Saturday, December 11, 2004

I just came back from my church's youth camp. For the past 5 days, I think I slept a total of less than 8 hours, shuttling between trainings and camp, late night activities and chit-chats. I hate to admit it, but I think I look like a panda now. :( Which is not very good because dark eye rings take forever to go away, but they can suddenly darken by shades just overnight.

Initially I was having second thoughts about going for the camp, but I'm glad I went for it anyways. I thought it was gonna be one boring youth camp (since it was held in church), but it took me by surprise. You know I actually have a phobia about being group leader 'cause the groups I led always came in last for the past 2 consecutive years. But, I guess God was thinking the opposite. This year, my group's name was Amos, I convinced Annabel as my co-leader, and I must say that we rock! We came in tops for all the combined games with a jaw-dropping lead of 50 points, 2nd for Talent Night, so that makes us overall champs! And I guess success was all the more sweeter after the past 2 years of failure. :)

For this camp I was in charge of planning the Prayer Hike held on Tuesday night, which is one biggg activity requiring alot of planning. I was quite slow and inefficient on the detailed planning part because I was too caught up with chalets and trainings, which is not very good. But God is gracious and kind, and without His help, I don't think the Prayer Hike would have turned out okay. (FYI: Prayer Hike is renamed from Prayer Walk, which is an activity where people walk around an area to landmarks to pray for specific things which are relevant to the respective location)

Before the camp, I was having mental blockages, and I couldn't think of how to link prayers to the locations I've chosen. I asked God for inspirations, and I have to say, God really helped me because suddenly this story scene from The Alchemist, which I just recently read (refer to previous post), just bounced into my head, and the idea fully fit into the location and reason for prayer. Praise God!

So the night finally came, and I really want to thank Timothy for helping me out as Station Master. He did a really fantastic job! Due to lack of adults, I had to be a Station Master too, and I was at this ulu little playground at Jalan Mas Puteh (even the name itself sounds ulu). I thought I was gonna be quite lonely in between waiting for the arrival of the groups, and maybe daunted by the dark and shadows, but instead of feeling loneliness and fear, it was a soothing peace that came to me. It gave me time alone to think and reflect on my life, what I'm living for, my spiritual walk with Jesus, my future, among other things. The quietness, instead of being nauseatingly scary, was actually very soothingly serene, and most importantly, it gave me time to just really slow down, and a chance to talk to God. Which I did. It was, all in all, a very fulfilling and enjoyable night, and I thank God for giving me the sense of peace, and a chance to just simply come to Him as a child and tell Him all my problems and worries. God is indeed good.

The best part about this camp was making new friends. It was really great getting to know more brothers and sisters in Christ, and discovering that we're all one big family of God running together after the same goal. And it was amazing just watching how God has worked and is still working in their lives, as He did in mine. :)

So, as the tradition goes, everybody spent the last night awake, including me. I sat around at the rooftop catching up with friends, and chatting about stuff. And soon it was day-break. I had a hard time deciding whether I should go for training, but I decided to go ahead anyways. So I ran home, got my stuff, and with zero hours of sleep the previous night, I headed to SPANS for training. It was supposed to start at 8, but I arrived to find no one, so I decided to take a little nap on the bench. Probably God knows I'm really tired, so miraculously, I had an hour plus of sleep because everyone came late at 9 plus (for whatever reasons I'm still unclear). Amazingly, I could still play properly. God is really really good!

The past 5 days was hectic and fulfilling, not to mention tiring, but I've seen more of God at work than the past year, and God has reassuredly shown me that He is always in control, and He does take care of us. I really thank God that He brought me into His loving care, and I sincerely hope that everyone can be brought into this wonderful family of His! :)

writing at 11:47 PM

---