CKBC Magboro Youth

25/12/2023

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to you, ALL 💖💖💖

01/01/2023

31/12/2022

*MY VALEDICTORY SPEECH*
If they ever tell my story let them say that I walked with giants. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these names will never die. Let them say I served in the time of:

Yemisi Akinpelumi (Nee Fawole); an iron lady with a soft and caring heart,

Tunji Adebanjo; a man with a large heart and great maturity,

Tobi Awe; a man of discipline and uncommon meekness,

Feyi Fawole; a woman blessed with wisdom and intellect,

Wale Ogunrinola; a troublesome man😜 but of great help,

Kayode Ashafa; a man of enthusiasm and energy,

Moses Ajekigbe; a man of prayer and great faith,

Olutayo Adebayo; a hardworking woman with a calm demeanour,

*Others;*

Seun Samuel; a man passionate about his conviction,

Felicia Ashafa; an accommodating and strong woman

Jumoke Adewale; an interesting but industrious and helpful woman,

Bose Olaniyan (Nee Ajibade); a gentle and teachable woman,

Matthew Adegoke; a man of faith and zeal,

Owolabi Ashafa; a man of maturity and great counsel,

Yomi Kalejaiye; a man of unrivalled concern and care,

Olayemi Sh*ttu; a man of insight and understanding,

Samuel Ogunrinola; a man of action and love.

My prayer for you all is that, *MAY THE LORD REWARD YOU*. Amen.

It is a great privilege to have steered the affairs of the Youth fellowship for the past four years. I remember being brought in as an ad hoc Executive in 2016 as a Visitation Officer alongside Sis. Felicia Sangodokun (now Ashafa), after which I was privileged to serve as the Programme Coordinator/Bible Study Secretary (2017 - 2018), Public Relations Officer (2018) and then President (2019 – 2022). While resuming as President, I also came on board as the Programme Coordinator at the Association (2019 – 2020) before emerging as the Vice President 1 (2021 – 2022) at the same level. I must not forget to mention the opportunity to serve as Recording Secretary at the Conference (2019 – 2022) and then President which is my current assignment. Tasking periods they were, but made easy by the help I received from you all. Below is a summary of my stewardship.

*RETREAT:*
It was challenging going on retreat as the schedules of people have gotten busier than they used to be and also many factors have influenced proceedings. Despite the lockdown, we were able to have a two-day retreat with the theme Commissioned for Change with Rev. Matthew Oloyede as our Guest Minister. Thanks to the efforts of Evangelism and Prayer team.

*PICNIC/DINNER:*
Over time, we have always embarked on a picnic to different beaches and parks but decided to tow a different line for the first-ever dinner as Bro. Yomi was rounding up service in December 2018. It was indeed a great success. In my four years of service as President, we had dinner once (2020) and picnic thrice (2019, 2021 and 2022) with the last one at Eleko Beach being the most enjoyable and memorable ever for me. I must lay bare some things at this point. It is important to note that dinner relies heavily on donation and does not always come easy to execute, hence the need for us to always put heads together to achieve it. Also on picnics, it is good to always show interest (even when in doubt) early enough to aid planning as some will wait till the late minute before making effort and this is a regular occurrence with them. This makes it hard to factor you into any plan.

*SECRETARIAT:*
The success of any leadership relies heavily on a very effective Secretariat and this I greatly enjoyed with Bro. Owolabi, Teejay and Bro. Tobi Awe. Great bonds were formed from here.

*YOUTH WEEK AND FINANCE:*
I must commend the efforts of every member of this great fellowship and some elders in the church at large for their financial commitments toward the cause of the Youth Fellowship. One of the things that helped our financial management is the opening of an account for the fellowship which proved harder than imagined based on what we went through.
The most challenging Youth week was that of 2019 which also coincided with our 10th anniversary when we had to launch a magazine, feed the whole church and also execute a project.
During these periods, we maintained our record of featuring in the Youth Week Offering Honour Roll and an amazing feat was recorded in 2020 when we took 5th position at the Conference. We were also able to maintain giving the church a gift worth #100,000 during Youth Week except for 2020 due to the lockdown effect.
We can boldly say on all fronts, we are debt-free with a great deal to spare. I am glad the next set of leaders has enough to kickstart their assignment.
The efforts of our Finance Team in persons of Sis. Feyi and Bro. Wale cannot go unmentioned as they have been very judicious in managing the account of the fellowship.

