The Youth Gathering was held on July 19–20, 2025, at the Bahá’í Center in Tankulan, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon. It was joined by over 35 Youth from the clusters of Manolo, Surigao, Cagayan, and Ozamiz.
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‎Before the gathering, we had a meeting with the Local Spiritual Assembly of Tankulan, the Area Teaching Committee, an Auxiliary Board Member, and the Human Resource team on June 26–28, 2024 we study Book 2 for our content of conversation and try to practice it. After that, we conducted daily visits to the participants from the afternoon of June 28 to July 13, 2025, to prepare and invite them.
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‎The community Purok leaders also gave their support by providing chairs, a tent, and bananas for the gathering. The Local Spiritual Assembly supported by helping to prepare breakfast and snacks.
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‎During the gathering, we talked about the concept of being a youth, the responsibility to contribute to the betterment of society faced by the current generation of youth, the characteristics of Junior Youth (ages 12–15), supporting one another, and advancing together in service to society. We also reflected on some aspects of the life of a generation of youth alive to Bahá’u’lláh’s vision of a new society.
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‎We also deepened the conversation about those aged 12–15, who are called Junior Youth, through Themes 1 and 2 of the material. The participants reflected that we, as youth, had a huge impact on the attitude they show us as their Ate's and Kuya's in the community. They were also inspired by the story of the Jambo community, seeing how strong and true friendship in service helped them support each other to progress.
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‎The gathering included study sessions (in big and small groups), presentations (such as music, poems, drama, and art), and group sharing. We used the material Gabay sa mga Kabataan to guide our discussions and activities.
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‎The two-day gathering created an environment of joyful learning, unity, and inspiration through everyone's sharing of insights and experiences. The youth built bonds of friendship and felt more ready to serve others. Many of them shared that they want to organize similar gatherings in their own clusters every cycle, so they can continue learning and taking action together.
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‎On the last day, everyone joined in a time of personal reflection, watched a video presentation prepared by facilitators, and enjoyed a dance performance to the song “Sa Atin Mag-Sisimula” by Kuya Jeff. This part of the program brought a lot of joy and showed the youth’s strong desire to bring positive contribution to the community.
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‎One important reflection that came from the gathering is the need to strengthen the element of conversation. We saw that if we continue to have meaningful and uplifting conversations with individuals in the community, we can move closer to our goal. Through these conversations, we will find more and more people who are willing to arise and strength the bond of friendship to serve in Bahá’u’lláh’s vision of building a new civilization.
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‎Furthermore, on July 21, 2025, the Cluster Agency of Manolo held a meeting to discuss how to continue supporting the youth who joined the gathering. As a result of this consultation, we are planning the following upcoming activities:
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‎Intensive Campaign on July 27–28, 2025 (Book 1 and Book 2)
‎Cluster Reflection Meeting on August 2, 2025, where all participants, facilitators, parents, and cluster agencies will be invited to join.