“Credo” – a musical retreat was organized by the JY members of Bangalore. This was a two day closed program conducted by two exponents from the Rex band team-Shelton (lead singer) and Alphonse (keyboardist)

JY-Hyderabad was exclusively invited to be a part of this event because of the close connections Hyd shares with Bangalore and also because of the interest and enthusiasm Hyd exudes in music.

A team of 10 members (8 from Hyd and 2 from Vijaywada) left for Bangalore on the 22nd of Sept. After a very enriching and fruitful journey experience, we reached the venue (DSS convent-electronic city) at about 10:00 am. We got refreshed and after a quick breakfast we got to the program hall.

On entering, all of us were called to the stage and we received a traditional yet innovative welcome from all the participants. There were about 50 of them present, all of them with a musical inclination. Many of them were singers, who help out in the music ministry, others included keyboardists, guitarists, drummers and a special mention of the presence of a saxophone player too.

Well after the brief introduction, we had an ice breaking session conducted by Crispin (one of the organizers). All of us were broken down into small teams and each team was given a banana. We were given and knife and asked to dice the banana into very small fine pieces with every team member making atleast one incision. All the teams got into a frenzy as they embarked on this doctorly experience doing a complete postmortem with so much finesse handling the knife ala the surgeons scalpel. After the banana breakdown, to everyones’ surprise, we were asked to put back the fine pieces together and hold them so that the banana was restored. This proved to be a very difficult and a next to impossible task, but it was a good exercise.

We were then asked to co-relate this experience with our personal lives and it dawned upon everyone that it was so easy to destroy and destruct yet so difficult to restore and construct.

After a short tea break, the next session was conducted by “the man” himself-Shelton. This was a serious discussion where Shelton brought to light the following aspects:
Always “Be Aware” that GOD has gifted us with the talent of music.
Accept and have the “Conviction–Purpose embedded awareness” of this gift.
Have the “Charism-Transformation of the talent” to live up to this gift.
Shelton was so unassuming and so full of humility that all the above so truly reflected and got so naturally translated in words. This was a good introductory learning time.

One of the other key speakers at this retreat was Fr.Anand sj (a manglorian presently doing his ministerial work at Nagaland). Fr. Anand was roped in to be one of the guest speakers. Needless to add, that Fr. Anand’s youthful exuberant presence, was a blessing to everyone around. His talks were always fiery and thought provoking with a fine blend of encouragement, subtleness, an underline message and out of the box perspective.

Mass was arranged at mid-day and this was followed up by a sumptuous lunch.

Post lunch session was taken up by Shelton. He shared with us “THE WORD” and elicited some of the aspects as to “The reasons why we sing”- to draw attention, to gain acceptance, impress people, make money, to be cool, enjoy/like singing and secondly the various “Addictions”-mind, language involved.

After this, we had a two hour break during which he encouraged all of us to make our confessions since we had a time of adoration in the evening.

The adoration time lead by Shelton in the evening, was a beautiful experience as all the participants had gathered together in the small chapel and it was a personal time with GOD. Although this was to be for a stipulated time of 45 mins, just unknowingly it got stretched to almost 2 hrs. It was so intense with intercessions, praying and singing involved that everyone truly got immersed in it and had a prayerful time.

After dinner, Shelton took up the closing session for the day. This was all about Praise and Worship. He brought forth the following thoughts

1. Why Praise GOD?
We praise GOD because he is worthy of our praise, Praise is an expression of the reality of GOD in an unbelieving world, Praise is the gateway to GOD and when I praise GOD nothing happens to GOD, but something beautiful happens to me.

2. When to Praise?
When we feel like it & when we don’t feel like it, NOW, when we feel that GOD is far away, Day and night, when times are hard.

3. How do we praise GOD?
Lifting our hands, clapping of hands, playing musical instruments, standing, kneeling, bowing, singing Difference between Praise and Worship is that Praise is preparatory to worship and its done in a group while worship is rather personal, its from the heart and acknowledging GOD’s supreme lordship.

After this most of us were completely drained out from the previous night’s journey and we dashed off to bed for an early rise the next day.

24th September was a bright new day and we started of the right note with praise and worship conducted by Priya (one of the organizers). Again a beautiful time to spent with the Lord with the break of dawn.

After this we had a session conducted by Fr. Anand on “Christian faith”.

This was a very interactive early morning discussion as we debated on the following controversial questions:
How the did the universe come into existence? Was it really the big bang?

Chapter 1 of Genesis mentions that man was created on the 7th day, but chapter 2 contradicts that by saying God created man on the 1st day…. What is the truth?

Adam and Eve had 3 sons ie Cain, Abel and Seth, so how did we come into existence then and to which race do we belong to?

In chapter 3 of Genesis, God cursed the serpent and since then it started to crawl… Could it be possible that the serpent was walking prior to GOD cursing it?

It is assumed that the apostles Mathew, John etc wrote the gospels … But these gospels came out much much later than their existence and further they were innocent people who knew not to read and write? So is the assumption true?

How many books are there in the Holy Bible ?? Is it 76 or 66 ? Why so many versions?
Who wrote the Bible ?

These were some of the questions that Fr. Anand posed to everyone and with no answers he very delicately mixed it with his message on Christian faith.

Breakfast time and everyone was requested to make new friends, create new acquaintances & to mix outside the group during every break.

