Recap: Joy Concert 2009

The concert was done on December 4, about three weeks ago already, but, still, we need a recap. Better late than never.

Themed as “Rise Up Youth of Albay”, and held in Ninoy Aquino Park in Daraga, the main purpose of the concert was for evangelism and for fellowship of Christian youths in Albay. The concert was produced and spearheaded by the fellowship I belong in, Joy Church, thus most of the presentations were from us. It started about 6:30 pm and since the DVD (yes, we have DVD documentation) running time was about three-and-a-half hours, we probably ended about ten in the evening. You can watch some of the videos in this site or in YouTube.

I kind of think that the opening multimedia presentation for the concert seemed to be out of context, which was “street children”-themed. The target audience was teenagers/young people, dynamos of emotional confusion and instability, and not social workers burdened with street children. These young people are searching for purpose and identities for themselves, and not much concerned with the tragedy of street children. But nonetheless, the message of Jesus is the answer, the only hope, is delivered by the opening, so no complains from me. However, I think the “letter from hell”-theme would have worked better. Scare and provoke questions about the afterlife. But I am all praise with the multimedia showings of mini-cartoons and Hillsong memory verses during gap times between performances.

Anyway, here is a summary of the performances that night:

The opening performance came from the Joy Worship Team, we kick off the concert with a medley of “Shelter House”, “You Are Good”, and Gary V’s “Shout For Joy” - with some cool bass solo from Basil in “You Are Good.”
We did a skit of “Matatakuting Kristyano.” Joneil and I were the drunkards who forced the scaredy-cat Christian, played by Chano, to drink alcohol with us in the cemetery. When he woke up, he had a showdown with the Devil, played by Basil. The catch of the skit is every time the “Matatakuting Kristyano” uses a talisman against the Devil – in the order of garlic, cross, holy water, and Bible – the Devil mocks him by bringing a bigger garlic, bigger cross, and so on. In the end, the Christian learned that only in the name of Jesus can he defeat the Devil. It was still funny, but we definitely did a better performance when we did it at church.

The band from DBCCI, which I believe was called the “Anointed Band” did well, and I liked the catchy outro of their second song.

Some Joy girls did a worshipful interpretative dance of “Here I Am To Worship.”

AG (Assemblies of God) Band, led by their all-around pastor (he handles children ministry, worship ministry, preaching ministry, etc. in their church) did two songs.
The mime presentation that night was an upgraded/rebooted version of some mimes we did in the past. Concepts from previous mime performances were combined, and it came out well. The main theme is of an allegorical Eve in the Fall, and her search of satisfaction. As Eve, played by Eden, tries every pleasure the world can offer; as she tried and hanged out with Steph and her jewelries (probably symbolizing wealth), with Careyl as a model (probably symbolizing vanity and outward beauty), with me as a rocker (probably symbolizing talents), with Joneil as a hunk/boyfriend (probably symbolizing romance), and with Basil as Michael Jackson (probably symbolizing the generation’s pop culture and blind idolatry to celebrities). Finally, Eve realized that only Jesus/God, played by Chano, can give her true peace and joy. Eden (Eve) and Basil (Michael Jackson) are the “MVPs” of this mime presentation as they deliver hilarious and excellent performances. Kudos also to Chano for directing such mime with a deep allegorical message. For me, in the three plays we did that night, this was the best.
SOP Band is definitely the best band that night. It is no wonder since they were already playing in a band since they were children, thus they grew up as bandmates as their experiences helped their talents and bond grow. Their rendition of “Ako’y Binago Niya” was very powerful, and their original song, “Trip To Heaven” was excellent.

The Christdiers trio composed of Basil (lead vocals, guitar), Joneil (drums), and I (bass) played our version of “Extraordinary Life” and our original “8 Words.”
"You Are Good" powerful dance by Joy girls.
The Joy Worship Team did a catchy medley of Christmas songs, which started with a rendition of “Amazing Grace.” Prior the song, a video of our dear Pastor Lee playing “Amazing Grace” in the flute was shown; this served as the intro. After the warm-up song of “Amazing Grace”, we did the medley of “Feliz Navidad”, “Joy To The World” and “Come O Ye Faithful.”
Mel, the keyboardist, was located at the extreme left of the stage. Thus, throughout the concert, it was not very often for him to be captured by the video cam.

