Greetings to all members and believers of the faith. It is my greatest joy to witness the fellowship growing the way it is today as we have been going to challenging times in the past. For me and the leaders of the past, it is the fulfilling of a promise God has made for us a long time ago, and I'm grateful that I've managed to hang around long enough to be able to witness this day. I would first share a little bit on the history of the fellowship which has founded its roots long before I even came to study at Inti.
The Christian movement at Inti started off with 2 clubs, namely the Christian Fellowship and the Catholic Youth Society. They were headed by 2 charismatic youth leaders, Priscila and Pius, both with different background and vision. Initially both clubs were operating exclusive of the other - We rarely communicated or even spoke with each other, well that was until the Christian movement began to falter about 4 to 5 years ago. It was under these circumstances that we realized that there was a need to unite the Christians under the same roof. It was then that the ICCF was formed, and its founders were officially Priscila and Pius (Which I believe the names should be passed on in honor of their deed to put differences aside and to unite their members).
There were many little bumps along the road but the ICCF was suffering from a greater problem - We were slowly losing members of the faith, particularly because many members were completing their studies and moving on while there was a lack of new members from new students. We had struggles within the fellowship itself as the leaders had to develop a message that was suitable for a majority of the members who were still young believers. As a result, many senior members failed to get the spiritual food they needed, and as a result, the African Fellowship wing of the ICCF was founded. The African Fellowship was eventually stopped after its key members completed their studies, and the remaining members either joined the new Believers Love World Fellowship or merged with the ICCF's other members.
The internal distribution of members of the fellowship triggered more concerns as we struggled to feed and develop the young Christians and to meet the needs of the older Christians. Our membership continued to fall to a point where there were only 3 members left active. The majority of new students did not attend our fellowship, and those who have been attending eventually got weary of the it as well. It was during this time we realized that we need more real Christians in our community. It was truly saddening that when we looked into student records, there were a large number of Christians who were in fact living in the hostel. We had failed somehow to retain our members and to develop new leaders to sustain the Christian movement on campus. It was also during this time that I realized I had to make a decision to decide where I was to support the Christian ministry. Naturally, as most of you could guess, I decided to stay behind. Logically speaking, there was no need to support the Churches at that time as many had their support systems active with a population to support while here, there was a dire need to revive the Christian movement and to ensure that the ICCF legacy is passed on to future generations. There was a point in time that the ICCF was about to meet extinction due to the lack of members, but that's all history now.
Well, this is where my story starts. Until then, I was probably what one would call a nominal member of ICCF. The founders decided to move on and as I understood, I was given the task of finding the successor to lead the fellowship. Officially, I was the ICCF president for 1 semester, though the president made up for 33% of the members at that time. The ICCF was literally inactive at this point in time as I had to struggle with my final year project, as well as my final semester, in addition to leading the Hostel Association. It was during this time that we found Mdm. Agnes, one of the important key persons to the revival that we are experiencing now. It was a very strange introduction I would say, as Mdm. Agnes suddenly approached me in church and asked me if we could help host a concert at Inti. Members of the Young Adults Fellowship at my church wanted to host a Leap For Joy concert on the 29th of February 2008. As we needed something to do, I agreed and worked out the logistics to have the event held at Mary Yek. It was indeed a wake-up call that when we had like zero members, we actually held our very own first Christian concert at Inti! There was previous concerts but those were by outsiders mainly. It might surprise some of you that Planet Shakers once had their foot set in The Mary Yek hall. I truly believe that this place warrants God's presence and a plan for revival - its only in the place where the hopeless reside, that there is space for hope to grow.
