t4c hawaii

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94-1368 Hiapo St.Waipahu, HI 96797

Filipino United Church of Christ

Teens for Christ Hawaii 3

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FeaturesWe Are! TFC 6A look inside Teens for Christ Hawaii

The Twitter Revolution 12Insight on the new “Facebook” of the internet

Our Island’s Public Education 14The schools our Teens attend today

Our Gift 20Leaving a helping hand to those in need. Our services in the community

The Man Behind the Uke 24A person’s story during hard times

Ask God Anything 25From the “If I could ask God anything..”

New Kids on the Block 26Sharing the new faces of Teens for Christ Hawaii

*Editor’s Letter

IamhappytoannouncethefirstinstallmentofT4CHawaii.Throughmuch passion, spirit, and drive a compliation of stories, news, and advice has made its way to give you a peak into what the teens and young adults havebeenaccomplishingoverthepastmonths.Intheprocessofmakingthefirstissue,hoursofresearchandideashavebeenrunningthroughmyheadonthebestpossiblewaytoportrayTFC(TeensforChrist).Myhopeforyou is to turn each page with enthusiasum as the articles have been written byteensandadultswhowanttosharetheirstorieswithyou. Don’t a wait second to dive and explore the wonderful aspects of T4C, may you enjoy yourself, God bless!

Eizen Ramones

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welcome to the issue


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Photo taken: at Kawaiaha’o Churchby: Bob Estrella[ ]

We Are! Teens for Christ Hawaii


*Take a look at one of the up-n-coming youth groups on the islands.Overaspanoffivemonths, the group has become one of the largest in Filipino UCC history.

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Being a part of the Filipino UCC church ohana I have had the pleasure to work with the youth since 2003.IalongwithJanuaryLiddellhaveworkedandseen a generation of youth grow up and graduate and couldn't be more proud of all the youth that have been a part of the Fully Committed Christians (OG's)! Now with the move to our new Church in 2009 we have almost tripled in size with many of the younger youthinvitingtheirfriends.Withthesupportofthechurch and the passion, nurturing and organization of Phebe & Ferd Amodo, Abner Sales, Christi Zamora

and myself, the older youth/

TFC REPRESENT!


young adults taking leadership positions; the new generation of Filipino UCC youth have arrived! New youth, new building, new energy, new challenges, new experiences and yes a new identity "TFC" (Teens forChristHawaii).SincewehavestartedtheFridayYouth Nights I remember Abner challenging the youth to come up with a name, and the youth agreed that although it sounded like a popular Filipino TV chan-nel,TeensForChristisreallywhatweareallabout.Afamily of teens who love and want to represent Christ! An identity that we can be proud to represent not only in church, but in our community as well! So to the TFC youth, you are the church of today

and let us continue to learn and grow in Christ and grow together as one family! Let us represent Christ every day!

Love, Peace & Lumpia Grease,BobE.

Schedule of EventsWe invite everyone to attend the events, please contact Bob or Phebeaheadoftimeifattending.AllEventsinRed are held at the FilipinoUCCChurch.[ [

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Celebrate Costume Party// October 31, 2009TimetogiveawaytreatstoourchurchneighborsatHiapostreet.Ofcourse,BBQtime!

Fellowship Night and Filipino Workshop by Tekniqlingz// November 6, 2009Weekly Friday night for food, fun, and fellowship! Bring your friends!

Performance at Ewa Community Church// November 8, 20092 performances during their worship service: Can’t Live Without You and ukele musical performance by Christian, Nick, and Nathan

Teen Prayer Meeting// November 11, 2009Praytogether.SingTogether.SharewhatGodisdoinginyourlivesinthemiddleoftheweek.

TFC Family Night// November 13, 2009Bring your parents or a family member for Open House night! We will have a program for your fam-ily where they can have the opportunity to meet youth leaders, pastor, church ministries, and your friends.Wewillalsobeperformingthatevening!

