HIS Creation

Friday, June 17, 2005

TIME: 11:31 PM

Ok this makes it another week with no bloggin..but then there was camp..so I should be excused. This is my first church youth camp and I can say this right now...it was the mostest bestest camp I've ever been to,really have to thank God for it.

Mon--Basically loitered around at home and went out to get my hair cut and bought some stuff before going to Rayson's house at 10pm for overnite.When I reached there...JunLiang kindly informed me that I wasn't gonna have enough time to buy anything for appreciation nite,so basically panicked alittle before Martin lent me some scrap cardboard which I could use to make cards using my juvenile drawing skills. Had a late dinner/supper at the nearby coffeeshop which happened to have KFC as well...weird...lol.Basically slept or rather tried to slp at 12...but the floor was a little hard seeing that I had no slping bag so i entered my half sleep state while being consciously aware of most things happening around me.

Tue--WHEE!!!OFF TO CAMP!!!woke up around 7,finished up the cards,and did some prayers before Martin left for getting his MC and Gerrad came.Then after that we packed up everything and left around 8 i think.Went to 7-11 to buy the rest of the components of my gifts,then took train to hougang where we were suppposed to meet the rest of the guys..who ended up rather late,but hey,we're still early...no harm done..had breakfast at the businterchange coffeeshop then got ready to take 151 to NUS.The bus ride was super dooper looong...like went potong pasir bedemeer before going to HCI then clementi to NUS...about 1hour long,so the more slp deprived bros went to slp while i finished up Nicholas Sparks"The Wedding"(not as nice as a walk to remember). Finally reached NUS and we,being the JC guys walked instead of busride to Kent Ridge Hall.Although we were early by half an hour,the whole lobby was flooded with people ,some chatting some working,already could feel the energy.So basically registered and got all our stuff,the white wristband,the black bottle,our roomkeys,the camp capsule/tag and the camp booklet(currently being treasured as Jon Tay said he spent a long time making it:)).But since we can't get to our rooms yet,we sort of loitered around the lobby until they called us to get into the hall where we split up into our various grps.Me,martin,kok leng and later on nicholas belong to the dark empire side--Arcona grp,with Calvin as our team leader,seriously a lack of boys in our grp though..aside frm us...the rest were all girls.After a bit of briefing and learning some cheers,we had games,one of which involved eating mealworms...yuck...lucky i got onion instead...but coz of a bit of a technical problem...we ended up playing against our own side...lol.So after we had a rest and a visit to our dorm rooms,mine being closest to the toilet :),the dorms are like super cool lor,nice bed,good ventilation,enough light,lots of storage space...I dun mind staying in dorms if i ever got into NUS.Then it was dinner,which wasnt like the usual camp food,very nice.After that we had the opening ceremony...which unfortunately...i cant really remember the details...so i'll fill this in later.Then we had prayer meet and praise and worship,I've really gotten into feeling God's presence during these 2 things,it's like so cool!
Following that it was Dare 1(The first sermon)by Shirley,"The Call For The End Time Generation",i don't know if it was the camp atomosphere or really God speaking to me,but alot of what Shirley said really struck me,and I almost wanted to shout out "YES THAT'S IT!"but constrain myself to the more subdued "Amen".After a short break,we went on to Dare 3,"Preparations for End Time Revival",which I think was preached by Eelee,but I can't remember...really got to write who preached what next time.So anyway,it was about repentance and I gave alot of thought to it and seriously repented alot of my sins(except for fear which would come later).Then after that it was altar call,and I responded like so many others,feeling God's presence fall over the entire hall,the feeling was kind of overwhelming,I got choked up and my eyes got watery,some other really cried,the atomosphere then was something that can't really be described...have to be there to feel it.We had a break to sort of catch our breaths and all before the start of the nxt activity..."Madness Nite".Starting with Gideon coming out as PCK,complete with mole and yellow(well....orange boots).Utterly hilarious!Then some of the the other leaders came out as the erm...''back side boys"with Larger Than Life complete with moves that were well...funny.And then, we had a"couple" performing Come What May,which was definitely gonna stir up some gossip,and Jon Tay and Gideon came out on stage after that with some really really lame moves...lol.Watched some videos that were produced by Y-Hope,"moments of tragic"(moments of magic)mtv...lol...super funny.Then came appreciation nite,in which Jon Tay got taupok by our carergrp,I din do it coz i firmly believed in do unto others what u want others to do onto u...so din do it.Then we sang the nice modified campfire song of "I ask my love" to Jon Tay and Ruizhen and the Madagascar song for Debbie,gave the cards and gifts to Jon Tay,Debbie(who really liked my border on the card)and Calvin.then went to bed at 1205.

