Stepping out of the Toyota Camry onto the floor where I took my last step from last year’s Ignite conference, I was feeling nervous as I heard all the chattering of excitement coming out of the Syndal Baptist Church building. Just like last year, we came a bit late again as we have made a long journey from the west but without feeling tired everyone in our youth group felt very energetic and were looking forward to having a good time with everyone and ready to connect with the living God.

Representing small church like Lautu-chin Baptist Church with 20 youth and young adult including myself and senior pastor at the Ignite conference was unreal because it felt like we have made a second journey to a completely different world where we have the freedom to speak English, communicate with different people, witness the different styles of worship from other youth, and more importantly listening to an encouragement by different keynote speakers.

For me personally without the Ignite conference entering my life, I would be lost in identifying who I truly am in Christ and what is my purpose in this world. For the past two years of attending the Ignite conference had led me to a course, which I’ve never heard of, called “Vetamorphus” (Cert III in Christian Ministry). Doing Veta this year from a government school is something I’ve never thought of doing because what’s the point when my school does not even recognise the subject as a Vet? But for some reason I felt the need to do the subject in order to keep my faith on track when I am struggling in my last years of secondary school and I thought to myself, does it really matter if it counts towards my ATAR or not? Does it not depend on how I am in relation to God? So here I was this year at the Ignite conference helping out as a facilitator in the small group as part of my minor ministry placement for my Vetamorphus.

This year Ignite was even better than last years because we had different youth groups showcasing their amazing given talent by God for his glory including some people from our youth group who performed breakdancing. We also had the privilege to witness and hear Vee and Josh (Hip Hop duo) perform different types of songs including their own written one! We were also very encouraged by different messages from different keynote speakers as they have shared their experiences with God making it enjoyable for us to listen.
Even though we had the absence of the Gangnam Baptist Church (from Korea) this year, God works to make it a lot better than expected.

Once again we can’t leave out the food as we had some delicious food prepared for us by the Westgate, Werribee and Bentleigh Baptist Churches. I would like to take the opportunity to thank them for their amazing contribution.

Last but not least, I want to thank the following individuals and groups; Meewon, Charlene, Melissa, the ignite committee, the BUV and the keynote speakers for making this event possible. And on behalf of all the youth and young adults who attended the conference, we want to say Thank you for making us feel part of something that is out of our comfort zone. Thank you for making it every year so people like us have something to look forward to.

I hope to see you all next year.

LET’S MAKE IT EVEN BETTER!!