Youth Retreat and Workshop Year: July 4 – 15, 2012

The Youth Retreat and Workshop took place on July 4 -15, 2012 in Ajeltake Catholic Pastoral Center. Present were 125 young people from the following atolls: Majuro, Kwajalein, Jaluit, Likiep, Ailinglaplap and Arno of the Marshall Islands. The theme was a contemporary one: "Youth and the Challenge of New Evangelization." We are happy to have Fr. Romel "Boyet" Enar, a young diocesan priest from the Diocese of Kabankalan in the Philippines.
Fr. Enar  has given and facilitated  many retreats and workshops in the past to various groups such as: young adults, youth groups, teachers, school administrators and parish leaders.  Indeed, he did very well as resource leader and director. Using various group dynamic techniques, songs, music, simple dance steps, participative lectures, indoor games, small group discussion, song composition, group workshops, group reports and colorful drawing and presentation, he captured the attention and interest of the youth participants.
Most of all, he led the young people to appreciate deeply prayer as well as the word of God in the New Testament as the sublime revelation of God's love expressed in the mystery of Incarnation. By way of an example of this, he divided  the whole assembly into 5 groups.  He assigned a biblical text to each group.  Then he instructed them to reflect on the message of this text in terms of new evangelization: expressed in proclaiming God’s message enthusiastically and courageously to other young peoples and adults. Then he asked them to highlight in few words or  phrases the powerful gospel message on a broad brown paper for presentation at the full assembly.  Lastly, each group has to sing the song they composed containing the core message of the biblical text assigned to them.  
All the exercises mentioned above, were aimed at highlighting  the urgency of participating in the proclamation of the good news of the gospel with the prodding of the Holy Spirit. The theme song of this retreat and workshop is: "Tell the World of His Love." The youth sang this wholeheartedly and with much enthusiasm during the Blessing/Closing Holy Mass on July 15, 2012 at the Assumption Cathedral in Majuro.