Wed--After being called awake by Calvin 2 times,I got up at 7 and dragged my sleepy self to the toilet to freshen up and brush my teeth.Awake by the time i got to my room,i heard lots of other caregrps already beginning their respective Quiet Time.It was a very nice feeling so hear so many ppl singing to God,praying and all,completely unlike what we have at home.So at 730,my caregrp did our own quiet time,in which i finally came to terms with fear of rejection and fear in general being a sin and a temptation that i have to get rid of.Went for breakfast and then for prayer meet and a short praise and worship since there would be the JUMP concert later.As it was raining outside,we all gathered to pray for the rain to stop so that the games could be carried on later.Then it was sermon time again,Dare 2(Charateristics Of The End Time Generation),by Shirley again.
Following that,we gathered into our various groups and got onto a bus to West Coast for more games,basically consisting of a obstacle race...which my Team lost but my side won,really,what can you expect when the other team has less people?..Nevertheless it was still fun,though i tired myself up sprinting to the finish line.After a wait with lemon tea frm Mac and the other teams to finish,we went on the the nxt big part of the games,the War Game.Sort of like the battle between the jedi and sith,the republic and the empire of coz,we had to capture flags(consider them planets)while trying to "kill" the other side by pulling paper frm them...real fun,my side had a decoy base so we got alot of flags and I sneaked attacked and killed 5 people...whee!We almost lost coz the republic side was doing a 2 pronged attack on the bulk of our forces but luckily the gamesmaster said time out so we din lose.Got back to Kent Ridge Hall at round 430,took a quick shower of 3mins after dinner so I wouldn't be late for the nxt prayer meet,almost was though.Then Pastor Jeff preached Dare 5,"Characteristics Of the End Time Revival",and it seemed to me that the word fear kept popping out,prompting me to do something.That something happened later during Altar call.See,I always had this insane fear of practially eerything,can call me paranoid too.And this Fear was like seriously impeding alot of stuff.So during altar call,pastor jeff called for those people who were facing problems,dissapointments and the like in their spiritual life.Almost automatically I went up,which was actually the first time I actually went up,but I didn't hesitate as I normally do this time,it was as if God was prompting me to go up there.So there was this sister who prayed for me,can't really remember her name at that time,think it was Jessie or something like that.I told her how much my fear stumbled my progress and she started to pray for me.Normally during prayer the most I got was being choked up.This time though,it was as if God was speaking directly to me,through a sort of vision.Me surrounded by darkness with a light shining on me,I run into the darkness but the light always follows(explained later).It was then that i truly felt God's unfailing love for me,and the gratefulness and emotions was really alot to bear,for the first time since I converted,I cried.So after that Pastor Jeff told us to write down anything that we have felt and need to write after being touched by God,at first i didn't know what to write.Then I think it was the Holy Spirit that wrote this through me...the real version got taken away coz i wrote it on a piece of paper to be handed up and i wished i wrote it somewhere else,but the main gist is still fresh...it goes like this
"Fear not,for God is with you.However many time you sin or fail to do that of which He asks of you.He still love you,more than that love of a mother to her child,it runs deeper than the deepest valley.But He waits for the day when you can stand and say that you are not afraid,for God is with you.He waits for the day when you can say that you are strong and can resist all temptations to sin,for God will give you the strength and will to do so.He waits for the day when you can strive to fulfill the great comission and to spread His name and glory to other,friend or stranger."After i wrote this i wrote my response:
"I do not know when this day would arrive when I can truly say that I am not afraid and will never succumb to sin,but I know that God will always be with me when I ask Him for help and will always love me even if I fail.For this,I am grateful and know what I will do all it takes to do His work without being stumbled by fear,for God will always help me through."
Throughout writing this,I dunno how many times I cried,I saw alot of other people crying to.yesterday that feeling during prayer meet?I think u need to mulitply it by 10 to know how it felt this time.Well anyway,after a short break.it was concert time
J.U.M.P concert(Jesus You Must Proclaim)--the Northeast JC sisters got us a brown ribbon to tie around our hands into a rather cool tattoo like pattern...that along with my watch my white and black(limited edition) wristbands and my just accquired lightstick bangle kind of made my hand a litle heavy...lol.After getting a stamp on my hand and waiting awhile more,we finally got to go in.The atmosphere was super charged,esp since we had a rather inspiring altar call just a few mins be4.I really jumped and sang out throughout the whole concert even despite a cramp in my leg.The concert totally rox,the most current song "Always and Forever was played twice somemore.Durin the concert,we broke up into our individual schools to pray for our schools, so me,Cal and Nicholas got together and begin praying.I got choke up again as Cal fervently prayed and I could hear alot of other people doing the same thing,its another amazing feeling.The concert ended with "Always and Forever" and Gideon met the whole Northeast district to talk about evangelism and our goal:150.Then we celebrated Matthias Birthday by putting him up on a high stack of chairs in the middle of the hall and singing happy birthday in front of alot of other ppl,can tell he was touched :).Then had a sharing session in our caregrp,and heard many ppl share abt how this camp had somehow changed their spirtiual growth.I shared last coz I was so nervous abt sharing and din really know what to say.So when it was my turn,I shared abt how I felt God during the altar call when i repented on my fear and again...I choked up a few times.Lucky this not PW,or i die liao.Then Cal affirmed me and I again really really touched...After that it was officially brother's/sisters nite.Most of the caregrp ended up in a meeting while me Weiqiang and Gerrad went to Weiqiang's room for a chat and another praying session...again I choked up halfway(wonder if i can ever pray again without choking up with gratitude to God).Then Weiqiang fell asleep and me and Gerrad went to blessing point to scout out for more food...lol.The rest had finished their meeting and most of them went to play soccer,I at first wanted to go talk to Cal abt something but since he too fell asleep and i went back to my room to read up and reflect on some stuff.Went to slp at 5.