*PUBLICITY:*
Based on the general rating, we might not have done well enough in this regard but we did try our best. It is good to emphasize that creating awareness is not only the responsibility of the publicity team but every member of the Youth Fellowship. This is one of the toughest responsibilities in the executive set-up.

*WELFARE:*
I can say to a great extent, we tried with welfare matters but we could have done more. Fresh in the mind are the palliatives put in place during the 2020 lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was made possible by certain individuals who laid the foundation for us to build upon. There are others things we did and still do as regards welfare but won't mention here.

*GROUP ACTIVITIES:*
I remember drawing up a schedule of certain activities for the group to keep it bubbly and active, we started on a very good note but could not sustain the tempo. The personality of the week, the regular bible study and prayer meeting and many others. I hope all these can be revived by the new leadership coming on board. These will foster the relationship and bond we share.

*EXTERNAL BODIES:*
We have been able to register our name as a fellowship and church at many levels and our commitments to these bodies such as the association, Conference and Convention remain undaunted. We also maintained the records of being frontliners as set since time past.

*SKILL ACQUISITION:*
We were able to organise training on Graphic Design, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint presentations, and club sandwich making among others. I advise we have more of these.

*EXECUTIVES:*
I am grateful to everyone I have served with from Mr. Sh*ttus tenure to mine and I do not take the time spent together for granted. To the house, a call to leadership is one to sacrifice and assignment. It puts you on a public scale but there is grace available to scale through. I will reemphasize as I always say that experience gotten from the church is not only useful in the church.
I implore the incoming executives to do well in working with the President to make the work come easy for him as he has many responsibilities to many committees by default, being the Youth President. *The President is only as good as his team.* Think about these things.

*CONCLUSION:*
As I said during the end-of-the-year gathering, a three-fold cord is not easily broken says the scripture, not to talk of more numbers. Unity is the key to the successes we have achieved and this is premised on building and leveraging relationships. I implore us to give greater support to the incoming executives even more than I enjoyed as there is a lot to be done. I am still a part of the Fellowship and in a way a member of the leadership but in an advisory role. I believe so much in the capacity of the incoming President having worked together for three years and I know the fellowship will attain greater heights under his leadership. I also crave your support the more in my assignment at the Conference as I am an ambassador of the house😊.
*My earnest prayer for each of us is that we will have proof of Gods faithfulness in the new year and beyond.*

_Note: I must have unintentionally skipped a number of things😁😊_.

Thank you,

Your Servant,
*OGUNSANYA, JOHN OLAJIDE*
Outgoing Youth President (2019 -2022)

31/12/2022

31/12/2022

APPRECIATION

What shall we say unto the Lord, all we have to say is Thank You, Lord!

It is with every sense of gratitude that we are putting out a special appreciation on this auspicious day.

The year 2022 is coming to an end and we can not but commend and appreciate the efforts of everyone who has contributed immensely to the growth of the Youth Fellowship.

To the Central Executives, it's been an amazing six months so far. You all have laboured tirelessly in God's vineyard and we thank you for your efforts.

To the General Executives, the Leaders of Leaders, we specially appreciate you. You have shown great leadership qualities in your respective Associations. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed as well.

To every member of Lagos East Baptist Youth Conference (The No. 1 in the NBCYC), you all have been wonderful! You'll recall our journey down to Eket in August, it was an avenue to bond and network with other youths in the convention 😊.

As we go into the New Year 2023, I would like to remind us of our first programme for the year.

The Leadership Retreat.

Date: Friday 6th - Saturday 7th of January, 2023

Venue: First Baptist Church, Ikorodu

Time: 10pm.

Let's be encouraged to do even greater exploits for the Lord come 2023.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year in advance.

Once again on behalf of the President, I say thank you and God bless you all. Amen.

Dolapo 'Kunle Akinlabi.
General Secretary, LEBYC

11/12/2022

2022 LEBYC Praise Celebration hosted by us

24/06/2022

Values, boundaries and Respect by Ugwu Chinaecherem

Growing up, due to the church I was born into, I was not drinking alcohol. My friends knew about it and inasmuch as it could be awkward for me, I held on to it.

At 18, I didn’t know how palm wine tasted or if beers were sweet or bitter.

