just right after i step out of the LT for home, my heart ached and i longed to return to the hours of camp. The times spent with all those people, the activities, seeing how hard the seniors work, the messy classroom and LT1, the red loudhailer, greeting everyone for meals, interacting with my angel...ARGH....thinking about all those stuff is making me miss camp even more =(((((
Anyway, before i start telling you what cool stuff took place, i want to thank people:
Firstly, to God:
for making this camp happen. without You, this camp would be NOTHING and it would also be POINTLESS. with You, this camp became EVERYTHING =) also for giving all of us strength and energy to carry on, the nice weather to have fun in etc. THANK YOU SO MUCH <3to the camp comm:
Great job in organising the camp. It's definitely been a really tough journey, but you guys have ran the race well and i'm proud of every single one of you. Whether your role in the comm seems big or small it doesn't matter. what matters is your heart to serve =) God sees your effort and your reward is waiting for you in Heaven. What better reward than having God giving you a hug and a pat on the back saying "Good job, my faithful servant! You have ran a good race and fought a good fight. I love you =)" and having those "BEAUTIFUL beyond description, filled with love so deep" eyes staring straight into your eyes, your heart, your soul. =)))))))
to the EXCO and J2s:
It's been tough on your guys too. Thanks for being so supportive of the camp comm. Even if what you guys have done is behind the scenes and little know about it, God sees your heart and all that you've done. no matter how secret they are =) All your reliance on God, encouragements that you give one another, really sets a standard for all of us to follow. I am proud to say that i'm part of this family. the SFC family. where we are all Saints by Calling =)
to the J1s. esp my cell (nic's cell):
Thanks for tolerating my nonsense and enthuness during the games and dragging you guys around in my insane madness even though you guys were dead and dying. haha. It was great having you guys in my group. Just like a cell with all the different parts - nucleus, membrane, lysosome, mitochondrion etc, all of us have unique personalities and it's precisely what makes us one cell. Good job for being so sporting that enabled us to win the champion for both campfire night and amazing race 1 and 2 =) you guys have made this camp super memorable.
to my angel, Anna.
this must be my 83749287589735024082340239580932504758750927092834th time thanking you (ok. i'm exaggerating. but i'm merely trying to prove my point. haha). You have really been a GREAT angel. even if i knew it was you and i gave you a shock by being able to predict it and have you standing behind me when u picked my name =) if i can, i would preserve all the sweets and treats that you have given me so that i can remember what a wonderful angel u are forever and ever. in fact, you are one of the reasons why this camp has been so memorable =)
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all in all. the camp has been great (great is not even a justifiable term to describe how the camp was)
even if it was the most xiong, grossest camp, most little sleep, most responsibilities etc camp, it was what made it all memorable ya???
i never knew that if i wanted to, i could do certain things. like continue running despite feeling tired. all these while i've been failing my 2.4 for the sole reason being i cannot be bothered to run because i am tired. Sounds valid. but now i know that it's my attitude that makes the difference. not how much stamina i have. =) neither did i know i would persevere staying on all fours, blindfolded to find a bean in the midst of a 6 lane 400m track in the middle of 3 am to 5 am in the morning =S still..i took back the most valuable lesson of the camp =)
i never knew either, that i would be willing to be initiative and lead the cell in cheers. the old me was never like that. i never took on responsibilities voluntarily. still, it was a great experience doing all that. Being bunk i/c gave me a different perspective of caring for your fellow Saints. Forcing myself to put others first before myself. it was really humbling for me and i thank God for giving me this oppurtunity. Another responiblity was having to do patrol duty. it was one of those things that people would dread, and for the first time in my entire life, i had to do it. Thank God for keeping me awake and alert, giving me a personal time with new friends because of that and giving me this want to protect my Saints because it was my duty to. =) i felt like i was in the army or something. oh man. it was coolness..like protecting your country. oh the pride and joy (haha. i bet the army guys are rolling their eyes now)
i never saw myself willing or even daring to drink up weird concoctions of cheese, baby cereal(brown rice powder), coffee powder, tomato sauce, mixed veges (carrot, peas and corn), mustard, smarties, orange and green food flavouring and colouring. it all turned out a yucky green and of course, a yucky mixture. i didn't drink alot, but i'm still amazed at how i actually managed to swallow it without puking =S
last but not least, i never saw myself willing to do stupid bollywood dances for the entire CCA to see. oh my goodness. what was i thinking! hahaha. it was fun nonetheless, and worth it.
honestly, i never realised my limits, or even how much i;ve changed in this very short period of time (since the start of the year?)
anyway, so here was what happened:
Day 1:
- Reporting, getting to know my camp cell members which are practically....my old cell members, with some gone of course. but nonetheless, majority there.