Thanksgiving Meal for Houseless// November 14, 2009JoinusforoursecondcommunityservicetothehouselessatKeaauBeach,Waianae.WewillbeservingearlyThanksgivingmeal.Wewillbedonatingdrinkswiththemeal.

JointFellowshipwithKawaiaha’oChurchYouth// November 20, 2009Time to visit our brothers and sisters at Kawaiaha’o

Thanksgiving Youth Service // November 27, 2009Thanksgiving Youth Service for teens! Share with each other what we are thankful for!

Teen Prayer Meeting// December 9, 2009Praytogether.SingTogether.SharewhatGodisdoinginyourlivesinthemiddleoftheweek.

Contributors &Writers

JovieleiAcideraWaipahu High SchoolWriter

Robert EstrellaAdvisorWriterPhotographer

JessicaPaulineCampbell High SchoolWriter

JustinSumaoangWaipahu High SchoolWriter

Christian BracerosWaipahu High SchoolFeatured Contributor

Phebe AmodoAdvisorWriter


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THE

REVOLUTIONwrittenbyJovieleiAcidera

@It’s a regular morning and what to dofirst.AsIponder,Iquicklylogontomycomputer.Iim-mediatelyopenupmywebbrowserandlogintwitter.Ireadallmy friend’s updates, laugh at the funny ones, and question the all-too-weirdones.WhatamIdoing?That’sthequestiontwit-ter asks me, so I type something into the little box that’s worth 140characters.

Nowwhatistwitteryouaskme?Howcanyounotknowwhattwitteris?It’sarevolutionthathastakentheworldbyanuproar.Millionsoftwitteraccountshavebeenmadeinjustthispastyear.Theysaythatcelebritiesmadetwitterapopularnetworkingsitebutpeoplegoonforthefunofit.It’s fun because it’s like a mini blog where you can say what youwant,orwhatyou’redoing.It’salsoagreatwaytocom-municate with friends and see what they’re doing at the


[email protected], there’s a little thing called direct mes-sages.It’sanotherwaytocommunicatewithfriendsontwitterbutinaprivateway.All updating on twitter is public unless you choose to protect your tweets so that only yourfollowerscanseethem.Now,whatarefollowers?Followersarepeoplewhofollowyouontwitter.Sothesepeopleareconsid-eredlikeyourfriendsonmyspace.

Myspace has collaborated with twitter so you can sync your myspace status updates withyourtwitterupdates.Thisbasicallymeanswhenever you twitter, it goes on your status on myspace.Forsomepeoplethisisthebestofboth worlds because myspace tweakers who lovegoingontwittercanmulti-task.But,somepeopledisagree.Otherswhoareanti-myspaceprefer just updating on twitter because they don’t likemyspaceortheyliketwitterbetter.I’dsayI’monofthosepeople.Iliketwittertobeseperatefrommyspace.Thereasonforthatis,Ihavenoidea but I guess people just have different prefer-ences.

Twitterstartedoffasasideprojectin2006.But over 3 years, and the website has become asocialnetworkphenomenon.JackDorsey,thecreator of twitter, created twitter because he like theideaofknowingwhathisfriendsweredoing.Aprototype was built and twitter got picked up by ex-ecutivesandgotfunded.Twittersuccessgrewveryquicklyafterit’slaunchin2006.Thisisbasicallyalittlehistoryabouthowtwitterwascreated.

Ifirstcameacrosstwitteronlyinjusttheearlymonthsof2009.IheardthatMileyCyrushadatwitteraccountsoIhadtocheckitout.Ironic,isn’tit?But,really,everyonewonderswhataceleb-rityisdoingright?Well,IknowIdo.So,Icheckedtwitterout.Atfirst,Iwasconfusedandunnervedaboutthisnewsite.Itwasdifferentfrommyspace,facebook,andyoutube.Soeventually,Iwentto

explore.

@I found out that a lot of celebri-ties were on twitter such as, Ash-ton Kutcher, Taylor Swift, Ellen Degeneres, Oprah, Demi Lovato, Paramore,andseveralothers.

