Praise God!!! The youth conference entitled “Are you the Last Generation?” was a rousing success. I was floored when I saw the number of people who stood up and accepted the Lord this afternoon. To all of you who attended today’s conference and accepted Christ, welcome to the family! And seeing you choose to follow Christ made all the preparations and the work we did throughout the whole week and even weeks before worth it. I heard from my team head Corinne that Mrs. Rosenberg was able to read the previous day’s entry and wants to say “Hello!” back. Message received, and thank you for the greeting Lynn! ^_^

One thing that made this conference special for me was the fact that Joel shared his love story, and how God was the one who guided him in choosing his life partner. The audience absolutely loved it as did I. For the benefit of those who weren’t able to hear him, I’ll try to describe the story as I remember it. Joel, I hope you and Lynn would forgive me if I mess up some of the details of the story…

Joel’s father was a Jew while his mom was a gentile. They married in 1965 and even though at the start they weren’t believers of Jesus, God was kind enough to get them to a church that taught them about Christ wanting to have a personal relationship with them, and they accepted Him as their Lord and Savior. Joel was about 6 years old when he started to attend Sunday school in church but it was only when he was 8 years old that he accepted Christ as His personal God.

Then puberty arrived and Joel began to experience the uncertainties of that stage wherein you’re neither an adult nor a kid. He was a Christian, he had friends in church but a growing feeling of loneliness grew in his heart. It caused him to feel despair but it also caused him to cry out to God in prayer. Joel was seventeen by this time.

One night while praying to God, Joel heard an audible voice ask him “Do you study my Faith Book? Joel said “No.” The voice continued saying “Then how do you expect to receive my blessings when you aren’t expecting me?” After that the voice became silent but it was a wake-up call for Joel. He started to study God’s word and not only that, he also gathered together people from his high school and encouraged them to study the Bible and share the gospel to others. His boldness in sharing the gospel caught the attention of his teachers and Joel as well as his friends was told off. Surprisingly though, it just encouraged others to talk about Jesus all the more.

Joel graduated from High School and started studying at Syracuse University taking up Film as his major. And he started dating other Christian women but he felt that they were not serious with their relationship with God or at the very least not on fire. Thankfully, God didn’t allow those relationships to develop into something serious or even to last long.

Joel really wanted to have a wife after God’s own heart, and so he prayed one time “Lord, I know you’re coming back soon. But I do want to get married before you come back. Please let me have someone who loves you so much and is passionate in serving you and sharing your Gospel to others. Someone who loves you more than she loves me, so that for her to be able to love me You will have to be the one to tell her to do that.”

Joel soon met and led a friend named Rob* to Christ. He started to disciple Rob but he had a chance to study in Israel and so he took that chance. After his stint in Israel, he went back to Syracuse University and continued to disciple Rob. Rob came to him one time telling Joel a story about meeting a girl named Lynn who was, according to Richie’s description, “Someone who is really passionate about God and really serious about her Faith walk.” This continued on for a few weeks but when Joel asked Rob if he was going to ask her out, Rob said “Oh! Well… there’s this other girl, Marie*…” and then he tells Joel about how great a person Marie is.

Time passed, Joel was now in his senior year in Film, and a time came when Billy Graham had a tour of New York. Joel was a HUGE admirer of Billy Graham so he invited others to join him in going there. Joel’s parents were also a part of the group with Billy Graham so he would be able to see them there. Only 3 other people ended up going with him—Rob, Van*, and then Lynn. The very same Lynn that Rob used to talk about.

They went to the stadium and while they were walking Joel heard an audible voice saying “Wouldn’t it be nice to go out with this girl?!” At first, Joel thought it was Rob who said that but when he turned to look at Rob he was engaged in a conversation with Van. Joel looked at Lynn’s direction but of course it wasn’t her who spoke.

The gathering started and after that Joel and his friends met up with his parents. Joel’s parents invited them to have hot chocolate at their house before going back to campus and Joel said yes for the group. So they had hot chocolate with Joel’s parents and all of Joel’s siblings were also there with him in the living room when he heard the voice again saying, “Wouldn’t it be nice to go out with this girl?”

Joel looked around, and of course, he didn’t see who said it. Joel decided to muster his courage and ask her out. And she agreed. After a couple of dates, he asked if he could kiss her (being the gentleman that Joel is). Lynn said no. She said that she made a covenant with God that she would only kiss the person who, asked her to marry him, and if she accepted that person’s proposal. When Joel heard of it, instead of being discouraged it only caused him to pray harder for their relationship because he thought that he finally found the one.

They continued to date all throughout Joel’s senior year and after the school year Joel and his dad went to a prayer and fast, where Joel fervently asked God to give him a sign if Lynn is the one for him.

God is Faithful; He gave His answer to Joel and also gave him verses from scripture to hold on to. Joel told his parents about God’s answer to his prayer and his parents confessed to him that the night they had hot chocolate at their house, his parents knew that the person they asked God to give to Joel was Lynn. Joel’s mom even went on to say that when she saw Lynn she exclaimed, “Oh my, that’s my future daughter-in-law!!!” And she’s right. Joel and Lynn are now married and have 4 kids…

So what’s the point of the story?  Only this: I believe that we are living in the last days. And whether the youth or young adults today are THE last generation I can’t really say. But time is short and so our actions from this point on must count. Joel and I agree that we don’t want the youth or young adults to get sidetracked on account of them giving their hearts to someone who is NOT the one for them.

To the youth, please be careful with your hearts, and more than that, decide who you will give your heart to now. There is only one person we can give our hearts to who would not let us down. And that person is Jesus. And so if you haven’t accepted Him as your Savior then now is the perfect time to do so. When you give your heart to Christ, I promise you He will safeguard your heart when you allow Him to, then we can rest assured that He will have our backs, and we won’t have to be alone or lonely again.

After the Youth Conference, Joel had another book signing session and then after that he had a Meet & Greet with the Media and Marketing Team who didn’t get the chance to meet him before. I would like to personally thank Joel for allotting some time for us even though we could see in his face that he was already tired from today’s events. Thank you so much Joel, you don’t know how much you’ve blessed us by being a trooper and taking time for us!

Day 03 of the Conference finished, The Epicenter Sunday Services coming up tomorrow! I can’t wait to hear the message! Till tomorrow, God Bless everyone!!! – Joshua Daniel Discipulo

P.S.

The organizers of the Youth Conference told us that there were those who wrote comments about Joel’s message and so of course we want Joel to be able to know some of their thoughts on what happened. Here are two of them:

From Ling Barroga:

Joel, I hope you get to read this. I was really blessed by what you shared at the last part. I want you to know I believe what you shared. I totally agree about keeping ourselves pure. I love how you love your wife and how you say and believe that only a GOD as big as our GOD can make it all possible. GOD bless you! =)

From Fiona Javelosa:

I just want to say thank you for answering God’s call. We are blessed. You are in my prayers. =)

*names have been changed to protect their identity.