The 4-day Conference Experience

This is the continuation of my travel trips from Singapore.

After the connecting flight going to Manila, I will be attending the 4-day conference to be held in SMX Convention Center and MOA Arena.

The whole conference experience was a blast!

Let me share my experiences on a per day basis because each day have lessons that I would like to impart to all of you.

DAY 1

I am so excited to attend the first day of the conference. It’s like the First Day Hi when entering college. I have never been to SMX Convention Center. This will be the first.

As I entered SMX together with my Cebu friends, we’re greeted with so many warmth people to assist us with our registration to the conference.

A simple scanning of the QR code and we’re good to go. Got our kits and proceeded to the hall for the first session.

Amazingly, I’ve bumped to one of my ex-Accenture colleague, Clark, who is documenting the entire event! I never thought I’m gonna see him in the conference and we did a selfie!

At the start of the day, we had worship songs sang and the songs are originally composed by the servants in the conference. The songs were amazing! Harmony of the singers is astounding and not even a single flat or sharp have I heard from them. Simply amazing!

Right after was the talk by Jon Escoto on Think Forward. Its main message is think double, meaning our thoughts will be the basis of our actions. The talk was great! And I learned a lot from it.

Then, the next parts of the entire day is the most exciting of all – the breakout classes. These are classes that I wanted to learn more about.

The first class I attended was the class of Ilsa Reyes on Inside Out (not the movie though). The class is all about inner healing. Learning on how we can resolve the issues within us with the use of the sacrament of confession. It’s great to know on how I can start healing myself from within based from this talk.

The second class was in the afternoon session. It was the class of Herald Cruz on Family Communication. It’s amazing that the first class can be related to this one. The first class was all about healing on my own self while this class was all about healing within the family. I have learned that as much as possible the family should be open to one another and be honest and truthful so that relationships within can be strengthen more.

The last class of the day was the class of Joen de las Penas and Noel Arandilla on How Money works. It’s basically on how I can start making money work for me. It can be either investing or business. There are tons of ways to make money work for itself without doing much effort.

The day was ended with more worship songs and they sang them beautifully. All the songs I’ve heard that day made me LSS (Last Song Syndrome).

After the worship songs, the last talk of the day was Faith Forward by Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers. 

He’s an amazing speaker! I have never heard a speaker like him before whom he would stress words to emphasize them clearly to the audience. Amazing! His talk is all about finding true happiness through joy.

That ended my first day of attending the conference. It was a grace-filled day for me because I have learned about healing for my own self, healing for my family, healing on my finances and about think and faith forward. The songs were also amazing!

And there’s more! My friends who attended the Laughing Yoga class gave us some exercises on how laughter can heal us physically and spiritually. The exercises are funny but amazingly enjoyable. And it releases negative energy as well. That was fun!

I can’t wait for the next day on what lessons I’ll be learning next!

DAY 2

The next day, the venue was still on the SMX Convention Center. We’re greeted by the new set of warmth people to assist us on our registration for the 2^nd day by scanning our QR code.

The morning was filled by new original compositions sang by no other than the youth! The young people in the house were amazing! They’re in sync and their voices blended with harmony. They are far better than yesterday.

After the worship songs played, the youth shared experiences of their past and how they ended up serving the Lord. It’s amazing how the youth of today can be more open with their sharing and how they can impact other youth as well. I applaud them for that!

The breakout classes are resumed after the sharing of the youth.

My first class that I attended was about Healing the Whole Being by Dr. Didoy Lubaton. I can never forget what he taught us back then. He said, “Stress is the number one disease in the entire world.” He even shared to us how to treat the root cause not the symptoms by using the WHY formula. He even ended the class with the words, “Do not worry about tomorrow.” That is so true! Because tomorrow will worry for itself.

The second class in the afternoon sessions was on the Spiritual Freedom on Addictions by Fr. Bob McConagahy. He said that addictions are distractions from our misery and interpersonal relationships. There are even excuses we made to not let people know of our addictions. Addictions are treated as emotions over intellect. Sometimes we need to accept the fact that we needed help on this one.

The last class of the day was on What the Single Person needs to Move Forward by Pastor Dennis Sy. It was a fun talk. The big message of this talk is finding purpose as a single. It doesn’t mean to change status of relationship and to find a partner. That’s a bonus. But what’s most important of all is to find my purpose here on earth. Should I be for celibacy, marriage or single blessedness? That’s the purpose I need to find out.

The day ended with more worship songs originally composed by the servants in the conference. And still the youth sang those songs masterfully.

Then, Daddy O talked about Move Forward. He said, “Life is a struggle. Struggle is life. Yet move forward.” In everything we wanted to do, when we add the word “YET,” it means that there something we can expect from it and it will come eventually. I got teary-eyed as Daddy O continued to share about this talk. It’s a touching talk for me.

