‘JRock’ JY teens Program was held in Mangalore from the 20th to the 22nd of April 2012. This Program was a beautiful gift of the Holy Spirit to the Teens ministry of Mangalore.
It all began with the Lord sowing the desire in the hearts of the Teens ministry team to reach out to maximum number of teens in Mangalore and to give them the good news that Jesus loves them.
Three months of preparation later the efforts culminated into the magnificent ‘JRock’. After coming together, praying, discerning the lord’s will, we came up with the team to work for JRock. The Lord blessed us abundantly with the gift of Alphonsa who took up as general Coordinator and Whirl as Asst. coordinator.
The name and theme of the program was also decided in prayer that’s how we came up with ‘Camp JRock 2012’ and the theme ‘Being me….. For him’ wherein the central message of the program was celebrating the uniqueness of every teen for the glory of God !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The aim was to lead them onto the path of discovery of Who I am? Who is God? Why not ‘try’ God? We divided ourselves into various teams headed by blessed and committed leaders. (Program team- Anand and Henrietta, Intercession- Janet and Annette, Mobilization- Arpita, Finance-Lester and Roshni, Music-Stephanie, Food – Dickson)
The mobilization began by visiting various schools and conducting ½ hour progs for orientation to the camp, visiting Parishes, putting up posters and handing out flyers.
Camp Jrock began early on 20th April at 8.00 am in St. Anthony’s home Jeppu. We were blessed with precious 43 souls who were chosen by our lord.
Day 1 we were lead into sessions taken by gifted resources like Merlin, Golvin dealing with topics like uniqueness of every Teen, Jesus the only savior. Day 1 saw its Mc in the dynamic Gleron. Holy Eucharist was celebrated by Fr.Sunil. . Adoration was lead by Roseanne. Throughout the day, the prog was interspersed with Activities, Movie (Facing the Giants), and vibrant music lead by our anointed music team and Camp Fire which gave a true Camp experience to each teen.
Day 2 began with Lanston leading the teens into what is praise and Worship followed by the unveiling of JRock theme song ‘Celebrate the Lord’ (written and composed by Dr. Nishan, Stephanie) this song had our teens tapping their feet to the vibrant music and lifting their arms in Praise to celebrate the Lord! The MC for the day was the bubbly and energetic Primal. Day 2 lead teens into sessions like what is sin? repentance, inner healing, rosary taken up by anointed resources like Anil, Gleron and Thankam. An activity of sin is addictive was conducted. The teens prepared and had their confessions and in the evening were lead into an inner healing by Anil. The inner healing session saw the glory of heaven descend down into the camp as many teens were moved, cleansed and healed.
Day 3 The MC for this day was our blessed Prem. The Radiant day 3 began with Golvin leading Praise and Worship followed by sharing on personal prayer by Lynn. All the teens were then sent into the woods to have a time of personal prayer. The pillars of JY were introduced to the teens by a panel sharing lead by Tania. Father Nelson very beautifully introduced the Holy spirit to the teens and this was followed by the holy Eucharist with an infilling of the Holy Spirit. This infilling reminded us of the blessed day of Pentecost. Planning and evangelization session, were clubbed together wherein the teens themselves gave suggestions on how they want the message of Christ to spread to all through the testimony of their lives. Jeby and Anthony national teen’s team members introduced JY Karnataka teens gathering. Adrian a teen, from the program had his birthday celebrated towards the end of the camp. Our program ended with a Celebration which marked the ending of Camp JRock but the beginning of a committed walk of faith in the lives of these teens.
The program would not have been a success without the incessant intercession of the volunteers there was simultaneous open adoration, Jericho rosaries conducted where all the volunteers interceded with burden in their hearts for the teens. Volunteers did such a brilliant job of even doing the littlest of tasks with joy, humility and sacrifice. The teen’s ministry would not have been able to carry out this program without the blessing of our Lord and our blessed Mangalore service team under the leadership of our coordinators Anil and Golvin who motivated, inspired us constantly. Very special thanks to Shasta and Hebin for helping us to come up with a beautiful program schedule. Roseanne was our pillar of strength since the inception of this prog. Priests, Religious and elders like Father Sunil, Sr.Icy and Aunty Doreen who supported us with their strong prayers and experience. The management of St. Anthony’s home for taking care of our tiniest need and accommodating us.
We praise God for this wonderful camp and can’t stop thanking him for all the marvels he has worked in the lives of lowly servants.
By
Gretel Goveas
(Teens team Coordinator, Mangalore)