From an older article, Serving the Youth, I narrated my husband and I's experiences when we were the Youth for Christ (YFC) Couple Coordinators of our chapter or Chacoco, a term coined by the YFCs themselves. It was different from the previous ministries that we served. Different in the sense that the objects of evangelization are the teenagers. If on the older article I talked about being a Chacoco from our point of view, for this article I am fortunate to sharing the floor to a former YFC leader, Bro. Ezra Paguntalan. I couldn't bring myself to addressing him as Bro (he already crossed over to Singles for Christ) as I got used to dealing with the teenaged Ezra in the past. Below is Ezra's account of his ideal chacoco (with minor revisions due to space considerations):
My ideal chacoco believe in the innate and intrinsic goodness of the youth. They are not judgmental. They understand that the youth make mistakes but will never judge them because they believe in the youth's intrinsic goodness. For my ideal chacoco, nobody is a hopeless case: lots of doses of understanding, guidance and love are all that are needed. They must be firm but loving. Being young themselves once upon a time, a lot of lessons can be imparted from their experiences.
One of the most memorable experiences that I have with my chacoco was the advice that they gave me about opening up to my parents and that I should take the first step. That our parents also want to get to know us more and it’s possible that they just don’t know how or where to start. They told me that I have nothing to lose in trying. I never regretted initiating it. Now I am happy to say that I have a wonderful relationship not just with my parents but also with my brother and sisters as well. I am who I am now also because of our chacoco. I am truly grateful and indebted to all the chacoco that I have met as a YFC.
What else can I say? I just hope that Jun and I were able to make a mark in the life of even one YFC when we were their chacoco.
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