Youth Camp 2012

Camp this year honestly started bad.

I knew that people were going to camp at 2 pm but i didn't know i had to so i decided to wait until Hannah went.

Until i got a call from Gloria. And realised i was like 2 hours late. So i plodded to the bus stop. And then got a call from Gloria saying they were picking me up (it would be faster) so i began walking back home. And it started Pouring

Literally pouring

I took off my shoes to stop them from getting wet but by the time i got home my entire bag was soaked and i had to rush upstairs to get a new one and transfer most things to the new bag.

But that was nothing because when i got to camp i realised they'd held up their meeting and everything just because i was late. Which made me feel horrible and selfish.

Still, things picked up after that because i had the most lovely room mates and we just went crazy and laughed till we cried. I honestly was so happy i had such funny people in my room that first night because it helped me relax and forget about all the frazzle and frenzy of the afternoon. And before we slept aaron fongcame to practice for worship the next day and day 3 and we were all relieved that he wasn't unsure despite missing practices. On the contrary he was superb, so we didn't have to worry.

The next day the campers were coming in, and i met my group, the smurfs :)

THE SMURFS:
Joy
Nathaniel Raj
Ming Kai
Miriam
Juslyn
Joel
Joshua Yap
Christy
Liana
Sophia
+Sze Ern
+Nic

It was a bit daunting because this was my first year as an 'older youth' (which i was continually reminded of) and so i was supposed to look after the younger girls. Still, at least i knew who they were from my mum's sunday school class, so i didn;t feel too estranged or weird around them.

Still, new groups always take time to get used to, which was basically what day 1 was about.

(I'm sorry, writing this so long after it actually happened means i can't really remember what did happen)

Oh, i forgot.

There was an ice breaker game which i really loved which was where you paired up with a friend and linked arms. and the catchers had to try to catch the runners who could be 'safe; by linking on to person A's arm then person B (who was linked to person A) would become a runner and be vulnerable. I thought it was good because you got to talk to different people a lot. Unfortunately at one point i didn;t get that you couldn't link to the same person twice (which was why i left you hanging there toby i'm sorry haha) But it was still fun anyway.

The other best thing about Day 1 (and for me, this was the best thing in the whole of camp) was the worship

Gloria was the worship leader for that day and the songs she chose and the way the musicians played was so amazing, no technical mistakes at all, just magical. But what was even greater was what God did. Just before worship, we had a big problem. The mikes didn't work because there was a problem with the mike wires, even the spares we brought from church, and the guitar amp couldn;t plug into the house, which meant it would be softer than usual. It was really worrying because all the time spent calling Kevin (who was already very stressed as camp comm) and frantically plugging things here and there meant time gone from practice, and less time till showtime.

Because i don't really understand how things plug in for all the amps etc, i decided to just kneel and pray, because that was the best help i could give. I told God how much we wanted this to be a good worship set, to left the campers spirits and prepare them for 4 days of learning about God. Ho we wanted to showcase His power and love and how the wires and stuff were distracting and troubling. I asked him, if it was in His plan, to fix it please.

And he did.

Just like that, the mike wires worked

It was magnificent. God was absolutely magnificent.

And worship later was magnificent too. I really felt God there, enveloping me, loving me, soaking in every note we sang. It was so beautiful.

I don;t know if i will ever top that worship set. It was the closest to God i have ever felt in my life, the time i felt His Him-ness most. But it's definitely a worship set i'm not going to forget in a hurry

The next day, we had WET GAMES, which are always fun.

Smurfs made SO many water balloons which Joy and I transported by slinging them onto our blue flag, and staggered with it on our shoulders (encountering Anders who wasn't even breaking a sweat even though he was carrying a huge bag of water balloons). Still, it was worth it because when we got there we had enough water bombs for me to make
Gloria
Agnes
Beth
Toby
James
Anders
Ollie
Hannah
Emily
wet

plus soaking the tmnt flag :)

But that was the high point of day 2 and things went steadily down hill after that

Day 2 worship was the most unprepared worship set ever because we had had alot of trouble finding a pianist. Joy eventually volunteered (thank God for her) but we only had the short half hour before worship to practice. We tried and tried to get everything to an acceptable standard, with smooth transitions and as little technical errors as possible. Gloria was lovely and helped me fixed my slides while i struggled to get the team to smooth out all the problem areas. But i still didn;t feel convinced that we could do a good job.

