Equipping youth for change

Live band; crashing drums, pulsating rhythms, addictive guitars and elevating vocals, white-hot lights, a single body of one-hundred-and-fifty youth jumping and jamming to the music. Welcome to History Maker International – Sri Lanka 2008.

History Maker International (HMI) is a youth movement pioneered by Rev. Richard Williams and Rev. Woodrow Blok focussed on giving the future generation of Asia a vision to be a better people. Through three or four days of conferences and interactive workshops, youth from all around the member countries gather together under one roof to collect information, receive guidance and inspiration, let go of inhibitions and fears and just have a great time – without the dirt. The conference has, since its inception in 2002 travelled to over 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific including Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Australia and Myanmar. Sri Lanka was the inaugural host to the international youth movement and has been a proud part of the programme throughout the past six years.

This year's Sri Lanka session, organised in collaboration with Revolution Youth was held last week where More than 150 youth from around the country attended the conference, and went away inspired to create change.

The mission of HMI in Sri Lanka is to mobilize and equip the youth to make an impact on their families, schools, workplaces, towns, cities and the nation. Speakers at the event this time around were Rev. Richard Williams and Mr. Philip Ong from Singapore and Rev. Steve Roberts from Australia. All three speakers left their audience yearning to take an active role in changing our nation from a cursed place of war to a blessed place of peace. Workshops were conducted in the afternoons to keep the participants occupied before the evening rally, one on drama production and the other on leadership on Saturday.

The highlight of the programme was Saturdays' evening rally which began at 5pm and went on until 10pm. Rev. Williams moved many people to tears with his message and final story of a poor 21-year-old girl who was beaten, jailed and died declaring her religious convictions and beliefs about sacrifice.

From the emotion of this hour, the programme shifted into a session of dramatic skits based on a 'Rebirth' theme, burning ballets and thumping hip-hop dances featuring the B-boy talents of the youth. The band then took the lead and moved into a jam session while the crowd went crazy dancing and shouting. Rev. Williams broke into this party with the declaration that "This is real church!" (which was wildly applauded) where youth have all the fun in the world and still keep it clean. The 10pm public sound ban was the only thing that broke the party up, to the regret of everyone (including middle-aged people: young at heart!) present that evening.

The youth were truly mobilized and equipped. What they took back with them at the end of the programme was not a mere collection of happy memories and snippets of moving messages, but a drive and a purpose to life, to change the world with the power that is theirs' as the future of the world.

The final fifteen to twenty minutes before the group broke up echoed with the cry of the youth rising up to reclaim their future, proving that this experience would last much longer than the two days of the gathering. Only time remains to prove if an impact will be created.