KOTA KINABALU – The second round of the Kursus Evangelisasi Peribadi (Personal Evangelization Course), or popularly known by its acronym KEP, was enthusiastically conducted Feb 12, barely two months after the success of its inaugural launch in November last year.
Archbishop John Wong, together with spiritual adviser of the Archdiocesan Catechetical Commission Fr Nicholas Stephen, unveiled a banner during the opening Mass to officially mark the launch of KEP-2 in Sabah at the Catholic Archdiocesan Centre here.
KEP-2 would be held every Monday and Wednesday night from 8.00-10.30 online, to end in June 2022.
What is KEP?
KEP or Personal Evangelization Course is a program of “Awareness, Encouragement and Repentance” for every Church member whose primary vocation is to proclaim the Good News.
In principle, KEP invites people to know or evangelize themselves before evangelizing others – “Evangelism to others is only equipped to evangelize individuals” (EN 46).
KEP is therefore a program by the laity for the laity, with laity’s dynamics, to “encourage” the laity.
The fruit of KEP is that people would believe more deeply and firmly, would be more proud of their faith, would love their Church more and rejoice in the faith, and thus will be more “passionate in preaching”.
KEP is open to all Catholics from different categories and age level.
KEP-2 theme: Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14:6)
The theme chosen for this second round “Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life” is adapted to the synodal journey of the Church which emphasizes the three aspects, namely, Communion, Participation and Mission.
As the participants learn to draw closer to Jesus personally as “the Way, Truth and Life”, they in turn share this Good News to others.
To the KEP-2 participants, Archbishop Wong underscored that the course would enable them to walk together with the organizers, teachers and facilitators to experience a deepening of the love of God, and to experience Jesus as the only Way, the true Truth, and Life, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring that personal experience of God to those they meet in their daily lives.
The local organizers for the Sabah online KEP-2 were assisted by the Diocese of Bogor led by Fr Yohanes Suradi and a team of commissioned speakers headed by Yacobus Ngadinun, and the KEP team from the Diocese of Melaka-Johor.
Participation for round two has been very encouraging with 154 participants from all over Sabah, comprising 100 participants from Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu, 31 from Diocese of Keningau, 21 from Diocese of Sandakan, and two from Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur. 25 out of the 154 participants are from the youth.
For the course, participants received as course materials, the Evangelization Mission Book and Evangelii Nuntiandi presented by Archbishop Wong to a delegation of 26. This time round, professional medical doctors and nurses, pensioners, teachers, youth and religious, other than the ordinary laity, made up the KEP Batch Two attendees.
What Batch One participants say