Thurs--last day of camp,a bit sad...no more waking up to hearing ppl worshipping God already.We were seriously behind schedule coz lots of ppl woke up late and so had to rush thru breakfast since we obviously dun wan to rush thru Quiet Time.We had Thanksgiving after checking out and Shirley got us to commit to iMULTIPLY,basically abt goals on finishing the New Testament,getting another person to know Christ,and growing a caregrp in AJ,at first Cal said 5..but then i wrote down 10 so he followed suit...hey we got to dream big yeah?had one last Praise session with "history maker" and the closing ceremony and we were offcially dismissed frm camp.which meant one thing...lots of phototaking...which can be seen in my msn blog soon.the guys tried to taupok me but failed...again...and after that they din try coz i was actually not feeling well that day and that taupok kind of took its toil on me...they finally taupok Clement,who like me was un-taupokable.(I'm the main camp objective for taupok btw--they failed...whee!)Then we went to the best canteen in NUS,"The Deck" at the arts and social science block to eat...very nice and cheap...I don't mind going there to eat everyday if i ever got into arts and social science or law...which is nearby.Then after that me,Cal,Weiqiang and Luke took a taxi(the hougang punggol gang) home which costed us 18 bucks...ouch.I came home,fell asleep and woke up sick...lol.

Btw the empire won the games.
This camp was a very very very life changing experience for me and I can't wait to go for service tomorrow even though I'm sick.
This is one loooooonnnnnng blog,hope u didn get bored reading it...
it took me 2 hours to type this out
yeah anything else and im gonna write it out nxt time...

Happy b'day to
Matthias (15 june)
Calvin(9 June)