After the message of Pastor Lee and a cool rapture clip was shown in the multimedia, we did a musical drama with the song of “Everything” by Lifehouse. Basil played Jesus, and I played the Devil, as other Joy young people played different roles. In the drama, it is shown the Devil owned the souls of several people and tempted them with worldly pleasures for them not to seek Christ, but when Jesus called and saved them, the Devil was helpless to do otherwise. The misery of living in the dark and the message of Christ being the savior and the only answer and salvation from sin and darkness were shown. No offense, but I did not like the original script of the musical drama as it was filled with theological flaws and the plot transition was so messy and confusing. But, thank God, after some brainstorming and some ideas by Chano, we made it better and I am satisfied with the final script.
The kids from Joneil’s taekwondo ministry performed a number that boosted the taekwondo attendance after the concert.
Floodgates, the other band aside from Christdiers that I belong in, made up of Bhong (lead vocals, guitar), Basil (bass), Jade (drums), Mel (keyboard), and me (guitar), was the last special number band. We played “Ocean Floor” and then “I Will Find You”, which we did our trademark instrumental in mid song – soloes for me, Bhong, Jade, and Basil, in that order, and then some funk.
I did some blues scaling for my solo.
Tapping exhibition was Bhong's solo.
Basil did his bass solo after Jade did his drum solo. Then, the former did some funky bass slapping on the funk instrumental.

In the second half our set, Kuya Reybhong joined us to sing “Mighty Good Leader” and “Speak To Me.”
An all-star dance number, consists of youth from different churches, was the last performance that night.

The last part was the praise and worship, with songs “Mighty To Save”, “Shout Your Fame”, “Sing For Joy”, and “How Great Is Our God.” Additional songs “I Am Not Ashamed”, “One Way” and “Bestfriend” were played due to demand. The initial response I heard about the concert was the praise and worship was too short. I agree.

It was truly a blessed night. About a thousand people, a combination of both believers and non-believers, watched the concert. Truly, God is at work. The seeds were sown. And God will nurture and reap.

To God be the glory. Till next year's concert (if God wills it).

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Joy Church 22nd Anniversary

Videos of the praise and worship and the dance number of senior young people of Bicol Presbyterian Joy Church in their 22nd Anniversary service.

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In Defense of (Burned) Bush

"I admire that journalist that threw his shoe at President Bush," an acquaintance of mine said.

I replied, with an eyebrow raised, "What's so admirable about throwing his shoe? It seems a show of immaturity and a lack of grace and self-control."

"Well... Bush is a bad president."

"What made you say that he's bad?"

"Mmm... He's mighty unpopular... People hate him... and..."

And nothing. He just laughed it all off when he got nothing more to say to back him. I did not smile. The moron.

That was a year ago. And it has been nearly a year since George W. Bush, 43rd president of the USA, stepped down. So, why am I writing this piece right now? Seems untimely. Well, one of the reasons I write is for therapy, and I write to blow some steam of a particular annoyance. Some recent event just reminded me of my great annoyance on people who pretend their smart or righteous without the facts or credibility to back it. These are the know-it-alls... those who take hearsays or gossips as truths without confirming them, and since these hearsays or gossips are popular ideas, jump into the bandwagon. (I even annoy myself when I sometimes succumb to this annoying flaw of human nature.) One of these popular ideas is the incompetence and lack of credibility of George W. Bush - which I do not agree.

I am not a Bush fan at all. But I recognize him as a strong leader, though not perfect, equipped with competence and character to lead the most powerful nation on earth. And I find this blind animosity to Bush by most Americans as almost baseless as a "know-it-all" mentality that I am particularly very annoyed at. Probably, this is because of the effective and harmful slanders, propagandas and machinations against Bush by the Democrats. The Democrats succeeded in establishing their slanderous comments as truths.

Bush's unpopularity started with one particular topic: the war against Iraq. Let me stick with that. This was the seed of it all, and this is what the Democrats used as ammunition and this is where they started from with their effective attacks at Bush that destroyed his credibility and made him mighty unpopular with the Americans.

The Democrats slandered Bush that he lied about Iraq having Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). They said that Bush falsified intelligence on Iraq WMD to justify attacking a sovereign nation - to drag the US to an unnecessary war. They accuse Bush that there was no concrete basis that Irag had WMD. But wait a minute, not only did all the intelligence gathering agencies of the US were convinced Iraq has WMDs, the international intelligence communties - UK, France,Germany, Russia, China, Israel and Jordan - thought so, too. How can Bush falsify such intelligence data of different independent sources? How can they say that Bush has no concrete basis? But wait, here's something even better, during the Clinton administration (when the Democrats were in power), the Democrat politicians were convinced that Iraq do have WMDs. The Democrats believed and claimed to have evidence that Iraq has WMDs. They still had this stand even when Bush administration was on its early years. But why the sudden change of tone later on? Simple, the Democrats wanted to destroy Bush's credibility - and they succeeded. It was dirty politics. From then on, Bush became very unpopular.

