Sunday, September 21, 2008

Testimony - First Asia-Oceania CCR (Catholic Charismatic Renewal) Conference

Shalom!

Its just yesterday that I came back from Jakarta Indonesia for First Asia-Oceania CCR (Catholic Charismatic Renewal) Conference organized by ISAO (ICCRS Sub-Committee for Asia-Oceania) and with great eagerness I would like to share this wonderful and awesome experience with all of you!

This is the first time I attended an international charismatic conference, and with the intention to just go there and receive, this 5 days conference had given me more than just to receive but had opened the eyes of my heart even more than I thought I would receive. There were very little young adults/youths in the midst of this conference making us the minority of the crowd however this had given me even more privilege to be part of this conference. This allows me not only to gain and learn more about leadership in CCR but also to mingle with the elders and the more experienced, and to gain their perspective which is indeed crucial for the young adults and youth groups.

I have met a lot of leaders from lay people, priests, and religious brothers and sisters to bishops around our regions and inspiring speakers like Michelle Moran (President of ICCRS) and Cyril John (Chairman of ISAO) and Father Rufus who spoke about CCR, Leadership and Chrisms. These people working in the renewal for quite sometime brought great insights to me with their precious experience that touches my heart.

I was reminded of the nature of CCR, how the renewal exist not to bring people into CCR but to help people live a new life in the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe this is exactly the driving reason for us to want to evangelize and to continue to be part of this renewal believing that this is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit among us Catholics.

I remembered vividly words spoken by Michelle.
“The Grace of the Holy Spirit is not just for us but is for the whole church and the whole world”, and “We are not only to transform our life but to ultimately transform the people around us, we need to choose being transformed by the Holy Spirit daily.”


This conference had given me the opportunities to speak and share with the leaders from over Asia Oceania over the overflowing meals (5 a day!) and sharing groups.

With God blessings, I have a sharing group consisting of 1 brother from India, 2 Indonesians, 1 French, who resides in Thailand for 16 years, 1 Australian, and 2 Malaysians. The sharings were good and we were quite bonded in praying for and with each other. I remembered the 2nd sharing session we had we were the last group to leave the hall and we hope that the day just do not end there. Having able to hear them and also other countries during the rest the conference, I felt how fortunate we are as Singaporeans that we do not feel discriminated in our religion and Singapore being a small country is easier to manage. It’s quite disheartening especially when I talk to people from countries like Thailand and Japan where it is very hard to evangelize and talk about our religion openly. I was talking to the head of Japan CCR when he told me that it is very hard to evangelize to the youths especially because they are very individualistic. Different country sharings during the conference make me feel the same way as well as they share their statistic and what issues they are facing now. Many indeed need our prayers.

Language barrier may be a problem when communicating at times throughout the conference but the universal language of love can be seen throughout the conference, the eagerness and the zeal especially to go forth for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eucharistic celebrations were majestic and awesome together with all other bishops and our very own Archbishop, Nicholas Chia and all the other priests around Asia Oceania. Holy hour gives us much time to adore our precious Lord and we were allow time for confession. The 3rd day of the conference is the most tiring and yet remarkable one. 5 of us the youths, Jasmine, Sury, Jacob and Alfred together with myself were given a great opportunity to work with the adults in the music ministry for the conference. People throughout the conference remembered us by singing on stage and affirmed us quite abit. Singing not only for normal praise and worship, leading all the adults into the action songs was and singing for mass that day was quite a joyous experience. The energy of the elders and adults were definitely not to be under estimated, singing and dancing in the one Spirit of our Awesome Lord.

Workshops were also one of the main part of the conference, attending the youth workshop, gave me an opportunity to sit together with other leaders who also work with the youths or the younger people. I had a chance to present the idea of having a youth council in ISAO as part of my small group sharing within which we thought is vitally essential to groom the next generation of leaders of ISAO but with the guidance of the elders.

Healing and Ministering at the last day of the Conference were good as we were prayed over by the leaders mainly priests and committee of ISAO before the next day when we minister to over 7000 Indonesians in the “Revival & Healing Rally”. The choir during the rally sang so majestically that I felt so in heaven. We were paired up and to pray over for the people of Indonesia. That night like what Cyril John mentioned during the rally, we felt how the apostles felt during the day of Pentecost. I had again great opportunity to pair up with a priest from Marshall Island to pray for the Indonesians that need healing. It’s certainly a humbling experience and with great pleasure when he thank me for assisting him throughout.
Last and not the least, I would really want to applaud the hospitality of the Indonesians. They have helped and have made every single bit of the conference remarkable. Taking care of every detail of the conference to make the participants feel so welcomed. This started not only at the conference itself but from the pick-up point at the airport to the last day when we leave for the airport. Singing of worship songs were sang first in English then in Bahasa during the Rally (considering that 7000 Indonesians were there and not all knew English). The little things that they helped make a difference.


I seriously encourage and pray that leaders of the CCR not only the adults but the youths would find every opportunity to experience this in future not only to receive and be reminded about our mission and vision but to network with other leaders of the CCR from different parts of the world to gain a macro perspective and to re-think what we are able to do and help the Catholics in Singapore to live a new life in the Holy Spirit there-after to continue this zeal to carry on in leadership in the renewal.


Amen
In Christ’s Love & Mine
Magdalene Yun

Livingstones Campus Outreach

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