Home Sweet Home... (I meant i missed the bed, certainly not my Mum!) Wow... its been a looooooong day today; I was out of the country, in Malaysia the whole day. 11 then finished bathing and came on com. I'm gonna blog bout camp today, and today tomorrow coz i cant stay for long.
Here it goes...
Church camp ROWKED (altho i was aching all over when i came back)!!!!!!!! Yepzz, but i also learnt ALOT from this camp and from the bottom of my heart, camp was GREAT!
~Day ONE~
Mi brother and i went off to church at 9.40am and we were about to be late so we took a cab there. Anyway it was raining and our parents gave us permission to do so ma. When we finally reached church, almost everybody was there alreadi. We collected our camp tee shirts + camp booklets + name tag and then proceeded to sit down in our groups. I had a bit of problem finding my group but finally managed to in the end. When i met my group i was sooo pai seh lorz coz it was like i din know anybody at all in my group. Yepz then we introduced ourselves. My group consisted of Douglas (Team leader), Phoebe (Assistant team leader), Sam, Miko, Benjamin, another Benjamin (our lao lao <-- meaning old person, who looks after the team), Chris (gal not boi), Tiffany and mi. Then we waited to board the bus to set off to our campsite. On the bus, i sat with Tiffany and some of the leaders taught us some 'cheers'. Some of em were very cute and funny. =D
Not long after, we had arrived at our campsite at the Girls' Brigade Centre, somewhere in Serangoon. We got sorted into our dormitories then. Each dorm had 10 beds (5 sets of bunkbeds). Then we each got a pillow case, bed sheet and a blanket. Each of us did our bed up and then unpacked before proceeding outside. Outside, we were given some time to come up witha team cheer. Ours was so er... wierd? Okay and anywayz, i forgot to tell you that the country we were representing was Thailand and our missionaries there Uncle Kajun and Auntie Rita. They were back in Singapore and Uncle Kajun was in camp. Our number was 015 100. There were other teams like Singapore (001 103), Indonesia (005 120), Philippines (013 122), India (020 077), China (035 105), Mongolia (046 105) and Tibet (031 092). These were all the countries our missionaries from BPMC were, spreading the gospel and getting dirty, stepping out of their comfort zones for God.
The games were sooo bian tai lor. Aiyoo... esp. the first station we went to - Ruth's station. We had to finish up an apple suspended in the air. The disgusting part was that a girl and a boy had to bite the apple at the same time!! Oh gosh... you could have imagined our reaction when we heard the rules!!! Ugh... *disgusted look*. The next game was to do different things across the basketball court vertically, example. piggyback, duck walk backwards, etc. Next one was to try to communicate within ur team members to arrange from the smallest to the biggest month of birth, telephone number, blah blah blah... The last game was something like minesweeper. You had to try to get all of ur team members across the playing field without stepping on a mine. After all the games, we had lunch.
After lunch, we changed out of our dirty clothings and went for worship. We sang some songs. Jason spoke about emphasising on the praising and glorifying of God, it was not the music that mattered. And also about the three P's- Prejudice, People, Prayer.Then Uncle Kajun went up to speak. The scripture was taken from John 13:1-17. It was talking about Christ Jesus getting his hands dirty to wash his diciples' feet. And there was this funny answer from one of Uncle Kajun's friend whose hobby was scuba-diving when he asked him what it was like to get dirty for God. His answer was this, "When u take a leak in your wet suit, the feeling is warm and fuzzy." The whole hall began roaring with laughter! I think we would never ever forget this quote. Then, we had the workshop. They brought in buckets of pails and then Benjamin (lao lao) asked Douglas to lead us in taking off our socks. We thought it was meant as a joke and took it off, thinking nothing of it. In the end, they told us that we were supposed to wash each others feet!!! "Oh gosh... what kind of camp is this?!?! All the wierd wierd stuff..." I was thinking. They said that it was to experience what God had gone through while washing his diciples's feet. After all the hard work, we realised a main truth - it is better to serve than to be served. Other than the normal reason, the other reason was that it was very pai seh to sit there to let ur feet kena washed by your friend. This reason was sorted out by some of the cranky guyz Lolzz.
After the workshop, we had team time and did our own quiet time. At 6, we had dinner. I dont quite remember what we had for dinner but i just remember that alot of people gave their chicken wings to ben (the other one, the sec one guy in our team). He collected ALOT, bout 8 i guess but then in the end decided share some with the less fortunate guyz from other teams.
