worldwide experience

This entry has long been overdue…. I’ve been planning to write this ever since I arrived from Germany but haven’t got the inspiration nor the time to write it down.

There were two events I attended in Germany which was Die Konferenz (The Conference) and the WYD2005. The Die Konferenz is an ecumenical conference with teachings, worship and fellowship and was held in the Bavarian Alps near the Austrian border and the WYD2005 was held in three major cities of Germany which were Bonn, Düsseldorf and Köln, the latter being the center of the celebration.

These are two events that have made a great impact in my life and that has allowed me to explore a deeper relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I knew that the Lord was leading me to attend these events even if I didn’t even know how I could attend. From the passing of my Die Konferenz application to the Visa application….but everything fell into place just in time. I got my visa two days before my flight and I haven’t even bought my ticket so I had to buy it a day before our scheduled departure. Though it was an emotionally tiring week for me, I was really excited and I was looking forward to the trip.

Having gone through those bumps along the way, I was not expecting anything so special. My only goal was to be able to secure a visa and to be able to leave the country alone (not literally alone but alone in the sense that my mom’s not with me nor did I have any close friends with me that time) so that when I get back it would be (maybe) easier to secure a US visa. I was quite sure that I’d get homesick even though I would only be spending more or less two weeks away with people I hardly even knew.



As soon as we arrived in Munich Airport, naisip nmen ni Jobaqs, “Puwede na tayo umuwi…nakarating na tayo ng Germany…this is enough…” In our opinion, just being able to arrive safely in Munich was already a great blessing…and we knew that it meant that the Lord would be blessing us more. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey…..

During our first day, we went to Salzburg, Austria which was just a train ride away from where we were staying….it took us around 30 mins to arrive in Austria. We were able to see the tricky fountains and the zoo in Hellbrunn.



The next day was the first day of Die Konferenz (August 10-15,2005) and this was when we experienced the power of God’s love through simple things. It was really raining when we arrived but during these days, the Lord allowed us to experience good weather and we were out in the sun during our sports time/break time. It was really a blessing to have a good weather kasi we were sleeping in tents. Truly, the Lord was working in our lives.

Naisip ko nga na baka super mahome sick ako kasi I wasn’t with anyone I was really close enough to feel at home with…pero grabeh…the wonders of community talaga. I felt I was really at home and our brothers and sisters in community served as my family for the duration of my stay in Germany. And on top of that, they really took good care of us. As in nakakatuwa kasi super alaga nila kami. There was also this one American who lived in the Philippines for a year and he was really good in speaking Filipino. Nakakatawa nga lang kasi with an accent pa rin kahit papano. His name’s Eddie. So sobrang kala mo talaga nasa Pilipinas lang kayo…kasi may mga kasama ka nmang nagtatagalog….Then some of them wanted to learn some tagalog words too kaya we taught them some. Nakakatuwa talagang experience, we learn from them and they learn from us. Tuwang-tuwa talaga kami and there we experienced unity despite of difference in culture and denomination. Super blessed talaga especially during the worship. You can feel God’s presence in the Worship Center…as in feel mo talaga na nandon lang Sya sa paligid nyo. And there, I found a deeper and more meaningful relationship with the Lord. Kaya super di ko talaga makakalimutan ang Die Konferenz especially the friends na nakilala ko at nakabonding don...




(To be continued...)