#cfcy

CFCY Television - Channel 13

If you’re not Catholic, this still applies! You deserve a man or woman who are actions more than words.

and I surrender to Him. SURRENDER 2016.

Oh, man. Where do I start with today? Well, today was CFC-Y New Jersey's ECHO Conference, and I honestly feel so refreshed in my faith, almost more so than the first conference I went to back in 2013 in Delaware. Here's the backstory of my pretty crappy week: It was the last day of the first marking period at school on Monday and I'm already so done with senior year. I'm exhausted. In addition to that, I got into a conflict with one of my best friends and my household heads John Tuquero, over the stupidest thing. Knowing that I hurt him was agonizing, and yet I was prideful and in my head I pinned the whole situation on him in some weird attempt to make myself feel better. On Wednesday, my good friend Gabe Cajes asked me if I wanted to be Music Min for ECHO, and of course I said yes, because when God calls you to serve, you just say yes! Despite saying yes, I had my doubts. The only experience I had being Music Min was for South's Halloween joint household, meanwhile this was a hugely important event. Not that households aren't important, it's just that singing in front of a large crowd of people is more nerve wracking (for me at least) than singing in front of an group of about 16. Plus I was doubtful that I was good enough to be in a group of experienced, talented others. Add to that the practice was going to be on Friday and John was going to be there too playing guitar, and I wasn't sure what would happen. Would he ignore me? Tell me off? I didn't want to screw things up even more. At practice though, we didn't talk. We played, but there was a sense of sincerity missing that I didn't realize until later that night was because of the disconnect between John and I. "When one of the service team is broken, it affects the rest of us." That's what another close friend, Jerard Sta. Romana said to me. Later that night on our Facebook group chat, things got heated. I was so holding in so much rage from the fact that I had been ignored through practice by someone I cared about and I just let all my feelings fly in a group message of 13 people. It was an inappropriate way to deal with the situation and all it did was cause more drama when John and I should have talked out our differences. To make things worse I started subtweeting John on twitter too, saying such terrible things. Everyone, bless their souls, were telling me to get myself together, pray about it, and fix it properly. Have it fixed by this morning, because you can't serve God with a heavy heart and when you're in conflict with someone in the community. It's no longer genuine if you do, just selfish. But you know what, praise God. Praise God for my brothers and sisters in Christ, because they strongly encouraged John and I to reconcile. They literally pushed us backstage at St. Mary's after John came back from Starbucks to talk. And so we talked it out. And it turned out John bought me coffee while he was out as his peace offering. And once we had reconciled we gave each other the tightest hug, because I missed having him as a friend in my life even if it was only for a week. God helped me realize that I shouldn't take someone like John for granted. With that, we were able to function properly as a band. And although I feel like I didn't do well enough, especially since I forgot the words to songs I knew and didn't know a few songs at all despite practice, I remembered something Vanessa Cajes said at practice last night: "It doesn't matter if you don't really know everything, because you're praising God and that's all that matters." As for the rest of the conference, I felt so inspired by the talks, the speakers giving them, and the sharers. I'm glad I took so many notes too and paid attention. I caught some feels for the people around me and I caught feels for Jesus LOL. I realized how much my attitude toward my faith has changed in the year that I've been in the community. Seriously, praise the Lord for opening my eyes to that but also keeping me grounded. I'm so blessed to have been given these challenges by God, because without them I would be nothing. He gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers. I would know nothing without what he's given me. Amen.

Camp Credo Service Team: Followers of Christ with a fire in their hearts to serve The Lord.

CFC Youth is a place where youth can learn about God and their faith, meet other young people like themselves, and be in a safe, energetic, fun environment. We in CFC Youth believe in the 4 F’s of Faith, Fun, Freedom, and Friendship. We believe that youth can learn about God in a new, refreshing, and exciting way (CFC USA).