. Peace and joy come after asking God to free you -- from anything that keeps you from being loving and compassionate.


We hope that you find this sharing helpful. Tell us what do you think of it? And do share it with others! Have a great weekend ahead!

Interesting Toons

Shared by Bro. Malachi Ningkan

A Special love for a special You!

Shared by Uncle Andrew Unal

“A SPECIAL LOVE FOR A SPECIAL YOU”

Bai Fang Li, died 93 years old, lived in poverty. Yet, he donated an aggregate sum of RMB 350,000 to universities and schools in Tianjin to help 300 poor children in need. For almost twenty years, he paddled his tricycle earning Yuan by Yuan to save up for his donations.

His lunch was two buns and plain water. Luxury to him was the sauce he put into the water. Dinner was a piece of meat or an egg. What he wore was what he picked from the dump. Any extra piece was luxury.

He paddled 365 days a year every year, in the snow and in the soaring heat of 50 degrees C. He started at 6 in the morning and finished at 7 or 8 at night.

“It’s alright I suffer,” he said, “But let the poor kids go to school.”

90 years old, he arranged his last saving of RMB500 neatly in a box and handed to Yao Hua School, saying, “I cannot paddle any more. I am not able to donate any more. This shall be my last …”

All teachers in the School wept …

The last image people had of him was his photo inscribed, “A special Love for a special you.” (last photo shown)

Pictures showing the students from Yao Hua School paying tributes to their benefactor.

Indeed God has work in him to help others. How wonderful our God is! May his good deeds be an example to us that we will also be able to help others in need and also to spread God's love.  

Hello 2011!!

Wow, can you believe that we're now in 2011! What a year 2010 was for AYC! And it went by really fast! This year, AYC is gearing up to live up to its theme, which is Go MAD (Make A Difference) for Jesus! We do hope to get the support we need from the youths, parents & congregation!

To start off our activities this year, we're having a Career Talk this coming Saturday. Details are as below:-

Date: 15th January 2011
Time: 830am-330pm
Venue: Parish Hall
Speakers: Mr. Martin Entamin (HSE Advisor for Shell), Mr Kong Shaw Onn (Educational Agent of Angela Educational Service) & Ms. Felecia Ngalih (Marketing Officer of Curtin Uni.)
Objectives: To equip uni. graduates to face the working life, to help the senior secondary students to plan their futher studies and understanding courses offered in universities.

*Registration is FREE.
*Lunch & tea break are provided.

Do make yourself free to attend this talk. Parents, do encourage your children to come for this.

See YOU there! :)

Buzzing with Activities!

Hello friends! We've been like little bumble bees buzzing about with lots of activities for the past few months! Whooh! We praise God that He has guided & provided for us the whole way through! We are indeed very blessed! Here are some of the pictures that we want to share with y'all. :D

Fellowship with PGA Youths at St. John's Chapel.

We had a great time with the PGA youths at their newly opened St. John's chapel. It was our first time there! We introduced to them what is AYC all about, had some ice-breaking session & a game. In addition we also had a session with the little kiddies. We taught them "I love you Jesus" action song. And they presented it in front of everyone. How adorable is that! To wrap things up, we had a light refreshment thereafter. This will be the first of many trips to the youths of St. John's Chapel ,PGA.

PGA has been put in plan to be AYC's mission field for next year! We hope to groom youth leaders & get the youth group there growing in faith! :) Do uphold us in your prayers..

Priest Appreciation Night at Mega Hotel Ballroom

On 30th October, we had a chance to say a big Thank You to our beloved priests...Ven. Solomon Cheong, Revd. Alfred Damu & Revd. Ramdan Mejem! These three wise men of St. Columba's church have been working extremely hard & they are very dedicated to their work & ministry. We have indeed seen wonderful changes and improvements been brought to the church..and we are ever so grateful to have them as our shepherds. Above all, the youths feel very privileged to have them as they are very supportive to the youths & our activities. This was our opportunity to show our appreciation!

Praise & worship by the SCEC Taman Tunku Youths. Great job!

Our priests presenting a song together! Bakat terpendam..

The AYC presented a video presentation which required several weeks of preparation (lotsa brainstorming sessions & getting the right editting software etc) and involved a group of creative & talented bunch of youths (including Blackie, the church dog). We couldn't show you the video here...it's a tad too big, hmm..we'll figure out how to show it ya! The video shows a series of interview we did with random people from the church and we gave it a lil fun twist & made it into an original piece of work... Our very own AYC production and it comes with a cover too, which each priest was given a copy!

Miri Christmas Bazaar 2010

On 4th-9th December, a Christmas Bazaar was held at Dewan Suarah Miri. AYC set up a stall selling handmade crafts (courtesy of Live-Love-Craft), maruku, books, CDs, t-shirts, decorative items from Crossway Bookstore and also calenders! It was a hectic week but we managed pretty well. Praise God! There were many other stalls set up by various churches as well. And every day we have a different church to perform songs on stage to entertain the people. It was pretty awesome to see that many churches are able to come together to take part in this bazaar!