I’d say that I started out on twitter when it was justbeginningit’sphenomenon.Itgrewmorepopular becaue people learned that celebrities were on twitter and they could follow them and re-ceiveupdates.So,Imademyowntwitteraccount.Atfirst,Ididn’tknowhowtoworkit.Then,Ifoundout that I can update too and not just use twitter to viewotherpeople’supdates.It’sprettyfun,actual-lyonceyougetusedtoit.Twitterisactuallyprettysimple, you just type an answer to the question it’s askingyou;Whatareyoudoing?

WhatdoIthinkabouttwitter?Iloveit.Irec-commendittoyou.Ithinkit’saveryusefulweb-sitetofindoutwhatyourfriendsaredoingwithoutthehassleoftextingorcallingtheminstead.It’sanicealternative.Also,likeIsaidbefore,it’sagreatand easy way to communicate with friends without actuallytalkingtothemdirectly.Youcanmentiontheminyourtweetsby@replyingthem.Twitterisaneasyandinnovativewaytosocialize.It’scom-pletelydifferentfrommyspaceorfacebook.Ithinkthisisthereasonwhytwitterhasbecomepopular.People are tired of using the same thing everyday, sotwitterisanicechangeforthem.

The twitter revolution is still evolving right now.Moreandmorepeoplearestartingtojointwitter.Areyouoneofthem?It’snottoolatetostart.Ifyoujointwitter,youwon’tregretit.It’sreallyfunandagreatwaytosocialize.Orit’ssomething you can do when you’re bored and have nothingtodo.Youcantwitterwhileyourinthebathroom, at the mall, on your way to somewhere, driving, wait not driving-that’s dangerous! But, you getwhatImean.Twitterisawesome.Period.Sojoin now, it’s free and it’s fun! Hope to see you guys tweetsoonandbecometweeple;twitter+people.Become a part of the twitter revolution, right now! You’rejustatweetaway.


Island''s Public Education

During a time when Hawaii’s public schools are in a financial bind,

students are finding more free time on their hands. Two of TFC’s

members wanted to share their current schools, by breaking past and

current stereotypes for people to see it from their perspective.

I’m here to talk about Waipahu High.TheHomeoftheMarauders.

Soyeahletsgetdoowntothe‘nittygritty’HA.HistoryofWaipahuHighSchool.Waipahuwasfoundedin1938,Mr.DallasC.McClarenwastheveryfirstprincipalofWHS.DidyouknowWHSandWISswitchedlocationforaacoupleofyears?Butthen they switched locations to accommodate thegrowingstudentenrollment.Backtopres-ent day, Waipahu , consists of supposly two-three thousandstudents.Fromgrades9th-12th.OurcurrentprincipalisMr.KeithHayashi.Waipahuhasa large variety of sports to choose from, such as Football,BaseBall,Soccer,Wrestling.Jeezthereis

evenAirRiflery.Who would’ve thought Waipahu would have a Air Riflery?Hm,whatshouldItalkaboutnext?ouue,the ‘CLICKS ‘ ha deng theres CHOOOKE of em, var-iesfromtheBangGeekstotheStoneyBoys.Fromthe Over Achievers to the “eh dawg come wid me, wegoditch1stPeriod“boys.Hamanicanlistsomuchclicksintheschool.

Deng Waipahu High has such a bad rep for being ‘ghetto’geezwadduhpwiththestereotypes. First ofallletmedefinetheword‘ghetto‘forwhodon’tknow.Ghettoisbasiclydefinedas“An+Impov-erish , neglected , or otherwise disadvantaged residentialareaofthecity.Usuallytroubledbyadispeoportionatelylargeamountofcrime.“Cmonnow, Waipahu ain’t poor, kids nowadaays buying 200dollah’hats?!Ifthatain’trichtoyou,wellthe

Our

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youmuustbeswimmingincash.Secondly,neglected?No,yeahthereisthose kind of people were there mind mentality is ‘sawp, look at me fun-ny, imma false your head ‘ but seriously, what school doesn’t have those people>__<.Lastlydisadvantagedresidentialareaofthecity?Don’tthinkso.Sheeeeshthere’ssomeprettydecenthousesinWaipahu,Ihad a teacher who lived in Waipahu and her house had 8 bedroom! So I don’t even know why people relate the word ‘ghetto’ to Waipahu cos were far from that! Waipahu has some fun events such as homecom-ingweek,thenamebasiclysaysitall.