After lunch, we prepared for a series of little games again. I cant remember exactly all the games we played lar, onli some. One was to try to drop noodles into a bottle held at one's forehead by standing at the waistline. I was the first to get sent up to hold the bottle, thus i got lots of noodles on my face as expected. As the game progressed, we got more 'pro' so less noodles dropped out. Another one was so slurp up jelly using straws and then hold it in ur mouth and blow it out through the straw into the bowl at the other end of the sorta 'hall'. the guys in our group just took the whole container up and pour it into their mouths and then spit everything out into the bowl. Lol it was so funny that we almost spit everything out before we could reach the end. Luckily we weren't ordered to drink the yucky solution up at the end. Heng!!! Another game was to send the youngest team member from each team to go up and play the game. Unluckily, i was the youngest!!!!! AHHH!!!! We had to put a showering cap over our heads and spray it with whipped cream! The rules was to throw cornflakes onto our heads and the team with the most at the end of the game would win. i tasted some of the cream and it was quite nice larz. Halfway through he game, the whipped cream on our heads were dropping off alreadi. i stuck the cornflakes that dropped onto the ground back secretly. After all the fuss, my group won with a total of 138 cornflakes!!! Woohoo!! I had patches of cream over my shorts and shoes but i was alreadi the cleanest around. Thank God!
After the games, it was suds hour! We went back to bathe and clean ourselves. Then we went down to the canteen to have the Drawsword, in other words, sharing. The youths went up and shared about their experiences that day. It was a very funny half-an-hour. =D Then, we had supper!! Yay! We had bread with egg and Milo. After supper, we went hung around outside our dorms and talked to each other. There was a four-seater swing at one corner of the campsite. Four of us sat on the swing and some were standing around. It was very funny chat, yep and i got to know the people there. About 11.30 or so, we were chased back into our dorms to sleep as it would be a long day ahead.
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~Day TWO~
We awoke at 7.30am and washed up before going down for Physical Training at 8. Gideon led the PT. We did the stretching excercises and ran SIX rounds around the field. It was the hardest and longest i have ever ran in dunno how many months. I had muscle aches after that. Ouch! We had breakfast before doing our QT for the day. Quiet time was about salt. Scripture was from Matthew 5:13-16. Salt is used as a seasoning, antiseptic and preservative. Its usefulness is countless. It was written in the bible that we are the salt of the world. How are we using our saltiness? This was a tough question for me certainly and i would also like you to think about it.
After QT, we had worship and then workshop. Today's workshop was by Auntie Rita. Topic was purity. I learned that purity was a word that started with 'p' and ended with 'y'. Hahah nah lar, knew that long ago. After that, we had lunch before heading to Bedok Jetty for the Hunt. We were supposed to walk from Bedok Jetty to Marine Cove in search of some people who held our clues. We were supposed to ask everybody "Have you eaten?" and if they replied "I like Thai food!", you have found the correct person!! They would give you a mission to do before they hand you the envelope in which contained pages of the bible. We had a VERY tiring walk plus it was raining off and on. I was totally drenched altho i had a poncho with me. We finally found all the eight clues after THREE HOURS. We then assembled back at the Macdonalds at marine cove. After everybody was back, we boarded the bus back to campsite. I was alreadi dozing off on the bus. Oh ya and forgot to tell you that Douglas was a cameraman and he was ALWAYS taking pictures. Lol and on the bus he went around taking picture of people sleeping. Hahaha...