I did not understand what Leap For Joy could mean though - I was suffering from 3 ends at this time - One a key project far behind schedule, a dying club, and a pressure buildup of what if's. I'm not sure how I pulled through this time - I even left the hostel for 2 months so that I could find the peace to work on my project. Thankfully, all things came to pass - God certainly did give me the peace to work it out, but mind you, I still had to do every single little thing needed to finish the tasks. I believe this is how He operates. He won't make the miracles for us like Moses times. We now have seen God, experienced God, and well, its just that we need to learn to trust Him in everything we do. As such, He grants us the capacity to execute His will - and we become a part of the miracle itself! Mdm. Agnes was then requested to be the new advisor for the ICCF (I can assure you, you do not need to know who the previous advisor was - He/she kinda did not exist)
We desperately needed a sign of hope, something that would just breathe life back into the fellowship before we could get in gear to fulfill any vision. Time came to pass, and it was time for me to leave and pass the mandate (as I decided to term it) - This was quickly done with the Hostel Association. However with the ICCF I knew I had to choose carefully out of the new students. Many of them would not be aware of the ICCF, and most would eventually back out if I were to approach them with a One Step Plan to Presidency. Its was here were a very interesting transfer took place. Out of the very few times Priscila and I chatted online (yeah, it was the old days where hand phones did not really exist) and we were discussing about choosing a new president for the club. And while we were both talking away, we began talking about this person Priscila just knew as Juliet and whom I never met (but have seen). So Priscila was going about her being a new student, and I was talking about someone I saw who seemed to be capable - And as the story goes, we figured I was talking about the same person, and well honestly, I was lazy to look further anyway. So we both decided to test out my theory, and well, the rest is history once again. The timing and the results of the appointment was indeed a miracle in itself. Although there were many young Christians in the group, they were somehow brought together under a common interest, in this case it was of course, fun! While this wasn't the kind of ministry I expected in the first place, I realized it was necessary to have before we could bring people back into the serious task of sustaining the ministry. This of course doesn't mean we leave fun behind - but its just that the fellowship we have, has a directive to fulfill the purposes of God.
The Christian movement at Inti started off with 2 clubs, namely the Christian Fellowship and the Catholic Youth Society. They were headed by 2 charismatic youth leaders, Priscila and Pius, both with different background and vision. Initially both clubs were operating exclusive of the other - We rarely communicated or even spoke with each other, well that was until the Christian movement began to falter about 4 to 5 years ago. It was under these circumstances that we realized that there was a need to unite the Christians under the same roof. It was then that the ICCF was formed, and its founders were officially Priscila and Pius (Which I believe the names should be passed on in honor of their deed to put differences aside and to unite their members).
There were many little bumps along the road but the ICCF was suffering from a greater problem - We were slowly losing members of the faith, particularly because many members were completing their studies and moving on while there was a lack of new members from new students. We had struggles within the fellowship itself as the leaders had to develop a message that was suitable for a majority of the members who were still young believers. As a result, many senior members failed to get the spiritual food they needed, and as a result, the African Fellowship wing of the ICCF was founded. The African Fellowship was eventually stopped after its key members completed their studies, and the remaining members either joined the new Believers Love World Fellowship or merged with the ICCF's other members.
The internal distribution of members of the fellowship triggered more concerns as we struggled to feed and develop the young Christians and to meet the needs of the older Christians. Our membership continued to fall to a point where there were only 3 members left active. The majority of new students did not attend our fellowship, and those who have been attending eventually got weary of the it as well. It was during this time we realized that we need more real Christians in our community. It was truly saddening that when we looked into student records, there were a large number of Christians who were in fact living in the hostel. We had failed somehow to retain our members and to develop new leaders to sustain the Christian movement on campus. It was also during this time that I realized I had to make a decision to decide where I was to support the Christian ministry. Naturally, as most of you could guess, I decided to stay behind. Logically speaking, there was no need to support the Churches at that time as many had their support systems active with a population to support while here, there was a dire need to revive the Christian movement and to ensure that the ICCF legacy is passed on to future generations. There was a point in time that the ICCF was about to meet extinction due to the lack of members, but that's all history now.
