A Few Moments from Service
(a speech about my journey as a logistics head)
I’m just going to share about my experience last December. I was in charge of the venue and decorations committee for a religious Youth Camp and I had a partner to help me with. But let me focus on the decorations only. It was the most challenging part because my partner decided to follow a huge poster that needed the talent in painting and drawing and none of us had those talents. He just said “Sus! kaya ra ni natu oi, tuo man ka” despite the busy college life and absence of the talent in drawing and painting. Luckily, we got two beautiful ladies that volunteered to help us. Two weeks before the camp, I told my partner the plans about the decorations and to text those two volunteers, so he said “ako ray bahala nila” so I counted on his words. After a few days, I asked about those two volunteers and he said “Ou, ako na sila gitexsan” so I asked “Unsa man imong gitext?” and he answered “Ana ra ko Hi nya ana rapud sila Hi unya wala nako nireply” then I really wanted to punch him in the face to let him realize the little time we had to prepare. I just took the initiative to ask for their numbers from our Camp Servant but I only got the number of the first one. I texted her “Good evening, si Elijah diay ni, partner ni Bap2x. Kanang gihatagan namo niya ug task?” and I got no reply so I just assumed that she was already asleep and that maybe she’ll text tomorrow. The next day, the Camp Servant approached me and said “huy Elijah ni text na tu ang ni volunteer ninyo? Kay nitext siya nako ganihang buntag” and I just replied “Ha? Nitext siya nimo? Nitext man ko niya pero wala jud siya nireply”. And later on I realized “Ay ou, gwapo man diay akong partner. Kahibaw nako nganung ni volunteer sila. Tsk tsk tsk. Maro pud sila dah”
Fortunately, God provided us three guys to help in the decorations and one of them knows how to draw and paint; now we had the solution for our main problem. We decided to finish all the work on a Thursday night and when my partner arrived in our apartment, I was surprised because he was still in his complete school uniform so I asked him “sigurado ka sa imong gisul-ob? Mamintal bya ta, unya mag uniform ka?” and he just said “okay rana oi, dili rani mapintalan”. So we started painting and after a few minutes, my partner was already wearing his undershirt and boxers only. An hour later, the three guys arrived. In the moment of cutting and painting, one guy interrupted “Hala! Unsa na?” and seeing the creature, I replied “Ok-ok man siguro na or basta mananap. Nganu diay? Mahadlok mog ok-ok?” then this tall and big guy answered “DILI OI”. The next minute, the bug flew and the two guys jumped and freaked out while I just stood there in confusion. I was confused of what he meant by “DILI OI” because he was already crouching by our gate. We continued painting and cutting again while laughing out load to avoid getting sleepy because it was already past midnight. After one hour, when I walked into the living room, I saw my partner already sleeping on our couch and after thirty minutes I was the next one who slept. When I woke up, it was almost four in the morning and all the work was done. Not bad for leaders of a committee, ey? Leaders... but the first ones to sleep.
Anyway, I was very thankful to God for that experience. It tested my time management skills because I had to balance service and studies. It also tested my faith because I had doubts and struggles along that way. But the most important lesson was not to sleep ahead of your members again. There were times that I thought it was impossible for this and that to happen but with faith paired with constant prayer, I saw that it was possible and I knew that He would never leave me. There were many struggles and challenges but there were more laughter and lessons.
