JESUS EXPO

JESUS EXPO

20th Youth For Christ International Leaders Conference

April 5-7, 2013

Marikina Sports Park

Here are some photos of the highlights of the three-day conference. Photos are from my phone and grabbed from Ate Sam :) Thank you, Ate Sam! :)

Day 1

Dance Expo, Band Expo and Session 1: Liveloud Concert

Dance Expo was held at the gymnasium and Band Expo at the main stage... simultaneously! :( Central Luzon's entries for both creative competitions are represented by YFC Nueva Ecija. Thank God the band was up on stage right after we finished our dance performance :D That was, uhm.. still catching our breaths while rushing to the main stage, lol.

My second Liveloud Concert came with a dance party after! Awzummmm!

Day 2

Session 2 and 3, Couple Coordinators Got Talent 

Just recalling this very moment gave me goose bumps! I'm so thankful I get to experience moments like this, I get to feel nothing but His greatness especially seeing these people raise their candles and hear them worship. Believe Dance Company and El Gamma Penumbra also did the sessions' creatives, thumbs up!

Day 3

Session 4, Awarding

Bilad kung bilad! I swear listening to sessions and worshipping is definitely more fun under the sun! 

RAK (Random Acts of Kindess) the world, let's?? :)

This has got to be one of my favorite parts of the conference. For session 3, we flew our own paper airplanes after writing something similar with the one below and continuously threw whatever we found on the ground. After a minute, we were told to randomly pick one paper airplane and this is what I got. Yup, we were asked to picked "randomly" but I believe God placed this one near me on purpose. :)

Thank you, brother/sister who wrote this! I hope somebody was able to pick mine. :)

And now the announcement of winnerrrrrrs! Photo below: upon hearing Central Luzon bagging second place!

The group always pray after every rehearsals, and before and after performing at the competition proper but this time we were praying to give Him thanks. Prayers all the way! 

Moving sessions. Heartfelt worships. Amazing gift of talents. Supportive parents. Awesome brothers and sisters in the community. Great God. By far my most memorable ILC! Everything because of Him!

Sa Ngalan ng Ama

How do I start...

Posts about us competing for 20th YFC International Leaders Conference's Dance Expo is all over my Twitter and Instagram and I've mentioned it in my previous post too. Winning first in the regional conference got us, YFC Nueva Ecija, to represent Central Luzon which I blogged about here and here. And yep, Central Luzon won second place! Alright, no more shock there, haha. But my point of blogging about this isn't the place we bagged but the things we earned, sacrificed, went through and realized. (I'll try not to get too emotional, promise!)

I'm sure all of us know the usual "dancer problems".. Financial problems, costume, schedules. But boy, things were way harder this time especially we're competing with the whole Philippines and representing our region. Talk about pressure. Just like when we were preparing for the regionals last year, the ultimate bummer is our schedules. Worse: I had to miss the last four days of rehearsals including polishing and yup, the general rehearsal! I had to sacrifice those rehearsals for my internship, those rehearsals which should be the most critical, difficult and weighty for "everyone". Physically, it was.. for them. 

Four days of watching them rehearse for hours via FaceTime is harder. I did it because I still want to catch up though I'm in Manila and they're in the province but at the same time I realized my situation that time's tough too. I was fearful my co-dancers were not confident on how I would execute the routine on the day of competition because of the rehearsals I missed.. because I too were not confident of myself. You guys don't know how frustrated I was watching you via FaceTime! :( =))

It was my first time doing a dance performance feeling like I didn't practice at all. For a competition. Nationally. Representing the region. Dayummm. :| HAHA. 

I was quite surprised of my performance considering everything I missed. It wasn't perfect but nonetheless, I was proud. The group was aware of my frustration and their encouraging words really helped a lot! What I did was really risky and it's only occurring to me now :o =)) Imagine my worries I would screw the routine -____-

Stills by Sam Sumawang

We came to the conference and prepared for the competition without expecting for anything especially winning even a place. All we wanted's to perform well and show Central Luzon can bring it. Yes, we did it! That's faith over paranoia! Feeling proud of what we did after the performance is already our prize and success. Winning second place is just a bonus. :)

Dancers. Financial problems. Rehearsal schedules. Worries. Frustrations. Dramas. You guys know all the things we went through and I don't think everything has to be told in this blog post. Anyway, words are not enough and won't give justice as to how thankful, happy and proud of this family.

To our Titos and Titas in CFC and our parents who let us dance and supported us all the way, to our friends who visited during rehearsals and prayed for us, YFC Nueva Ecija, YFC Central Luzon, maraming salamat po! 

To our Almighty Father, thank You for this amazing family and for our talents we are all passionate about. 

Another family composed of old and newly found friends, I'm so proud of you po! :)

Glory to God!

This is SWAG Crew, saved with amazing grace.