Well, this is where my story starts. Until then, I was probably what one would call a nominal member of ICCF. The founders decided to move on and as I understood, I was given the task of finding the successor to lead the fellowship. Officially, I was the ICCF president for 1 semester, though the president made up for 33% of the members at that time. The ICCF was literally inactive at this point in time as I had to struggle with my final year project, as well as my final semester, in addition to leading the Hostel Association. It was during this time that we found Mdm. Agnes, one of the important key persons to the revival that we are experiencing now. It was a very strange introduction I would say, as Mdm. Agnes suddenly approached me in church and asked me if we could help host a concert at Inti. Members of the Young Adults Fellowship at my church wanted to host a Leap For Joy concert on the 29th of February 2008. As we needed something to do, I agreed and worked out the logistics to have the event held at Mary Yek. It was indeed a wake-up call that when we had like zero members, we actually held our very own first Christian concert at Inti! There was previous concerts but those were by outsiders mainly. It might surprise some of you that Planet Shakers once had their foot set in The Mary Yek hall. I truly believe that this place warrants God's presence and a plan for revival - its only in the place where the hopeless reside, that there is space for hope to grow.
I did not understand what Leap For Joy could mean though - I was suffering from 3 ends at this time - One a key project far behind schedule, a dying club, and a pressure buildup of what if's. I'm not sure how I pulled through this time - I even left the hostel for 2 months so that I could find the peace to work on my project. Thankfully, all things came to pass - God certainly did give me the peace to work it out, but mind you, I still had to do every single little thing needed to finish the tasks. I believe this is how He operates. He won't make the miracles for us like Moses times. We now have seen God, experienced God, and well, its just that we need to learn to trust Him in everything we do. As such, He grants us the capacity to execute His will - and we become a part of the miracle itself! Mdm. Agnes was then requested to be the new advisor for the ICCF (I can assure you, you do not need to know who the previous advisor was - He/she kinda did not exist)
We desperately needed a sign of hope, something that would just breathe life back into the fellowship before we could get in gear to fulfill any vision. Time came to pass, and it was time for me to leave and pass the mandate (as I decided to term it) - This was quickly done with the Hostel Association. However with the ICCF I knew I had to choose carefully out of the new students. Many of them would not be aware of the ICCF, and most would eventually back out if I were to approach them with a One Step Plan to Presidency. Its was here were a very interesting transfer took place. Out of the very few times Priscila and I chatted online (yeah, it was the old days where hand phones did not really exist) and we were discussing about choosing a new president for the club. And while we were both talking away, we began talking about this person Priscila just knew as Juliet and whom I never met (but have seen). So Priscila was going about her being a new student, and I was talking about someone I saw who seemed to be capable - And as the story goes, we figured I was talking about the same person, and well honestly, I was lazy to look further anyway. So we both decided to test out my theory, and well, the rest is history once again. The timing and the results of the appointment was indeed a miracle in itself. Although there were many young Christians in the group, they were somehow brought together under a common interest, in this case it was of course, fun! While this wasn't the kind of ministry I expected in the first place, I realized it was necessary to have before we could bring people back into the serious task of sustaining the ministry. This of course doesn't mean we leave fun behind - but its just that the fellowship we have, has a directive to fulfill the purposes of God.
It is now almost 2 years since, and I've decided that its time to reveal the promise and the vision I believe God has given to the ICCF. With every story there was always 3 parts (In referral to the story of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem), the carrying generation, the starting generation and the finishing generation. The carrying generation has long come to pass - the generation to bear the message and pass it on. Juliet has started the work of revival and now its time to finish it and pass on a legacy to the next generation. While the promise and vision isn't anything that special or something we would not think of, the bottom line is that we Christians should be the real deal. The real shiznit compared to everything else around us. We should not be like everybody else. We should not be suffering from the same problems like others do. And to achieve this, it takes a great deal of training and understanding of God's Word. Otherwise we will fail, as our human strength can never accomplish this. Its because of Jesus that we are different after all.