During home coming week the council manages a series of events thatleaduptotheHomecominggameusuallyonFriday.ThereiseventssuchasFieldday.UsuallyFielddayiswheneachgradehaspeoplewhovoulenteertoplayTugofWar.AlsothereisArthursAwards which is an event where each grade level each create a fun cheerandcompetetoseewhohavethebestcheer.ThewinnersareannouncedattheHomecomingGame.AlthoughIthinkthewhole compitition is rigged becos freshmen never do win and seniorswinmostofthetime.Notunlessthefreshmenscheersisheckagood,andIhighlydoubtthat.HA!

writtenby:JustinSumaoang


“Where the day are so so hot, and the nights are so so cold, where Rebel Souljas came from ! No

kidding I just saw them today ( 10/1/09 )”

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School was originally located at what is now Ilima Intermediate School.Sinceitsestablishmentin 1962, the school has grown through out the years, while the population in Ewa continue to increase.JamesCampbellHighSchool is the second largest school (in terms of population) in theLeewardDistrict.

JamesCampbellHighSchool is a public coeducational highschool.Thegradesarefrom9thto12thgrade.CampbellHigh School may not have the good learning environment, but the students don’t seem to mind that.When everyone talks about Campbell High School, half of the things they say are reasons why Campbell isn’t such a good school.Wehavethereputationofhavingalotoffights...,&ithas been printed the newspaper

lastyear2008.

“Even though many may say that Camp-bell isn’t a good school,itreallyis.”

We have a course called AVID (Advance Via Individual Deter-mination).Itshortwords,AVIDisacollegepreparationclass.It helps you to prepare for the future.Also,ithelpswithschol-arship & getting into a good college.Studentswhoareinvolved in AVID will have a lot of help from teachers to reach theirgoals.InSY2005-2006,the school became an AVID Demonstrationsite.Wehaveagreatvarietyofsportstoplay.For example, tennis, football, basketball,volleyball,etc.Also,we have a lot of clubs & orga-nizations.InJamesCampbellHigh School, you can be involve with so many clubs from learning different culture to dancing your heartout.

Being a student myself at JamesCampbellHighSchool,Irealize how much cliques there are.Fromthegeeks,tothestoneys, to the cheerleaders, to the well known, to the quiet, & etc.Icangoon&onwithnam-

James Campbell High School or also known as JCHSislocatedinEwaBeach,Hawaii.WewerenamedafterJamesCampbell,thefounder of Ewa’s prosperous pro-gression into a sugar cane planta-tioncommunity.Hethenwentintoreal estate, buying a large area oflandinEwa,Oahu,Hawaii.Hislandscape was turned into a sugar plantation.Hislegacycontinuesin the community, as well as in the highschool.JamesCampbellHigh


ingcliques.Idon’tconsidermyself in any cliques, only be-cause I hang out with different people.I’mnotalwayswiththesamepeopleallthetime.ImeanI do have my mains, but I like to meetotherpeopletoo.

Remember how in the beginning I said that most peo-ple think Campbell High School isn’tsuchagoodschool?Well,yeah.Duringthisyearsummer,Ihad to work my hardest to con-vince my parents to let me go Campbell.Myparentswereoneof those people who think Camp-

bell isn’t such a good school for me.ButIdidchangetheirmindsafter telling them about all these programs&stuff.Whatreallycaught their eye was the AVID program.Itoldthemthatitwillbe good for me, since I do want to go to college & get a scholar-ship.Also,Campbellistheonlyhigh school in the district that hasAVID.And,Ididtellthemhow I applied for AVID & that I gotaccepted.I think my parents really changed how they look at Campbellnow.