Friends often wanted me to take a sip, but two of them carried it on their head. “Just know how it tastes”, “just a little quantity”, “if you try it and it’s bad, don’t continue”. I can understand for people who think I don’t take it because I don’t like it but for my close friends who knew it was a faith issue for me and continued pressuring me, it was a red flag. But I didn’t know what red flags were then.

So one day, two of them got me a drink and said it’s Kunu. I love Kunu, we make Kunu and sell. So I was excited to drink; fortunately I decided to smell the non-transparent bottle before drinking and it had palm wine smell.

They really wanted me to drink it so bad that they had to repackage it so I won’t find out.

Now this post is NOT about palm wine, beers or alcohol.

The wrong thing here is not that they gave me palm wine to drink. It is not that they wanted me to take alcoholic drink but that they knew my boundaries and were bent on forcing me to violate it. We can dismiss it as teenagers who don’t know better but these things still happen.

Some of us have friends, who have never linked us up to any opportunity to make money or be better, the only thing they have invested their energy in is making us compromise our set values. Of this kind be careful.

You have repeatedly said you don’t smoke but your friend always want you to taste it. “Common man, just a buzz”, “it’s not that bad”.

They know you are married and faithful to your partner, but will keep linking you up to persons when you guys are on a trip all because they want you to have a taste of their wayward lifestyle.

One bad thing about this kind of people is that they will go to any length to see you do what they want you to do. They can lure you during your most vulnerable hours. They can get you to a state where you are not mentally in control to get you to fulfill their fantasy.

People who know what they do is wrong don’t always want to do it alone. They will always encourage their friends to join in; yes, it makes them feel better.

Many great values have been totally eroded and noble character built for years annihilated by a single taste. The ‘taste’ became an open door to a chain reaction that will lead to many other things. At the end, the shadow of yourself may be impossible to regain.

The right action is not to keep taking your stand but to keep away from such persons. They are your enemies and not friends no matter how you see it.

If you have teenagers, teach them boundaries and how to walk away from those who refuse to respect them. This is important because one day, they may give in to the pressure or they may be forced into it. Make them see how wrong it is to be forced against their values just to be accepted or to make their friends feel better.

Those bent on destroying your values or seducing you into their habits against your wish should not be found in the circle of your friends.

Evil communication corrupts good manners. Some good manners are corrupted without the consent of the one having it.

Grace

18/05/2022

16 Days to go💪💪💪

08/05/2022

25/04/2022

Offering Help Even In Tears (Idede Oseyande)

The car kept honking behind Jide but he paid no attention to whomever it was that was in the car. He had lost his wallet while rushing to the bus stop and was trying to see if he would be lucky enough to find it.

His eyes swept from one corner of the untarred Ilabode street to another, scrutinising everywhere his gaze could fall on. The man in the car kept honking behind him, as he drove slowly towards Jide.

“I don't have time to give anyone road description”, he thought within himself. “I have enough trouble to contend with. If he doesn't know where he is going to, he should return to where he is coming from”, he said to himself.

Jide's pain was rooted in the fact that the five thousand naira he had left, ATM cards, driver's license, and office ID card were all in the missing wallet. He was not going to accept the loss. He just couldn't bring himself to start to think about the complicated recovery process for the missing items.

The driver of the car drove angrily to his front, rolled down his window and before Jide could utter a word, he threw the wallet at him and drove off.

Ashamed, dumbfounded, filled with guilt, and without the chance to apologise or appreciate the man, Jide could hardly believe his luck as he perused the content of the wallet, and everything was intact. He was grateful even as his conscience sentenced him guilty as charged!

Most times we miss out on good things because we want everyone to share in our misfortune or pain. You feel nobody deserves to be happy because you are going through tough times. If the whole world were in trouble just like you, where would succour and solace come from?

Joseph had his share of misfortune in the prison, yet he was concerned about the joy and happiness of his fellow inmates. It was his genuine concern that made him notice they were sad, which he later learnt was because of the dream they both had.

Now, the help Joseph had offered when himself needed help the most, was what took him before Pharaoh. And the rest, they say, is history!

This year, don't be so focused on accomplishing your goals at the expense of rendering help to others. No matter how tough your path may be, sharing the experience with someone who wants to take that path might be all you need to get it right. Your eyes might be opened to what you have been missing all this while as you share your thoughts with others.

Lend a helping hand even when you feel you need help the most!

May the lines fall in pleasant places for us all. Amen. 🙏🏾