Night of Inspiring People

I just came home from a gig in Century Seafood Restaurant in Vito Cruz. I did powerpoint in the anniversary of Philippine Volunteers Fire Brigade. They had very speacial guests: DILG Secretary Angelo Reyes, Mayor Lito Atienza, Congressman Miles Roces, and Teresita Ang See among others. Mr. Ube Gerry Chua was the incoming president of the association. It was truly remarkable to watch people like these, they made quite an impression to me tonight.

I admired Mayor Lito Atienza's charisma to the people. People listen when real leaders speak. This was so true to Atienza. Each word he spoke is very positive, uplifting and unifying. Making Manila a classy city overnight, his works talks more than his speech. He can disagree while being charismatic. People wanted to listen more because he was down to earth, knows his audience.

I admired Mr. Gerry Chua, the famous owner of Eng Bee Tin where the ube hopia and tikoy was conceived. He to was a people person, always thanking the team for the effort. He would say 'if you weren't here, i wouldn't be here'. Totally humble and not an inch prideful. He was so down to earth, so real. Even he was officially now the president, his hospitality to the guests were evident. There was one incident after the gig, that the waiter aproached him to surrender a lost cellphone. Seeing the waiter's honesty, he immediate gave him a 1000 bill and praise the guy in front of us. Wow, he witholds nothing.

I also ought to see my young people in their outside world. Yesterday Jerald notified me that he will not be going to fellowship, because he had a boyscouting gig. I doubted his excuse, and I said to him I trust him so I don't need to worry. I do not like it when people do alibis, flatout lying. And tonight I saw him marching and yelling marching commands on the gig isle leading a group of flag-carrying boyscouts to the stage. We didn't know that we would be on the same gig tonight! But I was ashamed that I doubted him. Also I had a new-found respect for this sixteen-year-old guy. The kid who kids at church and occasionally a source of headache is totally a different person outside. I was impressed that I thought, 'That's my youth right there,' like a proud parent. I realized that I may be treating my youth like little children just like pastor had told himself about me.

Earlier I had this joy, that I engaged myself in a smile therapy. I challenged myself to lift up my countenance, to have a smiling face as a default facial expression. Man, it was really challenging! Doug Fields, the author of the Purpose Driven Youth Ministry, said that to be someone, you have to pretend to be that someone, something like that. So throughout the day I 'pretended' to be a smiling person. But things got a bit challenging going to fellowship, when you encounter people who you would think exist just to rain on your day. I had to leave early because of the gig. Our youth needs fresh rain, especially our leaders.

I realize that it doesn't matter how much I put into this ministry, the present of the ministry depends on the ability of the key leader, that even though you put in much effort to build it up, when you pass the torch, the present of the ministry now lies on the person who continues it. Just like Kuya Jess quoted, 'Nasa may katawan lang yan.'