But reality is quite different, isn’t it? Those of us who are married with children know that both keeping the marriage alive and raising kids well takes lots of hard work. So much so that you’d probably wish colleges offer marriage 101 or parenting 101 as subjects.Well, I have good news for you. I belong to a community that advocates family development and youth development quite strongly, and I would like to share some of our upcoming special events for you, in order of when they happen during the year. If you live in Cagayan de Oro City and you want to enhance your married life or the lives of your children, then check out these events!
The first event is for the teenagers. Renowned motivational speaker Francis Kong (more on him later) said that it is easier to start and maintain a business than it is to raise a teen. But if your teens belong to a great group and are involved in worthwhile activities, your struggles will be lessened considerably. Enter WIRED, this year’s theme for JZone’s yearly summer camp. Cost is P2000 per teen (the early bird promo rate ended yesterday, sorreh...).
My daughter has benefited greatly from the last two summer camps. She made great friends (friends that you’d be proud to call your kids’ friends), and was very excited about becoming the excellent young woman God has called her to be (and indeed, many of her peers and even adults admire her greatly). Oh, of course, it’s SO much fun…and as proof of that, here’s last year’s thank you video.
The next event is for the kids. If you want kids to love God, then you have to speak their language (FUN!!), and one of the best ways to do that is the DVBS, a Kidschurch activity designed to show our children the love of Christ and letting them have so much fun while doing so. This is also a yearly event, and, this year’s theme is Studio GO! Basically, it’s about encouraging our kids that to get of the complacency couch and GO…to actually make a difference in their own circles of influence, using characters like Gideon, Esther, and others, as models.
There will be a preliminary meeting soon to discuss prices, dates (likely 2nd week of May), and activities. Stay tuned! In the meantime, to show you what your child can expect, here’s last year’s tribute video.
Next event is for married couples. Our marriage enhancing events have garnered praise from attendees (often saying that even if they've attended these things elsewhere, ours is very powerful, Biblical, and practical), and we’re offering another one this year. Last year, The Story Of Us marriage retreats garnered such high praise that it had to be held 3 times, and even then it wasn’t able to have everyone aboard. We’ll have The Story Of Us again, although it will no longer be a weekend out of town retreat, but instead it would be a marriage seminar. While I would’ve liked it to be the former, the good news is it’s closer to home, being held here at the Xavier Sports and Country Club.
I’ll once again emcee the event, so I’ll see you there as well. Here’s the vid from the previous Story Of Us.
Lastly, we will have a huge parenting event for parents of teens. Remember my mention of Francis Kong? Well, he will be in Cagayan de Oro this September along with his mentor, parenting speaker extraordinaire, Peter Tan Chi (known for Parenting That Makes A Difference). These two guys are my idols in raising up kids, and this time around, they’ll talk about raising teenagers in ParenTEEN.
They were around three years ago in Parenting Winners, and it was such a rare treat to see the best speakers in parenting back to back that I thought we’d never seen anything like that again. Well, I was wrong, and this time it’s for the parents of teenagers. Since my daughter is now 13, I absolutely cannot wait for this event to come. September 7 is the date. You can check out details in the picture, above.
Oh, they will also talk to young people as well, so this will probably be one of the biggest youth events of the year, to boot.
Oh yeah, as a bonus, in the CCF in Manila, this May, renowned Life Without Limbs motivational speaker Nick Vujicic will grace our main church there and give what I am positively sure is gonna be an amazing talk. This dude is a youtube sensation and he even glorified God in the Oprah show. Imagine that.
Watch this video of Nick on Oprah. It is AMAZING!!!!
And so there you have it. Excited yet? I am. Let’s do this CCF-Cagayan de Oro (and the Manila CCF, in the case of Nick Vujicic)!! Let’s make 2013 our most impacting year yet.
(This blog site, Lessons Of A Dad is mostly about parenting, marriage, and other topics aimed to develop the reader’s mind, body, and soul. I’d consider it an honor if you’d follow or subscribe to this site. You can also go to my Facebook page here, and I’m also on Twitter at @lessonsofadad)