You might say, "But wait. They never found WMDs when Iraq was finally invaded by the US." True, that they never found any nuclear weapons but they found chemical and biological weapons, which are illegal, and considered as WMDS. Moreover, Mossad intelligence claimed that the nuclear weapons were probably moved to Syria before the Americans deployed for war.

Let us not forget who was the Iraqi leader: Saddam Hussein - a tyrant, a terrorist, a criminal, guilty of many UN violations and genocide. Besides, the attack of the US to Iraq is not only based on the existence of WMDs. In the 23 clauses to use force against Iraq, only two mentions WMDs. Saddam provoked the US to attack. Regardless of whether Saddam has nuclear weapons or not, he was acting as if he had them by showing arrogance and defiance. The US didn't have legal or moral burden of Saddam proving he had WMDs, it was Saddam's burden to prove that what the US accusses is false. But this he did not do so. Consider: following Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War, Saddam signed treaties promising to get rid of and not produce WMDs, allow UN inspectors and spy planes to fly over to verify that he was not in breach of promises. But he violated those treaties, denying the inspectors to do their jobs and continually shooting at US aircraft in the no-fly zones. But even of these clear violations, the UN lacked the moral courage to enforce its resolutions and punish Saddam. So, Bush showed balls and did the right thing by finally doing something about it, by leading the US against Iraq. The countries that supported the US in that war did the right thing and showed balls, too, and I am proud that the Philippines was one of those countries even if our troops were only there for show (it's a pity we have to withdraw them because of the hostaging of Filipinos by terrorists... but withdrawing was the right thing to do. The hostages' lives are paramount. But it's still a pity).

We should also consider America’s role as “world police.” Their country is a symbol of freedom and democracy. Saddam is a threat to what their country stands for. Thus, the US has this responsibility, being the world’s most powerful nation, of finally destroying the danger to the principles of freedom and democracy. US also did the right decision back then of going to Vietnam. The only problem was they were arrogant and unprepared that cause so many unnecessary and unjustified casualties in that war. But in Iraq, the Americans came prepared and efficient, thus, it cannot be criticized as it was with the Vietnam War.

Besides, America was on a “War on Terror” and it is clear that Iraq had dealings with Al Qaeda. Iraq was a training ground and haven for terrorists. Democrats only denied the fact, claiming that Bush is lying, and the people believed them. Striking Iraq was also a way of preventing another September 11. What would have happened if Saddam finally have a working nuclear weapons program? Attacking or pressuring Saddam by then would be difficult. The threat was too great for Bush to ignore it. Thus, invading Iraq at that time, when the nuclear program as still premature, was a good decision.

At the risk of being unpopular, Bush made the right decision. Amidst the constant attacks by his critics, and the people starting to hate him, he remained strong in his stand of what is right. Such courage and character. That was admirable.

I really don't get it why most Americans hate him. He did not cheat to win the election. He does not have any scandal about graft and corruption or stealing from government funds. Compare him to PGMA. Come on, why hate him?

With what the Democrats did to Bush, I think the current Democratic Party had lost the decency or "gentleman-ness" of being an effective intellectual and moral opposition to the Republicans. The purpose of the two-party system is to be able to have a conservative and liberal view in all issues, and to hold in check each view. Democrats should debate against the Republicans (and vice versa) with their country’s interest in mind, and the debates should lead to betterment and cooperation in the long-run. Now, by what the Democrats did to Bush, it seemed they now only want to protect or improve their political interests. I don't know if the Republicans, which are now currently the opposition, would act as the Democrats did. (By the way, as I had written in a previous essay, back at the elections, I wanted Obama to win, not because I know of and agree with his policies but because I want the dramatic: the first black president of the US. But I am not really sure if he is better off than the rest of the Democrats, or if he also thinks like them.)

As finale, the lesson I want convey here is we have to get rid of our nature of judging people, which is unfair, not only to big leaders like Bush, but to ordinary persons as well. Believing hearsay without us confirming it… jumping into bandwagons…. the arrogance of the "know-it-all" mentality… blindly criticizing and hating… biases…. we have to get rid of them all, since these are the bases of our tendency to crucify our true heroes.

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Rise Up Youth of Albay Concert

This Joy Church produced three-hour concert held in Ninoy Aquino Park on December 4, 2009 showcased bands, dances, skits, and other performances by young people from different fellowships (spearheaded by Joy Church youths, of course).  Here are some videos which were derived from the DVD record of the concert.   

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