- Amazing race. the tiring stair climbing experience, marvelling at how smart Gland is at figuring clues out, playing a very smart game of soccer by preventing the seniors to score simply by standing and blocking the goal =) talk about team work. hahaha.
(just for my memory bank sake:
- staircase climbing,
- 7-11 prices,
- spider webbing and hanger hooking,
- 3 legged football with knocking over a barely 10 cm tall cone against 3 j2s with all limbs, attached and a wide goal post =S,
- gobbling your dinner down as fast as you can.)
Day 2:
- Patrol duty at 1.30 - 2.30 am. (and seniors werent even back for bed!!)
- fire drill at about 3 =S (even before i managed to fall asleep =S)
- bean picking game
it's the only game where i got a chance to truly reflect, to breathe in the wonderful morning air that God created.
during the game i was wondering what on earth the purpose of the activity was. cause, being a CCA leader once, we don't plan activities for the sake of doing so. there's usually a purpose behind everything (even if there originally wasn't we could still come up with some purpose for it. haha). so there i was, as i was feeling with my hands for the bean, wondering what kind of bean it could possibly be, at the same time asking God to show me a bean through a miracle and to show me what on earth this seemingly-pointless game is for.
God answered both my questions and i managed to find a bean. (YAY!). I realised that just like the finding of the beans, the journey to seeking God is long and tedious, and even painful(trying staying on your hands and knees on the track with lots of loose track bits for 2 hrs). Sometimes, God will reveal Himself (just like the bean), and you will know that He is really out there(just like how i suspected the seniors were lying and there werent any beans) and sometimes these experiences are meant to encourage and spur you on to press on and continue searching after you found Him. Apart from that, there will always be people who will taunt u and discourage u and make u give up. yet, there's always people who will encourage you to continue searching and not give up, that you have been doing a great job. thank you to all the seniors who have seriously given me ALOT of encouragement during that period of time. and even to those who were discouraging me. haha. thanks to mr tan i was sort of even more motivated to persevere when u ask me to give up cos i wanted to prove you wrong. haha.
- morning exercise --> i never felt so good exercising before. haha. the air was seriously great to run in.
- group devotion --> potter and the clay. I WANNA BE MADE AND MOULDED INTO WHAT YOU WANT ME TO BE DAD!
- telematch: Captain's ball (3 team, 2 balls style)
- Session 2
- Trust fall
- station games
shucks. we did terribly for this. all of us were so tired and barely enthu. we ended up one of the last few teams overall. hahaha. there was:
- school gate daniel and my owner huiru (i'm her teddy bear) with the sit on the wet road and play a leg version of leap frog.
- hold the pail with your legs and take off your socks and shoes as fast as possible
- squeeze the fruits and fill the bowl and drink it all up.
- ferry your friend (gland) across the track from one end to the other by building a staircase of hockey sticks supported by erm....your group members
- catch waterbombs
- pass the hula hoop game
- some logic chair game
- pour water from cup to cup using the mouth
i can't remember anymore =S OH NO!!!
- bible smuggle (mission impossible 3 style)
ok. so this wasn't the first time i was doing it. still, it was my first time taking it rather seriously, trying to escape detection. which i must say we did a good job, unti i decided to take the risk and gena caught by of all people...daniel...WHY DANIEL?!?!? (but we don't have a choice but to take the risk because anna and jayce (our 2 missionaries) were so heavily guarded!!! arghz. anyway. he gave us the question of "how can you prove that Jesus is God?" so we told him about how the bible is historically accurate and that there are documents to prove that He's the only one whose birth was predicted and was fulfilled and He was the only one who could raise from the dead after 3 days. and he kept rebutting us saying this was a third world country and the bible was fake and yada yada. later on, when he brought us to "jail" he told us the exact same things which he said were the right answers. oh man. he just wanted to send us to jail. nvm. vonn was superbly nice to us jailbirds (huiru and myself) =) thank you yvonne!
through this activity i realised how i didn't have any answers to these kind of questions that people would ask. it was truly a wake up call for me to prepare just in case such questions really get fired to me.
