The FCCYA (Filipino Chinese Catholic Young Adults) is a group of Catholics that are 21 years, or above, of age, have not married and have Filipino and Chinese descent. I didn't really fit the bill, being still 18 and all, but since Bohol didn't have a FCCYouth and we couldn't start one ourselves since there weren't enough members, the FCCYA Bohol Chapter decided to take us in.
Our chapter has been active for two years (and counting) now starting with the 2012 National Convention in Bacolod. During that specific convention, we had 22 delegates and were the biggest group there, so everybody be like:
"Oooh look at the Bohol Chapter! There must be tons of them back in their province",which was false since 3/4 of us went to that gathering: that was the whole Bohol Chapter, people,
"They must be really active, having all those members"again, false. That certain convention was out first serious activity. And then this statement followed
"...hmm... I've never been to Bohol."The leaders of each chapter were already brainstorming on where the next convention would be and that statement just gave me the biggest hint that we'd be doing the hosting for the 4th convention. I was right.
The FCCYA 4th National Convention was held at the Elijah Spirituality Center on August 23-26, 2013. There, the delegates stayed over and had all their talks and games. On the 23rd, the getting-to-know-you dinner happened and was also the day most of the delegates arrived. Everybody settled down and played Human BINGO after their meals. They had to run around with their cards and ask people if they "had a dog with a silly name" or some questions of the sort. The first group to fill up their respective card, wins the prize. The prize of friendship, that is. Violent reactions were then heard.
The 24th was a stay-in day where most of the activities were talks. The first one was on FAITH by Bro. Alejandro Aguspina. He was a wonderful preacher, one who related so much to us, made us laugh and dig deep into our experiences, letting us see the wonderful works of our faith that we didn't see then. My most memorable part of his talk was when he shared with us a recording of his 3-year-old daughter leading the rosary. The whole recording consisted mostly of
Kid voice: "ablasbushanlabannalakala...."and we barely understood anything other than the responses but the thought and story behind that recording touched me. Hopefully I'll get to attend more of his talks in the future.
Everybody else: "...holy Mary, mother, of God..."
The second speaker was Father Francis Piquia who talked about Spiritual Warfare and the Free Masons. I wasn't present during his portion, unfortunately, because I celebrated a friend's birthday. The topic was interesting, too so I hope the delegates learned a lot from him.
The afternoon session ended with a team-building game that were similar to Amazing Race challenges within the compund. There were stations where you had to "Drop the Mentos into the 1L Coke Bottle while standing still", "Find the following items" and other games of the sort. The Chinese blood is strong in this one.
In the evening, we had our Themed Party: Pastel Colors at the St. Jude Thaddeus Church. It is a fairly new church with it's very own parish priest as it's engineer (or architect, I forgot). It is also where the FCCWomens' Organization and FCCYA main office is. The church honors the 119 Chinese Catholic Martyrs which is an important symbol for the Fil-Chi Catholic Community.
August 25, 2013 was FUN day. We had the traditional around Bohol tour. We had two buses, all sorted by group based on the previous games we had in the day before. All the Bohol first-timeers were all so excited and it was good to see them so happy about my home province's wonders.
Here was our route:
- Blood Compact
- Baclayon Church
- Loboc River Cruise
- Tarsier-Viewing
- Man-Made Forest
- Chocolate Hills
- Dauis Church
Philip
All in all the convention went smoothly and hopefully, the delegates enjoyed it as well. 'Till the next convention! :D
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