I have been keeping that promise for 2 years now, that one day, our people, the young people and the growing Christian believers will rise to a point that every generation, every other circle, will bow down in honor and respect for what we are accomplishing. Inti was a hellhole to begin with, and I have spent enough tears on something we presumed to be dead. The beginning of the prophecy is now being answered. The ICCF is becoming a key figure on campus to channel activities and events. If this all comes to pass, indeed, the ICCF will be the leader for all to see on campus. Its still a long way, and lots of work to be done, and more importantly we cannot rush it, but only at the pace of the fellowship. It has always been my focus to direct and guide the younger generation of Christians (in terms of faith, not age) so that they are well equipped and that they will be able to accomplish greater feats for God. The next generation will always step ahead of the current - They have a bigger mandate from God, with greater strength and greater passion simply because they started out earlier. And for old cows like me (in comparison), the new members of the ICCF have the potential to grow much faster than those of my generation. We just have to remember to set our sights on God, set our vision vertically to heaven, and keep ourselves focuses on what is important and what needs to be done. Don't ever lose out on the promise God has always been wanting to give to us.
I truly believe the ICCF can be more than a club. More than a fellowship. More than just another gathering of youngsters. I believe the ICCF will be able to stand on its own one day, where we no longer need to depend on our own churches anymore (With all due respect, our individual Churches still direct us, just that we no longer need their support for the Word) for spiritual food, but that the ICCF itself will become a new source itself to nourish the dying land around us. The world is getting worse, and its only fair that God's people are getting better! This is the belief, and vision that the ICCF had when it was founded. The fellowship itself becoming the source, the pillar of support and the key to the Christian movement amongst students on campus. A fellowship so strong that the members themselves will lead the movement, no longer dependent on the leaders only.
This is the reason why I have continued to tag along, and to spend time with the members of the ICCF while I can - because I believe my efforts spent here will bear more fruit compared to me serving in my own church. Whether God has a continued plan for my involvement in the fellowship, time will tell. But as for now, by delivering this message, my task is officially done, and the rest is for all of you to come up to the challenge and claim the promise He has given.
I believe the image of the wheels with spokes still apply. Imagine a bicycle when where you have spokes that connect every individual on the outer end of the wheel, while we have the center representing the core leadership of the ICCF. Every spoke in itself is a leader of a ministry, which reaches out in tandem with the others (the spinning motion of the wheel), generation waves (imagine the spinning Milky Way) and serving out His purposes. I believe this is the ideal, of course, we probably can't achieve this in a day, but I'm sure its an ideal we would like to aim for. Everything will come in time, take one step at a time and don't slip lest we fall back several steps. The old vision may no longer apply, so it would be wise to develop one for the new fellowship and work out the steps one by one so that eventually, we will all get there.
There is a world in dire need of love out there. And its not so far away from where we reside. Right within the campus itself we have people screaming for God, yet they do not realize it. Right within our very own fellowship, I can see members who need to claim the victory God has promised over their lives. Reality is not so far away from home. And reality is much more painful than it looks. There is much more devastation happening spiritually and physically in the world around us as I speak. And it is out of this that I believe the Christian mandate is more important than ever before. We need to equip ourselves. We need to train, We need to hold stronger to God, And finally we need to overcome reality - To prove to the world that God means business. And it all starts with us. Me. You. Fix yourself, prepare yourself and you will know how to fix others. In the end, God's ministry is personal, one to one, the individual heart, yet so big and so massive beyond comprehension - truly deserving of the God who created it all.
I would like to thank the leaders for giving me the opportunity to present this, as it has been one of the burdens I've been carrying for a while. Its difficult when you have something to say, but have to hold back until the time is right. Please to pray for all the leaders and the members of the faith - Not so much that they can pass exams, but more so that their hearts will be turned to God, and then they will pass their exams even without prayer!
Dez
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