As we all say, “you can’t

judgeabookbyit’scover.”Some people are judging Camp-bell High School just because of whattheyhear&see.Butyouknow, not everything is going to bethewayyouseeit.Thingschange,Peoplechange.“To-gether, we will continue creating a great learning community at JamesCampbellHighSchool.”According to Principal Gail Awakuni.LET’S GO SABERS!

WrittenBy:JessicaPauline

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Adopt a School: August Ahrens

OurGiftIn our commitment to spreading the word of God, we also foundtheneedtogivebacktothecommunity.

In a series of community projects we have done in the past summer and fall, we wanted to express our gratitude and thanks to the all the mem-bersthatwereinvolvedwithourinvolvment.

Sunday, October 11 was a statewide event of Adopt-A-School Day in Hawaii sponsored byAlaMoanaJaycees.Priortotheactualcommunityserviceevent,agroupofteensrepresented the youth group for the Kick Off Rally held at Ala Moana Centerstage on

Saturday,September19.FrancisDaguio,thePresidentofTeensForChristHawaii,receivedthebanneronstageinbehalfofthegroup.

The youth group became aware of this community service through Phebe Amodo, one of the youthadvisers.JustbeforesheenteredagrocerystoreinWaipio,shepausedtoreadthecommunitybulletinboardfilledwithclassifiedsandnotices.TheAdopt-A-Schoolflyercaughther attention and was convinced this was an excellent opportunity for Teens For Christ, Hawaiistudentstohelpaschoolintheircommunity.CommunicationbetweentheJayceesand the youth advisers commenced immediately-- and the teens were looking forward to this opportunityfromdayone.


OurGiftAlthough the past days leading to the event were sauna hot in the islands, about 41 teens and adults showed up at August Ahrens Elementary School ready, willing, and able to paint the sidewalks and plant trees around the perimeter of theschool.Recycledmaterialssuchasbottles,cans,andnewspaperswerealsodonated.ArepresentativeofAugustAhrenswastheretoprovidethetoolsandplantsfortheworkday.

The opportunity to help others especially in the community the teens live in and the chance to contribute to the Department of Education in the midst of fur-loughs is such a great way for the youth to feel proud to be a part of their com-munity.TeensForChrist,Hawaiiwillcontinuetoservetheircommunityinvariouswaysasatestamenttotheirmission.ThenextcommunityserviceistoserveThanksgivingMealtoWaianae’shouselessthisNovember.

written by: Phebe Amodo

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“I can’t wait to go and see my elementary schoolagain.”...”Yeah,Igetthechancetodocommunityservicetomyschool.”...”Wow!Iget to help today!”

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Food Drivewith Kawaiahao

ThispastJulywewereatKea‘auBeach Park on the Wai‘anae coast partnering with Waipahu Filipino

United Church of Christ and Kahu Kaleo Patterson ministering to the house-less.Wepreparedahotmealof“UncleGeorge’s Tugboat Special, ”fresh green salad, fresh orange slices and a dinner

rollfor90people.

Waipahu Filipino UCC’s youth group, some 20 strong, came with food bags that were distrib-uted among the park residents.

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written by: Aunty Minta, Kawaiaha’o Church(This article was originally printed on September 2009 issue of Punawai.ReprintedwithpermissionfromAuntyMinta.)


This was an awesome experience for the youth who have never served the homeless before to besoengagedinwhattheyweresharing.

We encourage our congregation to come out and participate and see how your donations are used.Bestofall,seeGod’sspiritatwork.Ournext outing is scheduled for Saturday, Novem-ber14th.WewillagainpartnerwithKaHanaOKe Akua Congregational Church and Waipahu FilipinoUCCYouthMinistry.Wewillbeprepar-ing a hot turkey meal and all the trimmings for100people.Inordertokeepexpensestoaminimum, we are asking for donations towards themeal.Weneedfive16-20lbs.turkeys,one20lb.bagrice,ten1lb.bagsofstuffingmix,cannedcorn,andcannedjelliedcranberry.Donations can be dropped off at Kawaiaha’o churchbusinessofficeonorafterNovember11th.Pleaselettheofficeknowifithastoberefrigerated.Reminderswillbeplacedintheweeklybulletins.DuringthewintermonthstheWai‘anae coast is usually hit with heavy rains causingfloodsandhighwindsalongwithhigh

