Anja Guinto
North 1 Chapter Youth Head
North 1 Chapter Youth Head
At a young age, I was introduced to CFC by way of my parents who are part of the community. I experienced attending big events such as PAs and Theme Weekends, and because of that, I learned how it was to serve in the community. However, back then I did not fully understand why people devote themselves to service. From Kids for Christ, I joined the Youth for Christ (YFC) Camp, “Keep Calm and Let Go(d)” in 2012 and realized that I attended it for the wrong reasons. I just really wanted to join a community with the “big kids.” However, that changed when I started serving in the YCOM Dance Ministry, where I learned that there are different ways to glorify our Heavenly Father. I served not only for the fun of it but because I started to find answers to my questions about faith. I also started to see Christ through people around me and received His love through them, be it inside the YFC community or outside of the community, serving or otherwise.
I continued to serve actively in the community thinking I was ready to give more of myself to the Lord. Later on, I realized I was not fully ready yet, as something was still missing. I needed to establish a deeper and more personal relationship with the Lord. Around the same time, I experienced many challenges in my life that made me doubt God and got mad at Him as I did not understand why all these things were happening to me. Eventually, I lost my trust in Him and I drifted away from Him and the community.
Praise God, He never gave up on me. My friends in YFC encouraged me to stay despite the circumstances that I was facing back then. He made His strong presence felt through my friends who were so persistent in asking me to stay. Because of them, I decided to slowly make my way back to the community. I started to attend prayer assemblies again and I remember getting struck by the sharers. They shared their journey in trusting God and His plans for us, and how they managed to do it by the power of prayer. From then on, I tried to reach out to the Lord again through prayer. I had small conversations with Him throughout the day and tried to find Him in my surroundings. I also started to pray the rosary by myself and learned that this is one of the many ways in getting closer to Jesus, through His Mother, Mary. The more that I prayed the Rosary, the more I desired Him.
YFC continues to create a positive impact in my life, this community is my pillar of support and strength. Besides having a deeper relationship with the Heavenly Father, Heavenly Mother, and Jesus, I started to learn more about Saints as well. Their stories inspire me in many ways, especially how to stand firm in my faith despite the uncertainties of life or whenever I feel that things kind of go downhill.
All in All,with God’s grace, YFC has shaped me into the person I am today, yet there is so much more for me to learn and to pray for, to eventually become the person the Lord created me to be.
