TESTIMONY
On 1st ISAO Leader’s Conference, Jakarta, Indonesia
14 to 18 September 2008
… every Catholic is meant to live life in the Spirit.
ISAO Conference reminded me that each and every Catholic is meant to live life in the Spirit. Furthermore, CCR is not just a prayer group. It is meant to be a way of church revival. It is to renew the life of every member and to empower him / her to serve and evangelize.
Another emphasis that struck me is the importance of encouraging, supporting and building up the youth in the CCR. It’s essential to include them in the planning and decision making, while not forgetting to provide training for them
Fr. Henry Siew
Parish Priest
Singapore
20 September 2008
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… this is the Sovereign work of the Holy Spirit …
This is the first time I attended an international charismatic conference, with the intention of just going there to receive. It turned out that this five-day conference had given me much more. It opened the eyes of my heart. There were very few youths / young adults attending, making us the minority. However this gave us more opportunities of being part of the conference. We gain by learning more about leadership in CCR, and while mingling with the more experienced leaders it enabled us to learn from their perspective, which is indeed beneficial for our growth.
I met a lot of leaders, from lay people, priests, religious brothers and sisters, to bishops. I also met inspiring speakers like Michelle Moran (ICCRS President), Cyril John (ICCRS Vice President) and Fr. Rufus Pereira (former ICCRS Council Member), who spoke about CCR, Leadership and Charisms. These people working in the renewal for quite sometime brought great insights to me with their precious experience that touched my heart.
I was reminded of the nature of CCR, how the renewal exists 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 “it is meant to not only transform our lives but to ultimately transform the people around us. We need to be transformed by the Holy Spirit daily.”
This conference had given me the opportunities to speak and share with the leaders from Asia Oceania, over the overflowing meals (five a day), as well as in sharing groups. With God’s blessings, I had a sharing group consisting of one brother from India, two from Indonesia, one French who resides in Thailand for 16 years, one Australian, and two Malaysians. The sharings were good and we were quite bonded in praying for, and with each other. I remember in the second sharing session, we were the last group to leave the hall and we hoped that the day just did not end there.
Being able to hear from them and also from other countries during the rest of 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 talked to people from countries where it is very hard to evangelize and talk about our religion openly. I was talking to someone who told me that he had difficulties evangelizing the youths especially because many of them are very individualistic. 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, and the eagerness and zeal especially to go forth for our Lord, is evident.
Eucharistic celebrations were majestic and awesome, celebrated by Bishops (including our Archbishop, Nicholas Chia) and priests of Asia Oceania. Holy hour gave us much time to adore our precious Lord, and we were also allowed time for confession. The third day of the conference was the most tiring and yet remarkable one. Five of us youths, were given an opportunity to work with the adults from Singapore in leading praise and worship (including action songs), and mass for the conference. People remembered and affirmed us quite a bit. It was a joyous experience. The energy of the adults was definitely not to be under estimated, as they sang and dance in one Spirit to our awesome Lord.
Workshops were also one of the main parts of the conference. Attending the youth workshop, gave me an opportunity to sit together with other leaders who also worked with the youths of their countries. I had a chance to recommend that ISAO form a youth wing to groom future leaders, guided by the adults.
Ministering healing and anointing to us on the last day of the Conference was good. We were prayed over by some priests and the Executive Committee members of ISAO. After that on the next day, we in turn ministered to the Indonesian public at a big auditorium, during the “Revival & Healing Rally”. Over seven thousand (7,000) people turned up to receive the Lord. The worship leaders and choir during the rally sang so majestically that most of us felt like being in heaven. That night Cyril John mentioned during the rally, that our experience was like how the apostles felt during the day of Pentecost. I had again a great opportunity to pair up with a priest from Marshall Island for praying over. It was indeed a humbling experience for me when after praying over together, he thanked me with great pleasure for assisting him throughout.
Last but not the least, I would really want to applaud the hospitality of the Indonesians. They have helped and made every single bit of the conference memorable, by taking care of every detail to make the participants feel so welcomed. This started from the pick-up point at the airport to the last day when we left. Singing of worship songs were sung first in English, and then in Bahasa during the Rally, considering that among the 7000 Indonesians who attended, not all knew English. The little things that they helped made a difference.
I seriously encourage and pray that youth, young adult as well as adult leaders of CCR should find every opportunity
to experience this in future, to receive God’s graces. We need to be reminded not only of our vision and mission but to also network with other leaders of the CCR from different parts of the world. Through this we gain a macro perspective that will help us to re-think and see what we can do to help Catholics live a new life in the Holy Spirit, and to continue this zeal to carry on in leadership in the renewal.
Magdalene Yun
Livingstones Campus Outreach
Singapore
28 September 2008
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On the ICCRS International CCR Conference in Kkottongnae,
South Korea, 01 to 09 June 2009
My whole experience of being there in Korea even though I did miss out on some of the activities due to my illness was one of great joy and a feeling of peace. I must say it was as experience not to be missed. I came to experience the real love of the people of Kkottongnae and even some of the members from the various countries. It did not matter who you were, what color you were or where you come from, the love shown to me by the sisters, brothers, volunteers, the doctors and participants was one of great love and concern, some of them even prayed over me. You could really see and experience and feel the love of God and the Holy Spirit on their faces. The sisters seem to have so much of energy and were always so cheerful and happy.
One could see and feel the fruits of the Holy Spirit being revealed among the people there. Also one could witness the power and love of the Holy Spirit working mightily among the more than 230 sisters and 100 brothers and the volunteers by the love they showed to all present, be it the inmates or to us the visitors. Many of the volunteers were young yet they had a strong sense of love and care. It was really heartwarming to experience such love and care given by the volunteers, whether they were young school kids or young adults.
Kkottongnae is not just a place for social welfare or charity work. It is instead a place for the salvation of human beings.
Joyce Sugunasingam
Malaysia
Abstract from article in “Inspiritu” magazine (Aug / Oct issue)
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