Then Bo Sanchez awarded the youth for the contests winners on Bible Quiz and on Camp Calye designs. What’s more amazing is that the 15 year old Bible Quiz winner was awarded a Holy Land trip next year! How cool was that? it was jaw-dropping and shocking at the same time!

The 2^nd day was grace-filled as well. Me and my friends discussed on how we can apply everything when we go back home. It was a fun day because the youth are leading the worship and they even shared their past experiences as well. That amazes me.

I’m looking forward for the next day on what’s in store for me.

DAY 3

This will be the last day of having breakout classes. I’m gonna miss the talks.

The venue is still on SMX Convention Center where we are greeted with a new batch of warmth people who assisted us on our registration for the 3^rd day. They’ve scanned the QR code and we’re good to go.

But this day is special. Today is the Youth Conference. It’s a whole day event especially for the youth. I don’t know what to expect from their conference even though I wasn’t included in that conference.

The day began with more worship songs originally composed by the servants in the conference. The worship was led by George Gabriel. It was so powerful and amazing. Singers are almost in sync in harmony.

After the worship, Bo Sanchez shared that,” We’re pregnant with a mission. ” He even shared about how we can start our mission by a simple Feast video. The Feast video is just a video presentation with 10 – 12 members of the household watching a certain topic and share experiences based from the video.

What struck me most and got me teary-eyed is when a maid and a person with cerebral palsy shared their experiences on starting the Feast Video. On that point, I cried tears of joy for them because I never thought that someone like them can start it. I wanna do it as well because they touched me deeply.

Afterwards, on to the first class of the day. It was about standing in the gap by Anthony Pangilinan. It was an interactive talk. We even got chances to choose choices from the screen using the audience response gadget. That’s a first for me.

And also, I got to meet someone who seated just next right to me. A half-breed, half-Filipino and half-foreign (no idea where she’s from exactly) but surely, she’s pretty. On the instance, I blushed and got stiffed without even asking her name or number. I got totally shy on that moment. Anyways, the talk was all about making solutions between gaps. It’s all about engagement. Embracing the chaotic world, anger management, competency, an eye on details, anticipates the wrong, getting real and exposing others to stand in the gap. That was a blast of wisdom from the speaker. I learned a lot, really.

The second class in the afternoon session was about rediscovering God’s gift by Dra. Susan Balingit. It her talk, she shared the benefits of nature to our health. How nature can help us grow naturally without the needs of complicated medicines and other stuff.

The last class of the day was the most amazing of all classes I’ve been through. It’s all about the 4 personality types by Jayson Lo. There I learned about the Dominant Eagle, Influential Rooster, Steady Carabao and Corrective Tarsier. I never thought that I myself am a Steady Carabao. Not in a hurry, lazy and takes time to decide. Well, that’s me for sure. And also, that was the time, I bought a book for the whole duration of the conference. I learned a lot from this talk.

We closed the day with more songs of worship. It’s amazing that I got drowned in the songs they’re singing and I loved it!

We even got a chance to hear from Tintin and Julius Babao on their experiences as a family. It’s really amazing. That was the first time I saw a news anchor in person.

At the same time, we got free books! Courtesy of Bo Sanchez! He gave us his new book entitled, “How Good People like you can become Rich.” I can’t wait to read it!

At the end of the day, we got pictures from the speakers and other guests.

By the way, during the classes, the whole floor was in earthquake mode. It’s because of the youth conference! It was so amazing how they praise and glorify God in their worship and we were shocked on the impact they gave us.

That ended the conference proper for 3 straight days. It was amazing and fun-filled. And I even got to meet her. I just hope we can see each other again (fingers crossed!) it was a blast!

I can’t wait on the very last day of the conference! Looking so forward to it!

DAY 4, Final Day

This marks the finale of the conference I attended.

The venue was held in MOA Arena. It’s also my first time to be in this place. A lot of firsts for me!

 Then we entered the arena starting with a long pile of lining going inside. It’s like I’m auditioning for PBB! (I did audition for it several times now.)

When we got inside, we got a spectacular spot in the Lower Box section. We can see people below and above us. What an amazing place to be!

The program started with a mass concelebrated by Fr. Dave Concepcion. Even his homily was touching and wonderful that I can apply those I’ve learned from it. The communion was also organized.

After the mass, a production number from the K5 was performed. It was so amusing to watch them crack jokes and having fun singing a song.

Then, Bo Sanchez shared about the theme of the conference, Forward. The big message of his talk was “You are different now.” No matter how long we get to go back and forth and back and forth, we managed to become different along the way.

After the talk was some sharing from people who were saved by their continuous perseverance and always moving forward.

The closing worship, or shall I say the closing concert, was jam-packed. Glowing lights brightened the whole arena while singing worship songs. It was an amazing sight to behold. The atmosphere was grace-filled and was covered with drowning love while singing the songs of worship.

That was the best worship concert I attended so far.

That 4-day conference was worth it. It was a blessing and a healing for me at the same time.

I was even looking forward for it next year! Til the next conference!