The campers went back to campsite all tired and worn-out. We placed everything we brought along outside our dorms and the leaders were given orders to give out the clues to every member. We wondered what was that for but followed orders anyway. After the things were settled, we proceeded down to canteen to have dinner. And guess what was on the tables, three slices of bread!!!!! Once everyone was seated, an indian guy, Sashi, came shouting, "YOU LOVE YOUR GOD? GOD IS BULLSHIT! blah..blah..blah.." We were realli taken aback. I was so freaked out as he shouted on. I was in a whirl and was confused with what was happening around me. Luckily halfway through, Uncla Kajun came and explained to us that this was gonna be just another game and further told us the rules of the game. We had to go around in search of clues which led to other clues. We would have to get to the secret meeting place after the end of finding the 8 clues. I began to feel more settled. And finally he told us if we were able to suffer for Christ, all we were gonna have for dinner was the three slices of bread. Not three slices for each person, it was for eight person! I didn't eat any as i knew it wouldnt help anywayz. The prosecutors were eating laksa, cha kuay tiao, etc. at the other end of the canteen. They purposely ate in front of us to tempt us, knowing that we would be very hungry after whole day of running around along East Coast. Suddenly, when ppl were busy 'enjoying' their dinner, Jenson came out and started pulling some of the boys to go into the torture chamber (boys' toilet, first floor). The other persecutors then followed and started catching people. Everyone was like very stunned and sat rooted to the benches Lol. Finally somebody shouted, "RUN!", it was then that we started to flee. I ran to the second floor to hide from the persecutors. Actually i was supposed to team up with Phoebe to play this game coz they would not catch you if you go in singles. If you were going in large groups, there was a higher possibility to get caught but then we figured that going in doubles were safer. However, everything started too quick and we got lost alreadi liaoz. I was running in a group of about ten people or more. Everyone swarmed together to one place and another. It was so scary... There was a time when i got lost from the crowd and was on my own. I was even more terrified then. Finally i saw another group hanging around the back of the building and i went to join them. We shared whatever clues we had found with each other (but the clues i had they alreadi have lolz =P). So we lived in fear trying to sneak around to get our clues further on. As time flew past, it began to get darker and darker. we couldn't see our way which made it harder to sneak around. Luckily they put glow stick in the drains to warn us of the danger there. Hannah hurt her foot and Bridget cut her head some time during the game. Other than these, the other people came back in one piece, safe and sound.
After i think 2 hours of running around and getting even more tired than we were in the afternoon, they finally rang the siren. GAME OVER!!!! Woooohoooo!! I didn't get caught and my bible was still with me. However, ben returned smelling of lychee juice and phoebe of soya bean. Tiffany got tortued too but dun think she got drinks over her head. Some got eggs over them hahaha. JB looked as if he wanted to kill someone as he was caught and tortured from the beggining right till the end. We sat around the worship leaders in a circle and began worship. It was a great worship that brought everyone closer together. After then, we had an hour of Drawsword. Most of the people shared about the underground church thingie. Mostly those thrown in the torture chamber. Some had to do push-ups, sit-ups, etc. Others had juice over their hair. Some got put into boxes and shaken around. They were all blindfolded and couldn't see anything. I would be so freaked out hearing all the screaming behind if i were there coz i dont know what fate i would have. Being tortured isnt a very nice thing you know... My brother went up to share sometime in the middle. He revealed that he was hiding in the toilet with six other people. The worst part, it was a girls' toilet! Lol! There was only one boys' toilet in the campsite anywayz, and it was used as the torture chamber remember? LoL He also shared that they sat down in a circle and went round praying while sam (one of the persecutors) was whistling three blind mice while pacing outside of the toilet. It was another funny hour of sharing today. After that, we had SUPPER!! We were soooooooo and i mean SOOOOOOOO happy upon seeing the supper on our tables. I forgot what we ate but we were just so thankful for the food. After that, we went to bathe and altho the long day and i was very tired, i still hung aroung the swing and chatted with them. About 12.30am or so, we got chased back to our dorms and...
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~Day THREE~
Woke up, flipped around. Ouch! My muscles hurt ALOT. Went to brush up and then went for Makan. We skipped morning's QT and Team buzz coz we were gonna watch a video show on the persecution of churches in China. After seeing this documentary show, my eyes were realli opened to what was happening to the Christian in other churches in the other parts of the world. The show showed about the Chinese worshiping God in caves or underground places. They had to hide from the people who were coming after them just because they were folloewing Christ. They had nothing, no musical instruments, just their voices. Like what Jason said, the emphasis is on praising God, not the music nor the people around you. And after experiencing their lives during yesterday's underground church, I was struck even harder. We should treasure what we have in Singapore. We needn't hide around in caves to worship and we have freedom to choose our religion. We needn't be so uptight every Sunday to go for service. And the people had to carry pages of the bible around and then put em together after they had met. It was only then that they had a bible to read. We should also treasure our bibles and not take it for granted. Nevertheless, the people around me were all falling asleep Hahaha! Too tired alreadi i guess. After the video, Uncle Kajun made his speech again. Scripture from Matthew 5:14-16.
Lessons from a burning candle:
(1) The darker the environment, the brighter the candle seems to shine.