3rd Day:
- they cancelled morning exercise, devotion simply so we could rest. THANK GOD. cos all of were all dead and down on the table whenever we could. hahaha
- service at COR. oh man, the people there are so much more fired up for God than in Bartley. i'm so tempted to change church. but i don't fancy the idea of being new in an environment where everyone knows one another...=S plus, i have the responsibility to lead my pub team. can't possibly just bang sey them like that right??? plus, i'm not going to be a youth any longer. SOB...
- oh man. time is passing so fast! we need to plan for our campfire performance =S
- Amazing Race 2
this time, it was held in school and we had to tie our hands together. now we were really bonded with one another. nope. it's not covalent or ionic bonds, but rather, raffia string bonds! ok. not funny.
there was:
- cross the acid pool aka fitness corner using chairs, tables, fitness corner stuffs)
- catch the falling eggs
- drink a disgusting mixture of cheese, coffee powder, smarties, mixed vegetable of carrots, corn and peas, tomato sauce, mustard, baby brown rice powder, orange and green food dye/flavouring.
- form the longest line game
- find Sam's HP no
- build a card castle
- drown urself in ice milo and flour and find mentos =S brrr...it's cold. but nonetheless delicious when i tried to drink it down to make it easier to find the mentos for my grp. hahaha.
during the way we had some disagreements. but it's ok la. it's normal. everyone has different views. i on one hand don't really think much, but i just went through the stuff cos i simply trust that the seniors have a purpose in all those games. besides, it was fun getting dirty and challenging urself. haha. i think i'm mad. still, it was a fruitful experience for me. so i have no complaints about the camp =)
-campfire rocked! in fact it rocks so much it can form a mountain. and a mountain that rocks means that there is a massive earthquake. either that or we have a faith that can move mountains. =D
sophia and daniel were superbly entertaining, the action songs we sang and having chun yin get super confused for one of "I've got peace like a river" song. HAHA. it's so funny. campfire performance was super entertaining too! loved it! haha. every group was so retarded. but good job everyone. i believe all of us stood a high chance of winning. as for my group, congrats on winning people! thanks for being so sporty and willing to be so retarded. and thanks to the seniors who have really guided us through the planning process and even to sophia who allowed us to make fun of a xiao gao moment. hahahaha =))) but we still love u sophia. and i've learnt that u are NOT fierce =)
last but not least, the candle game which was significant to the flame of our spiritual lives. that we should guard it well before we can spread the word, being accountable to one another to watch our flame, that we cannot depend on other people's candle for the flame, but to only go to our "mother candle" which is God to get our fire going again. of course, not to forget the tedious scrubbing of the floors and roads to get rid of the wax =S you should have seen how all the j1s were sprawled on the road, leaning on one another. haha.
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it's sad that the camp came to an end so fast, with all the encouragement notes flying in. it's my first time receiving so many encouragement and i'm super touched and duh-uh...encouraged. i wish i could capture every singly millisecond of the camp and replay it over and over again. in fact, i was so engrossed typing this entry that i stayed up to about 4 am in the morning, only to get chased to bed by my dad. hahaha. so i had to continue today. but nonetheless, it's a long entry right??????
i miss the camp so much i've been dreaming of it. sob. so sad. I MISS ALL YOU PEOPLE!
[edit]
was chatting with pris on msn and she brought up these points on the bean picing activity.
based on the j2 point of view, they placed the bean right in front of us, but we missed it.
goes to show that sometimes when we try and look for God, we look too hard and we often miss Him because we're not still enough.
shucks. i cant remember the other point. hey pris. enlighten me once again pls!!!! thanks =)
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