The session which followed was conducted by Shelton. He started by playing the video clip of Tony. Tony is a disabled guy with no hands and yet he praises GOD with his singing and playing the guitar with his feet - truly an inimitable feat and a true testament of Tony’s tenacity and faith in GOD.

Following this Shelton mentioned about what music ministry is about and he very beautifully elicited the following for this ministry.

Things to ponder on:
Commitment
Focus
Agreed upon lifestyle
Meet up often
No mediocrity. Give ONLY the BEST TO GOD
Talk to fellow musicians.
Teach from the Bible.
Write and compose songs.

He also asked us to define a goal for our ministry, have a mission statement, and formulate strategies on achieving it.

By this time the other big man from the Rex band Alphonse arrived. No sooner did he arrive, he started off on a very technical note.
After some initial definitions of Amplitude, Frequency, Pitch etc he straight away got into business.

He gave everyone a quick tutorial on musical notations, how we can differentiate different beats and how to follow some basic music notes … Infact, we had some exercises as well and everyone enjoyed it.

We had a very good mass and an equally awesome homily by Fr. Anand. Everyone participated whole heartedly giving praise and thanks to GOD.
It was noon by then and we had to break for lunch. Had a good lunch and it was about time we had to bid our adieu. All of us got back to our rooms packed quickly and then bid farewell to all the organizers. Some of them were kind enough to drop us at the bus stop to take the right bus to the station.

In the train, we thanked and praised our awesome GOD thru singing for being with us all thru the weekend by guiding and showing us the way.
Even before we realized we were already at Secbad station the next morning.

Credo in more ways than one has been a blessing for everyone who attended it. This was the first musical experience for many in the group. Shelton, Alphonse, Fr. Anand everyone did a fabulous job in stirring up the talent and the “musician inside” in all the participants. It was a blessing to be a part of this retreat.

The seeds have been sown, will this reap a rich harvest ??? Time will tell ………………..

A one day picnic “Salt & Pepper” was organized for the JY Family at the Don Bosco Seminary, 60 kms away from the city on 17th Sep ‘06.

Once we reached there after a comfortable bus journey, we were welcomed by Fr Sebastian who was truly happy to have us in their midst.

The day started with an introduction session where the theme for the day “Salt & Pepper” was explained by Bro Rodney.
One of the interesting things about salt is that when it is used it loses itself. You do not see salt in your food because it makes its contribution and is gone. Salt used on icy highways and streets makes winter travel safe and disappears. In the same way, Christians who are the salt of the earth do not hesitate to give of themselves as they serve their God and their fellow man.
Matthew 5:13 says , “Ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted”.
It was an apt theme considering the fact that like salt Christianity is no good if it is not used and when used loses itself. Hence we must not hesitate to give ourselves to serve our God and we must not be afraid to lose ourselves when we do this.
The other aspect of theme – Pepper – is intended to bring forth the fact that we Christians are to be like Pepper – hot-boiling with the fire of the Lord, spreading our essence in the dull and listless world that we live in.

We then participated in the celebration of the Holy Mass by Father Sebastian. It was unlike the usual masses that we normally attend as father made it an interactive celebration. The wonderful celebration touched most of our hearts as when father asked us to close our eyes and ask God what he wants us to change an inner voice inspired by the Holy Spirit revealed it to so many of us and we offered this change to the Lord during Offertory.

This was followed by an ice-breaking session which was fun and also helped us know each other when we were asked to act like God and enumerate the good and bad things about us.

We had a delicious fellowship meal the famous Hyderabad biryani, and were then divided into groups and played a few games which resulted towards highlighting our creative talents and teamwork.

The first game was where each team had to decide on a group theme and present it in the most creative manner possible which resulted in presentations like songs, skits and role plays.
Next we had to present a skit with the themes suggested by the group leaders which were given by way of lots to each team. The themes were basically biblical events like Jonah, Noah’s Ark, Creation, etc. All the groups put in their best efforts to relive these events. A challenging game was when each group was asked to choose a hymn and convert it into an action song. It was interesting to see the various ways in which the hymns were being interpreted into actions.
Next each group was asked to build an altar with bricks, wood, 5 different types of leaves, 10 round stones and a live chicken which was an eventful one. Every group was at their creative best in making the most prayerful altar and then explained the significance of the components of their creation.

A soccer game between the JY team and the Novitiate team was a good one which resulted in the Novitiates winning a tough match which almost resulted in a tie. The grand finale for the day was a treasure hunt which proved to be a good exercise for all.

The tea break turned out to be a mutual introduction session for the Novitiates and JYs and the novitiates were given a brief introduction about Jesus Youth.

On the way back home, when everybody was comfortably seated, tired and ready to leave for home the bus developed some technical snags. Despite repeated attempts of pushing the bus it just would not start. Eventually when the human efforts were in vain and we began interceding a miracle took place where the bus just had to bow to the Lord’s command and everyone reached home safely.

Salt ‘n’ Pepper was time taken out from everyone’s otherwise normal-busy schedule, to mingle & be together with other JY family members outside of the normal environment. This time spent in togetherness helped everyone bond better, relax and to just enjoy themselves.
A complete day of fun and laughter, song and dance and what better way to top it when at the end of the day, the LORD Himself taught us and reminded us all yet again to depend always upon HIS grace and HIS infinite mercy.
Yes !!! Salt ‘n’ Pepper will remain etched in memory for a long time to come !!!!