Monday, December 18, 2006
Phew. Yep, for those of you who don't know. I just came back from this year's YF camp. Overall, I enjoyed the camp, but I'm kinda glad it's over cos I was getting kinda exhausted.
Here's a detailed breakdown of the camp:
Day 1 - 14/12, Thursday
First, we had to meet in church. We arrived, did the registration, got our tags, and boarded the bus to the camp site, ACS International. The day went well, we played a game called meatballs to get into our groups. My group's name was called Naphtali, one of the 12 tribes of Israel. To put it simply, the first day consisted of group interaction, camp briefing, some indoor games, workshop, meals, as well as worship and word. Pastor Jenny, Pastor Philip Hwan's wife, was the camp preacher. She's a good speaker, I must say. I have never met her before but she was familiar with the older ones within the camp. The word for this camp was very good because it was all concentrated on a certain theme and there was only one preacher. That makes the word very concentrated and I think that was very good.
The workshop was interesting, and we learnt about the 5 love languages. How to show God's love to people. The camp theme was Deeper, Wider, Beyond. Deeper meaning strengthening relationships with the people close to you such as family and friends. Wider meaning strengthening relationships with acquaintances and the people in your camp groups. Beyond meaning showing God's love to the people beyond such as strangers and people whom we don't know.
My group was rather quiet compared to the other groups. We tried to strike up some conversation but in general was quite quiet. I went to bed excited about day 2 actually because I was leading worship for day 2. Lol.
Day 2 - 15/12 - Friday
Day 2 was great fun. It was a rather high energy day, consisting of outdoor games. The workshop was good as well, with Joseph & Vivien sharing about relations within the church, and how we are all vital to the church and how our different personalities contribute to the church and how important all of us are.
The games, I must say, were really fun. I must say this, I enjoy playing those more creative games such as the water bomb game where we have to protect the leader and crossing the soapy canvas more than captain's ball, etc. I mean, these games are played outside of camp so often, it's more refreshing and fun to play other, more creative games that we never get to play outside of camp. Anyway, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Too bad it rained just as we finished the second station.
Well after that was......... Worship. Yup, me leading. To tell the honest truth, I wasn't that nervous. Leading worship is very very different from performing a song, such as during CHMA. First, it's not a performance. It's LEADING the worship, heading the worship, where the ultimate focus is on God. I wanted to let the band know that we were leading as a band, and that we were all leaders.
Anyway, I thought it was really great of Jit to get the camp to pray for the band before the worship. I also want to thank everyone who prayed for me such as my cell group, especially Jit and others such as Priscilla and Nelson. The worship was fantastic. Before the session, I actually planned out what I was going to say between the songs, but everything just came to me, and almost everything that I shared was truly spontaneous, and I can say it was truly God's grace and that everything that I shared came from God and not me.
Pastor Jenny's sharing was very powerful, and many people responded to the ministry time. I was asked to lead the song "Your Grace Still Amazes Me", which was part of my worship session, during the ministry time.The most amazing thing is, the focus for day 2's sharing was Jesus's love, poured out for us when he was on the cross. All the songs that I led, especially the last 2, Forever and Your Grace Still Amazes Me were all perfect as ministry songs for her sharing.
The thing is, I wasn't briefed on what the word was going to be about or even the camp theme. The practice was weeks before the camp. At first, I was worried that the choice of songs came from me and not from God. Thankfully, seeing how well it fit into the camp theme and the word, it's definitely from God, and I'm thankful for that. I must say I think many people were touched that day, and I'm glad that I could do my part in that. Thank God indeed.
Day 3 - 16/12 - Saturday
Ah, this day was very special indeed. I shall skip the other stuff and concentrate on the community project which we all participated in. This was part of the third part of the camp theme, Beyond. We were all assigned to go to different places to share God's love to the people. 3 groups were assiged to go to Bethany Nursing Home. Another 2 groups were assiged to Orange Valley Nursing Home. My group and another group, Judah, were assigned to The Singapore Christian Home For The Aged(I think that's the name of the place).
The whole trip was wonderful. Even though we spent a lot of time on traveling, it was worth it when we reached there. We sang Christmas carols to them, chatted and interacted with them, and gave them gifts. I was especially touched when I saw An Yi and Christine helping this old lady who couldn't speak or move properly with her food. To see them with SO MUCH love helping the lady sit up and lie down, and feed her food was really heartwarming. They really showed God's Love to her. I could tell it was truly truly sincere and loving of them.
Overall, I think we touched them and made a difference in their lives. There was a communication barrier however, because many of them spoke dialect and we had trouble understanding them. Now I have another testimony to share. Originally, the last song for my worship session was "Jesus Generation". Before the camp, I felt God telling me to lead that as the last song to address the point of going out to reach out to the other people.
Again, I had no idea what the theme of the camp was. I only found out about the community service 3 days before the camp, about a week after I had practiced with my band. I wanted the whole worship session to flow. The first part was the fast songs, which had a primary focus on the power of worship, then the 3rd song, Forever, was suppose to emphasize on God's love and loving god, then followed by Your Grace Still Amazes Me, which again emphasized on God's love. The last song was suppose to be "Jesus Generation", which is a faster song compared to Your Grace Still Amazes Me, and it was suppose to end with a clap offering. However, during the actual worship session, I felt God telling me not to do Jesus Generation, so I didn't.
After the whole camp. I realized that the order of my songs fit the camp theme and the whole flow of the camp, and the preachings! If you scroll up, you'll understand. Once again, I had no idea of the camp theme or the preachings when I thought of the songs. It was definitely God's work. I knew then that I could set my heart at ease, knowing that the songs came from God and no one else, not even me. I just want to thank God for that. Anyway, I think all the groups impacted the places that they went to. The Night games were very very fun as well, and I really enjoyed myself.
Day 4 - 17/12 - Sunday
The last day was rather relaxed compared to the other days. Haha obviously... Anyway, we had reflections and wrapped up the entire camp. After 3 days of sleeping on a hard floor and cold showers, I was glad that the camp was over. However, After 3 days of high energy, incredibly fun games, powerful worship and word, a life changing experience at the Nursing Home, an overall incredible time, I was sad that It was over.
This camp was definitely different from the other camps, with the community project, and was indeed a powerful time. I just want to thank all my group members, the camp committee, the group leaders and everyone who contributed to making this camp a success. I had a rejuvinating, exhilarating experience. Thank You God for everything that I have experienced during the camp.
Oh and I got posted to CJ for the first 3 months. Haha.
12:00 PM
