By Fr. Keith Amodia, SDB

Lourdes Parish, Cebu, 20 September 2020 -- The Lourdes Parish Youth Center in promoting urban farming among young people held the #Let’sPlantPositivity challenge. It was organized by the Parish Youth Coordinating Council – Lourdes with the guidance of Fr. Abundio Bacatan, their new Youth Director. Started in July 9, young people were challenged to home grow their vegetables and fruits in the city. This was organized for the purpose of letting young people know the importance of planting and helping them combat the negativity of the pandemic.

It is also an actualization of Pope Francis’ encyclical letter, “Laudato Si”, which is a call to take care of our common home – the environment. A number of DBYC Youth group members have actively participated in this activity, culminating with 8 major winners who received gift certificates as prizes during the recently concluded Short Awarding Program.

The Culmination and Awarding of the “Let’s Plant Positivity” challenge took place at the Garden of Lourdes. Eight (8) winners happily received their deserved prizes. Truly, they say, “you really reap what you sow.” However, there is more to harvesting than just this initial prize, because the actual prize one can get from planting depends really on the amount of change it brings to one’s life.

It is the Youth Center’s hope that this is the beginning of everyone’s journey in planting positivity not just in our surroundings, but also in each and everyone’s lives. According to Jennifer Williamson, “every single day, everyone plants their own seeds; in the world and in others, with every thought, every word spoken, and in every action taken; one create’s influence.” Thus, regardless of when, where, and how, one should always choose to plant nothing but positivity.

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