surf.Almosteverythingtheyowniswashedintothe sea or drenched from high surf or heavy downpours.Themuchneededitemamongthe houseless, besides non-perishable foods, isgraytarpsandropetoprovideshelter.Wesuggest the gray-type tarp because it can with-standthehighwindsbetterthanthebluetarps.Wewillalsoacceptusedtarps,too.

Approximately 150 individuals and families, of which 45 are children, are located out at Kea‘auBeachPark.Somearedisabledvets;some are homeless by choice; many have jobs butcannotaffordthedepositandfirstandlastmonth’s rent; many don’t have credit history toconnectutilities.Whateverwecanshare,whether it’s our time, food or other essentials isreceivedwithgracebythepeople.

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Dear God,todaywassuchicrazyday.ipraylordthatyoucanmakeall this madness stop , all this violence and gangsand bullcrap , i pray that you may let all those things come toanend.ialsoprayforpeacelord.notjustforusteensinhawaii,butforeveryonenomatterhowoldorwherefrom.ihope that you may help them realize to throw away all their differences from eachother and just stop the drama goin on yourearthwhichyoucreated.andipraylordthatyouwillhelpme and everbody else in the youth to continue our journey on learning more about you, changing our ways, living life all for you,andonedaybeinginyouheavenlykingdom.

in your name i pray , ahmen

The Man BEHIND THE UKE

This freshman high schooler has played theukulelesincehewasyoung.Atimewhen the youth group have been go-ing through some struggles, Christian found a way to channel his emotions in apoem/journaltofindclaritywithinthesituation

FEATUREDMEMBER

Name:ChristianB.Birthday: November 23, 1995 Talents: Plays UkuleleFav Bible Verses: Proverbs 3: 5-6, Isaiah 12:4

From the “If I Could Ask God A Question It Would Be”…..

“why is high school so complicated?”

A: Yup, doesn’t it really feel when you stepped into the first day of high school you suddenly thought how you are ever going to survive four years of schoolwork? That’s not even including the art of making friends, trying to please the teachers, going to school on time and dealing with physical body changes. It’s SO COMPLICATED!!

As an adult, I want to share things with you with-out sounding I misunderstood your question. Hey, I was a full blooded teenage girl not so many moons ago…Frankly, when you’re done with high school, you’ll look back and say, “Wow! I survived four years of high school and it wasn’t that bad.” Then when you go to college or hired for your first job, multiple questions of uncertainty swirl in your mind. What I’m saying is that any new happenings in different phases of life will make you cringe for awhile and will ask of you to be brave, courageous, and seek advice from parents, peers, or God.

For example, we may not know what a baby is thinking when he/she is learning to walk and prob-ably baby’s thinking that skill is “too-complicated-

above -the-normal-are-you-crazy-for-asking-me-to-walk-I-was-just-born –yesterday”. But as older homo sapiens who went through the wobbly stages of walking, we encourage the little ones that they too can do it and we clapped and celebrated when they finally mastered that skill. Your moms and dads must have probably written the date you took your first step independently or took picture of the monumental event!

The key word is mastered. Why is high school so complicated? You have not mastered it yet.

But the good news is you are not alone. Even though you may feel lonely at times, God, be-yond our human wisdom and understanding truly cares about who you are and the life phases you go through. In Hebrews 13:5, God promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us. Be encouraged like Paul when he said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) Keep asking. Keep searching. Keep hoping. Keep believing. With God, complications of high school will be a thing of the past!

Ask God Anything


Q:

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NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCKIt is surely astonishing to see the influx of teens that paved their way through the Filipino UCC building. As a thank you to all the dedicated members and advisors we compiled a few “kodak moments” to showcase best of TFC Hawaii in the past year.


the church today...

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