HYC Cebu, Philippines: Nathan Cheong

When you go on a HOPE Youth Corps, you have no choice but to focus. Plucked away from the comforts and conveniences of home, the volunteers are left with each other, their service work and God. We interviewed Nathan Cheong, a 16-year-old who has recently returned from his first HYC experience in Cebu, Philippines to find out more about his experience.

Q: What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?

A: Not feeling good enough. Everyone else knew what they wanted, they were spiritual, could quote scriptures, seemed to have a better connection with God.

I told my dgroup there how I felt, that I wasn’t doing as well spiritually and I told them that rather than just feeling this way, I wanted to learn from them to become a better disciple. I had a great time with one of the brothers, Chris and he helped me realise that I’m not the only one. We’re all struggling; it’s just how we deal with it. I had to go to God and not deal with things my own way.

Q: What is something you’ve learnt about yourself?

A: I realised that I am more empathetic than I thought. On Christmas morning, we had a devo on humility by a brother. He shared about a guy there with no legs and it hit me, how much I had and I literally broke down, seeing him and what he didn’t have and yet how grateful he still was. That’s when I realised I was able to care that much.

Q: Our theme is Focus. What was your focus on this HYC?

A: I wanted to be out of myself. To be vulnerable, build more relationships. In Singapore I’ve always stuck to my comfort zone, with my own group of friends. And it really worked out; I talked to everyone and there were some overseas disciples I got really close to. And even with the other Singaporeans, this was the first time our group of friends actually sat down and had a deep conversation – not about superficial things like football but about what we saw in each other that needed to change.

Q: What was the highest high on the trip?

A: Christmas carolling. At first, it wasn’t all that exciting. We were tired, after building houses for 4 days. But when we got to the place and started carolling and giving them gifts, they started to cry with gratitude. It hit me how much what we did meant to these people, and I finally understood why it is better to give than to receive.

Q: What is something you’ve learnt about Filipino culture?

A: They are really open! We went evangelising and it wasn’t like Singapore where people are like ‘no, get away from me’. Most of them said ‘okay I’ll be there’ and they actually were there! The church of 20 had over 800 people at their Sunday service that week.

Q: You’re back. What’s next?

A: My theme for the year is ‘It’s all about You’, to have faith and believe in God’s sovereignty no matter what. I’m struggling with that because of O Level results and things not going my way, but I really want to focus on that this year. I will also keep building deeper relationships with my friends, by talking more about how we feel and what we want this year – all that deep stuff, and not like how we were.

Q: So you have all these plans, how will you keep this focus?

A: When we came back, we divided ourselves into smaller groups to keep each other accountable. My group has me, Steffi and Jared in it and I share with them my struggles, even this week itself when I struggled to have faith. That’s how we will keep the focus!