By Eira Cezanne Buhisan
Second Place Winner

The author is in Fourth Year-OLFA at Christ the King College, Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental.

In the past years in this living world, existed a perfect harmony in nature. Living was so fascinating as evident in the blooming of the flowers, in the breathing of the animals, in the rushing sound of river-flow and in the gliding of birds in the sky. There was equilibrium in our air, water and land resources.

Nevertheless, because of the never-ending changes in this world, life in the past is now just a picture of beauty and tranquility. Everything happens because of the people who are becoming more materialistic so that the responsibility for and tasks in nature are forgotten and neglected. Some people use this world for their advantage and forgot to act as stewards of Mother Earth. Many people are not content with their own way of living. They cannot live without destroying our world, our Mother Earth. They use our world for their own advantage. Consequently, we live our lives in foolishness. We are so overwhelmed by our power to think and to utilize our Mother Earth.

Can’t we see these affects? Are we going to continue our wrongdoings? Will we never see the future smiling back at us?

‘Evangelizing This Digital Continent’ is the essence of creation spiritually. It is the realization of the truth that all things in this world come from only one Creator, our GOD. We should learn to appreciate the beauty of nature, but we should not overuse nature.

We are given the power to rule over this world and the responsibility to use it properly and to take care of it. People should have a deep realization of the truth that we depend on. It is our task to maintain it. There is a saying that goes ‘YOU TAKE CARE OUR WORLD AND IT WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU’.

Technologies help us very much. As teenagers we need to make better use of websites, e-mail newsletters, blogs, and other way just to reach out our faith to God. And we need to contribute and share our opinions by having comments or suggestion to the site. Just to ensure that we really participate and help one another to reach our goal. That is to ‘be a good role model’.

We need to use the latest media technologies to ‘Evangelize This Digital Continent’. Prior to the recent visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Austria, the Archdiocese of Vienna provided a free service via mobile phone offering excerpts of the Pope’s sermons and writings. The London-based The Timesnewspaper reported that Churches Advertising Network bought an ‘island’ on the popular internet site called ‘SECOND LIFE’. And also many services are already available for the Bible that will deliver daily prayers, ring tones, and photos to mobile phones. Religious video podcasts are also available. 
A number of Christian social sites now exist, where believers can have social contact without having to immerse themselves in sites where all sorts of morally content are present. Since announcing the Good News to people formed by a media culture requires taking carefully into account the special characteristics of the media itself, we now need to understand the internet. The internet’s offers many advantages, such us direct access to spiritual resources along with the capacity of overcoming distances. It thus offers the Church new possibilities for communications.

Therefore, these communications should be characterized by truthfulness, accountability, and sensibility to human rights. We must use the potential offered by new communication technology in carrying out our mission, At the same time, we need to keep firmly in mind, that for all types of media, Christ should be both our model and the source of the content we communicate.

We should become stewards of our world especially of our environment and technologies. As to how we are going to do it, it is not simple but it is going to start with a single meaningful word: ‘ACT’. Looking at the positive side will give us a chance to think better. This is a big challenge, yet a great opportunity for us to show our love to our world. We are the hope of the next generation. Let us make them see the beauty of life by taking care of our Digital World so that we will then be able to put a smile on their faces...