Leadership Gathering for Melaka Campus Students

The program started with ice-breaking where the students were able to show off their talents and get to know each other better. Then Deacon Adrian led the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. ‘This was the most memorable for me,’ says Vera, ‘the moment I entered the chapel I felt the love of God and I began to cry’.

The next morning, after prayer and breakfast, Mark Anthony from the Campus Ministry Team, asked the participants to reflect on their experiences of God, their priorities in life and to share those experiences with their group. For Karyn Kan of MMU, these sessions were helpful for her to evaluate her personal relationship with God.

The next session, Vine and Branches was by Deacon Adrian. He talked about the importance of the personal life of the leader. How the leader relates to his family and people of the opposite sex is important witness. Deacon also challenged the leaders to put a daily hour of Scripture and prayer. Then the participants were invited to spend a few moments of silence before the Blessed Sacrament before sharing with a partner about the commitments they want to make

After lunch, the talk was on Steward, Servant and Shepherd. Looking at three images of a leader, Deacon shared some of his experiences and invited the participants to become a more Christ-like leader.

In the evening, the team building games helped the students to learn to work together as a team to overcome the challenges face. The participants enjoyed themselves though it could have been planned better.

At night, a movie on the life of Mother Teresa was shown. The story was inspiring and at the end of the movie the participants were able to list down the leadership principles that they learn from Mother Teresa. For many of the participants, the movie was the highlight of the camp.

On the last day, during the session Mission in Society, Clement Josos another member of the Campus Ministry Team made the participants aware of the current social issues as well as the importance of raising awareness and responses to these issues in their CSS. They then broke into groups to discuss on some of the activities that can be done in their CSS for mission. Everyone then attended Mass at St Francis Xavier’s Church.

After lunch, Edrin Marconi, the former Campus Ministry Officer taught the students the importance of having a balance on type of activities to organise in the CSS. Also different activities to cater for the student level (from first year to final year) in their campuses. They then broke into groups to discuss on the activities that can be organized and this followed with presentation by each group.

At the end of the camp, to understand more on the “Year of Consecrated Life”, a seminarian from The Salvatorian Order, Brother Francisco Overee gave a brief introduction on what “Year of Consecrated Life” is about and he shared his vocation story and current life in the seminary. The camp ended with prayer for the leaders by Brother Francisco.

The Campus Ministry Team (CMT) who were the main organisers of the Leadership Gathering has been working over a few years to improve the program; thanks also to Fr Richard who helped to solidify the program. In this camp, every session has impacted people differently. After this LG some of the CMTs: Mark Anthony, Estelle Liew and Edrin Marconi, will be taking a break and we thank them for their years of service.