The 34th edition of the Children Cake Carol Competition (C5) 2022 was held at Town Centre Point, Mokokchung on 20 December.
The event was organised by the Mokokchung Town Baptist Church (MTBA) Youth Department under the theme ‘Christmas Gloria’ with nine youth fellowships under MTBA and the United Christian Fellowship.
The Aongza Youth Fellowship with 66 children were declared the winners of the carol competition. Tongdentsuyong Youth Fellowship with 91 children came in second place and Arkong Youth Fellowship with 80 youngsters in third place.
Christmas brings cheer and love and the competition was celebrated with the same fervour, spreading the message of love and joy among the children.
Dr L Botoholi Yeptho, Associate Pastor Women, Sümi Baptist Church (B) Mokokchung, during a brief exhortation commented that the C5 event should be held in every town in Nagaland.
Reflecting on the theme ‘Christmas Gloria’, she said “Christmas is the celebration of birthday of our Jesus Christ” and interpreted the meaning of “gloria” from the Bible as “the immortal, eternal, everlasting, splendour, magnificent, the brilliance and the beauty of God”.
“Gloria is manifesting God’s Holiness,” she said and explained that it means bringing out the holiness of God in public.
Dr L Botoholi Yeptho giving an exhortation.
Dr Yeptho further gave warm encouragement to the children who were about to present the Christmas carols at the event.
Stating that fear is an unpleasant feeling, she said it is, however, “the primary emotion of every living being.” She went on to say that fear has been wired to us by God for our survival response, to be saved, to be healthy and also to be positive and encouraged the gathering to enjoy fear which is physical and is activated by emotions. But she also cautioned that “fear can paralyze us” and she called upon all the people present to courageously take up fear and let “peace” take place and to glorify the name of God.
The C5 competition involved 10 youth department fellowships competing for the annual coveted title. There were altogether 814 participants of ages ranging from 6–12 from A&B, A&D, Aongza, Arkong, Kichutip, Medical, Salangtem, Sunrise, Tongdentsüyong and United Christian Fellowship.
Tongdentsuyong Youth Fellowship came in second place (top) and Arkong Youth Fellowship in third place (bottom).
The number of participants of the children from 6–12 years from 10 fellowship are as follows:
- A&B – 84
- A&D – 105
- Aongza – 66
- Asking – 80
- Kichutip – 65
- Medical – 102
- Salangtam – 105
- Sunrise – 60
- Tongdentsüyong – 91
- UCF – 56
The C5 was celebrated with great joy and zest among the children with more than three thousand people gathering to witness the grand competition at the Town Centre Point.
It was also informed that the United Christian Fellowship was participating for the first time at the Christmas Carol Competition of 2022. Earlier, only nine fellowships had participated in the competition so far.
United Christian Fellowship.
A special presentation was presented by Ungma Baptist Church, Youth Ministry who were the winners of the recently concluded Cake Carol Competition at Ungma Village.
The celebration was led by MTBA Worship Team. Lanuakum Jamir was the host while Rev Temsuwati Kichu pronounced the invocation.
The programme was telecast live at MTBA Mokokchung YouTube channel, which was viewed by 24,000 people.