And, no surprise, nothing turned out as i hoped. We made so many technical errors, i came in wrong for my favorite song of the set, and by the time we reached the camp theme song i was just wishing God would cause a power cut or something so we wouldn;t have to continue. But I'm not a chandler for nothing and so i stuck my chin out and endured it. But i loathed every minute of it. I was so daunted by the mistakes, and what was worse was looking into the audience and seeing bored, tired faces. I felt like i had let the campers, my worship team, my sister and God down. And as Ollie prayed before the message i just plugged out everything, cursed myself and tried my hardest not to cry.

Going to camp comm debrief was hard that night, but the criticism wasn;t that hard because i knew i deserved it. I told Christy, Emly and Gloria how depressed i felt and they were a great comfort, but i still felt ashamed. It's the kind of feeling you get when you fail a subject and you can't look your teacher in the eye because you know she expected better.

But life goes on in camp and next day was THE amazing race. Last year was the greatest amazing race of all time (in my opinion) and i was excited to see how this year's one turned out.

Unfortunately it rained.

Chirsty, Emily and I decided to leave early with Ollie when it looked like the rain wouldn't let up, to get supplies for Toby's surprise birthday party. I was sneezing and sneezing (because of the rain) and feleing and fizzy in my head, but it was very fun going to clementi mall with cheez and em and looking at delicious cakes and buying gingerbread things for people and a slice of cake for Joy because she was such a superb group leader i don't know how to fully write my appreciation  but she really was amazing, taking on all the group leader duties alot of the time because Nathaniel wasn't as experienced, being so prepared and writin cheer sheets and everything, looking out for the younger girls and at the same time always being ready for a chat with juslyn and I, and even giving up her prom to stay with the group. She was just fantastic.

The night was  really strange i felt like i was floating around all the time not in a good way. I kept sneezing and i had to leave twice during Ollie's message to go to the toilet and hoard more tissues. And later during group discussion i almost fell asleep (unheard of!) i woke up thrice that night, soaked in sweat, but shivering, and i was so glad there was that bolster between cheezty and me so she wouldn;t (or would be less likely to) catch my germs.

Unfortunately waking up so many times at night meant i absolutely conked out during the morning and i woke up too late for the morning meeting and cheezty and juslyn had gone to prepare for toby without me, which for some reason i was very worried about (not everyone needs you miriam) and i hurried to help them stick balloons up in the canteen and then bring them back up and stick them around the table outside our dorms.

Still, i was really happy that christy was so happy that Toby had a birthday 'surprise' (although he accidentally stumbled right into it and had to be told to go down and come up again)

I honestly can't remember much of what happened after that except
1) playing cheat with the smurfs plus anders (i won)
2) having an absolutely fantastic group discussion session with caleb yap. He explains things so well and i can still remember his analogy on renewing our minds is like refreshing a laggy computer page (not opening another page but refreshing an existing one) and his discussion session made me convicted to start to make make christ my ultimate treasure as a new year resolution.
3) Planning madly for the skit and then rushing to the boys dorms for worship practice
4) moving all the worship equipment to the wonderful new talent night hall after being chased out of the old one by a crabby old man (Who said "OK?!?" with a face that aaron fong imitated with hilarious results)

Talent night was as talent night is. funny, embarassing and tear jerking to different degrees.

and candle fight was wonderful. There was almost a 'build up' just like in a novel, where we trekked through the 'jungle' to get to the quarry which looks marvellous, day and night, and all lighted our candles and let loose!

Jeremiah 9:24 "But let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me,

that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,  justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord. "

 

This camp definitely let me know more about God, let me see him in the people around me, let me hear him through the messages, let me show him as i tried to live as his imitator, and let me feel him in a way i've never felt before.