Tell us about yourself and your journey of knowing Christ

I am not really a fan of spontaneity but, I still love surprises most especially if it’s in terms of new learnings and discoveries. I am very visionary and I would do anything to achieve my goals for myself, for my family and friends, and for the ministry.

I am very family oriented and I think this is one of the biggest reasons why I became a youth minister. I grew up in a family with strong foundations of faith. When I was still young, there was no day when my family failed to pray the rosary. My classmates then even thought that maybe I wanted to explore the religious life. I remember back then, at a very early age, I was always tasked to lead the rosary in school.

With that early foundation, I was aware of God’s active presence in my life. This brought me to the decision to take a step further and serve Him thru the youth ministry. I know in my heart, that God led me to this path because if not, I don’t know where I would be. The ministry has given me constant inspiration and love, which made me stronger in spite of all the challenges that I’ve been through. I may sometimes question God’s will, most especially when I lost my dad last year, but I know and I feel that He’ll always be with me and my family. He makes me stronger and He continues to give me the wisdom to be a channel of His love to others.

What or who made you decide to be a missionary?
Can you share to us your journey of becoming a missionary?

As I journeyed from our parish youth ministry to now, the diocesan youth commission, I experienced the best days of my life. I am not who I am right now if it’s not for the good things that the Lord and the ministry taught me. I was inspired by how the young makes use of the love in their hearts to serve in their own little ways. And those little ways grow into the biggest gifts. With that, my mission is to bring more young individuals closer to God because I have personally undergone the positive transformation when I welcomed the Lord and the ministry to my life. The process may touch people in very different ways, but for me, what is important is to express my gratitude for what God brought into my life by sharing my faith experiences with others.

What makes you feel like a child?

Whenever I get to joke around or play games together with my family and friends, I feel very young and filled with pure happiness like that of a child because I can be anything when I’m with them.

What are your simple joys?

In your missionary adventure, what were your joys, struggles, challenges and even difficulties?

One major challenge: differences. No two people are the same. And if there are different views and opinions, it’s difficult to achieve a common goal, most especially in the youth ministry setting. This is inevitable but with God’s grace, every challenge can be won.

How do you define joy?

 In who and what you are now, what are your other dreams or do you still have anything you want to achieve?

What is your message to young people who are now feeling lost, who are still finding their purpose, who doesn’t know what to do with their lives?

What is your message to young people who wanted to serve but do not know how?

If you have a favorite Bible verse,  what is it and why.

“For when I am weak, then I am strong” –  2 Corinthians 12:10

This has been the bible verse of my life for quite some time now. It inspires me to believe that in my lowest points, God is with me. He makes me strong.

As what they say, the brightest stars can be seen in the darkest nights. In my life, in the most challenging times, those are times when God sends His greatest angels through the people around me and he assures me that I am strong because He is with me.