The darker the world we are living in is (the more selfish, unloving, unforgiving, discontented, backstabbing, cheating, etc.) the brighter we will shine for Jesus when we live according to His world.
(2) Burning candle gives out warmth.
We need to bring warmth to those they come in contact with.
(3) Insects are attracted to light.
When we are burning for Jesus, others around us will be drawn to Christ.
(4) No matter how you tilt a burning candle, the flame always points upwards.
The reason why I am shining like a candle is not to bring attention to myself but to point people to Jesus. Matthew 5:16 "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven."
After the short workshop, we had lunch. Then, we went to the basketball court to prepare to get dirty again. We were ordered to bring a backpack, cap, biggest and dirtiest t-shirt and shorts, poncho per group. One of the games, we were supposed to run to the other side and put on the things we had brought, run back, take off everything, and pass it to the next person. We were soooooo suai... during the hunt, one station was to bury our legs up till our knees in the sand. Then after we were done, the boys jump into the sea. Wa piang eh... then ben took his t-shirt and shorts for the game. It was sooo disgusting i tell you. The t-shirt and shorts were still wet and then covered with sand all over. Ahhhh!!! We also played other games and relays. Very fun!
After that we had 3 hours of free time and team buzz. We had QT as a group and then reviewed the sermon before planning our skit. Every group was supposed to present a skit. Ours was scences from the underground church. We had a whole lot of fun and laughing while doing our skit =D. After all was decided, we had half-an-hour left for free time. At around 6.30pm, we went down for Makan! After makan, it was time for the groups to present their skits. Some were soooo funny. Great imitation of the charactors. We realli had fun seeing all those skits. At the end, the camp committee also put up a skit of their own. It was even funnier =D. Dunno how to explain what the skits were about. So next, we sat down for worship and drawsword. After drawsword, supper!! We had 'lor mai kai' and ice-cream. *I scream* Yay!! After that, we finally had our bath! Yar ok then it was time for ZZzzZZzz... but nobody ZZzzZZzz...ed. Everyone was up and going around playing. We decided to stay up till morning since it was the last night of camp. Some time later, they started playing the animal game. It was a realli funny sight. Very long after, Gideon suddenly came and then asked us if we wanted to learn a dance. Together with Ruth, Jason, Bridget and Pearlyn, they did their dance as we sang the song. Yay! And then everyone (including me) stood up to learn the dance. The youths are gonna do the dance for Christmas. I think we took about an hour to learn the steps yay! Then, i went back to the swing and chatted and chatted again. Shortly after, Benjamin and Gideon got a bunch of boys to learn breakdance. Lol! The boys were all overturning themselves trying to learn. Hahahaha... Finally at about 3.30am. I cannot tahan alreadi, so i went back to my dorm. I didn't intend to sleep one but i lay on my bed and immediately fell asleep. Waaa...
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~Day FOUR (LAST day)~
Next morning i woke up, saw Tiffany just came back from bathing. I asked her and she said she haven slept yet. Oh gosh... super woman. My brother also din sleep. He said so. We went for PT after awakening. Pt today was stretching and some kind of wierd wierd ha, ho, hee thingie. We had breakfast and then went back to our dorms to pack our things. We put our baggages into a room and then locked it up. Then, we went to the hall for that morning's worship. After the songs, we had more songs (not planned). And then we were like jumping to the music. So crazy, but great. =D Then we had QT as a group again, coz Douglas knew that if we did it individually everyone would end up sleeping instead. Yepz and QT was from 1Kings 17:1-16. No matter how hard we try, we can never out-give God. Yes and after that we had Makan. Then we went back to church. We hung around in church for a while before going home. I didnt feel like going home lehzzz = ( While my brother and i were walking home, he talked to me about camp yar and he was a different person. Looks like the talk with Roy realli helped him a lot. We decided that we should try to say grace after our every meal and not anyhow use God's name like in instead of 'Oh my God' we can say 'Oh Gosh'. Yar... once i reached home, i took a bath and fell asleep. We slept from 3.30pm right till 7.30 when our dad came back with dinner. I ate dinner and unpacked my things and it was alreadi 8.30. I dozed off with the TV on in front of mi. Then when my Mum came back, she chased me back into my room to sleep.
Hahaha... then that was the end of my day. So i couldn't blog until the next day. =P
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Signing off,
Jiaqi
