20/04/2026
โจ ๐ฌ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐๐๐๐: ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐
I've been in RFC QC, I think, for most of my life. I say this because I still remember what the younger version of Pastor Ojie looked like.
I want to start off by being honest with you guys. Before the camp last year, I was in a really dark place. I was starting to get older and realize things, so my consciousness was always getting to me. An example of this was my faith. I grew up thinking I was a Christian because my whole family was Christian, but I never felt like I belonged in the church or deserved to be talking with my youth friends. Everyone was always talking about having daily devotions or always praying, while I, on the other hand, felt like an imposter because they all seemed soโฆ experienced or so happy in their faith. I never understood that because I never felt it. Praying felt like a chore to me, so even my own youth ministry felt so far away.
That was until my Tito Thirdie and grandma started encouraging me to join the youth camp. Honestly, parang pilit pa yung feeling inside of me, and well, I didnโt have a choice anyway, lol.
And so, it was my first youth camp last year, and I cannot begin to explain the wonders that camp did for me. I met so many incredible people who became my friends. Ako kasi, I always grew up being a leader sa school or part ng student body organization, but because of this camp, I realized that I can bring that same leadership to glorify God. As some of you may know, Iโm very outgoing and extroverted. You could say that social anxiety fears me.
But what really stood out to me during this camp was the last preaching by Pastor Ojie. It was about how serving the Lord was a choice, my own personal choice. And it was the first sermon that made me cry because I had never felt so understood in my whole life. All the guilt, the shame, and the confusion just came pouring out of me in the form of tears.
I cried because I had been scared to admit for so long that I didnโt feel close to God, scared to admit that maybeโฆ maybe I didnโt love Him the way I should. I was terrified of what people would think, my family, my friends, my church. What would they say if they knew that I felt nothing sometimes? That I doubted? That I wasโฆ failing to feel my faith in God? I felt so guilty kasi tito ko ba naman ay pastor, tapos buong family ko puro Christian, tapos ako ganito ang nararamdaman ko.
But because of Pastor Ojie, I realized something. It didnโt matter what anyone else thought, not my family, not my friends, not even Pastor Ojie. The question was mine alone. Do I love and want to be a child of God, or do I not?
And so, after that youth camp, I was never the same. I finally accepted Jesus Christ into my life on the evening of May 7, 2025.
I know this might be a shock to most of you because I accepted Christ later in my life, but I am just happy to finally love the Lord fully and attend church without feeling like I donโt belong. I am proud and so blessed to say that I am a product of this RFC youth camp. I am eternally grateful for the outcome this camp gave my life because it changed me. I was then baptized on September 7, 2025, and became an official member of RFC QC. I also became more active in the youth ministry, and itโs mainly because Kuya Adrian and Tita Grace are such supportive and amazing people.
So, dear campers, believe me when I say that this camp can change you, but only if you let it. Not just if you attend every session, not just if you sing every song, not just if you listen, but if you open. your. heart. Because out of everything we need in this world, itโs love, and JESUS IS love.
Dear campers, allow yourself to be honest. Stop pretending, even just for a moment, that you have everything figured out. Because thatโs what I did. I stopped hiding. I stopped trying to look like I had perfect faith, and instead, I brought God my doubts, my emptiness, and my fear, and He met me there.
This youth camp isnโt magic, okay? It wonโt force you to change, but it will offer you something real, something deeper than just emotions or temporary excitement. It will offer you the chance to encounter a God who sees you exactly as you are, not who you pretend to be. But you have to choose Him. No one else can make that decision for you, not your leaders, not your friends, not your family. It has to come from you.
So donโt waste this moment. Donโt let this just be another camp you forget after a few weeks. Let this be the place where you finally become honest with yourselfโฆ and with God. Because if you do, if you truly let Him in, I promise you, your life will never be the same.
I donโt know what the future holds. I donโt know if Iโll always get it right. But I know this. For the first time in my lifeโฆ I am home. I am loved by a mighty Father in heaven, and I can guarantee you that I really feel it this time.
Which is why I am choosing to step up for Him for the rest. Of. My. Life.
ANNIKA SANCHEZ
RFC- QC
Camper since 2025
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