I am thankful and grateful for the wonderful church camp I had attended. I managed to meet a lot of Galileans that I did not come across in church. Although it was a quiet camp for the YAs (due to the fact that most of them did not go). I spent most of my time there fellowshipping, serving in children's program ad resting. Of course, I come back with my body, mind and soul refreshed. I am convicted not to teach on Sundays anymore, blog intentionally and explore ways to extend God's wonderful kingdom.
Before I come to the aftermath, I shall talk about what actually happened there.
Monday
Our plane was in late noon hence I literally loitered at the budget terminal watching Naruto. You can imagine having to go to church camp alone while most people come with their families. It was hard to swallow the fact but I still managed to pretend that it does not matter while Gwyn and Jun were having their 'parting conversation'. It was hard to not think of myself as street lamp. :P
By the time we reached Kuching, Sarawak, it was already dark. We were just in time for dinner, and had to check in after that. Thank God for a little buffer time for us to go to the room before the opening camp session. We learnt our camp theme song, fellowship a little with a short message before going to bed.
Tuesday
We woke up really early for devotions at 6.45am. We did not have a good rest because we trying to adjust the soft pillows Hilton Kuching provided for us. It was 3am when we finally slept. We then had breakfast near the ballroom.
Children's program was great! Most of the children were enjoying their time there and they preferred the role playing as privates (military: spiritual armour according to Ephesians 6:13-17). We had them to make the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness.
It was such an enjoyable time witnessing cute reactions from kids ranging from age 4 - 10. :) After the children's program, most people left for tours to orang utan, river rides and such. Gwyn and I just stayed at the hotel with David. I lent my phone to him to chat with Shirlyn (I am not as blessed as them to have a courtship or fiance). I just stayed in my room taking a nap. I have never felt so tired for such a long time. I felt like a zombie even after taking about two hours of nap. I think that little sleep at night was the cause of it.
We watched "Courageous" and I was still touched by the movie even though I had watched it twice. I managed to catch the first part of the show that was missed. It reminded me of what I said last year about getting one for my dad. It still touched my heart and made me cry. It was definitely a great, powerful movie to watch.
Wednesday
We skipped devotions because of preparation for Wednesday's children program on the night before. Things went as usual as we prepare for that n iight's campfire for the children. Nothing much happened, just that I was kind of exposed to worship on my own again. I am so not good at it. It frustrates me at times. We had some games and did the shoes of gospel and the shields of faith with the children. They really enjoyed their time decorating their armour.
The camp fire went out great (it was after dinner) and we had some games, something similar to the Sunday School Camp. We were quite glad that everything was over as it was rather hot in the open area. Nonetheless we had a great time and were amazed by the wonderful artificial camp fire that Deacon Chung and his family had prepared for us. The finale was to have all the kids to sing round the camp fire singing 'The Gospel Train'. Some adults joined us and we closed the camp fire with a cake.
Thursday
We missed our devotions again. We had so many papers to cut for the helmets of salvation but we eventually gave up and went to sleep. The swords of the spirit were ready hence nothing much was to be done on them.
Had breakfast and children's program as usual. We fast forward many things and allowed them to rehearse on the presentation on Friday. After that, we happily left everything in the conference room and went for some rest in the room before lunch. I realized that my scissors lost its cover and decided to go back for it after dinner. We went to the nearby shophouses for some last minute shopping after some rest.
The real saga began when we wanted to go to the conference room to retrieve my scissors' cover. To our horror, everything was cleared, everything was nowhere to be seen, and the tables and chairs were rearranged. We interrogated an innocent wifi-tester but to no avail. In our desperate need to resolve whatever ASAP, we went to the front desk and demanded that the person who manages the conference room to talk to us.
The rest of the team went to the conference room again with camp master and see what could be done. They said that there was another conference going on that evening when we had booked the room until Friday noon. It left us questioning them if they were earning double amount for that conference room.
To add to the problem, the mandarin worship room was rearranged too. We found the armours in a trash bag along with other things. Worse thing is, THEY FOLDED THE VANGUARD SHEETS (breastplate of righteousness) AND STUFFED THEM INTO THE TRASH BAG WITH RUBBISH. Besides that, the bibles that the mandarin congregations left were put to one side with their scarves and some notes.
After much prompting on how to save the armours, we went for dinner and left them to try to save the day by 9pm so that we can inspect the armours. They had to iron the breastplate of righteousness and other creased armour parts. Some things were thrown away and the poor hotel staffs had to go to the nearby shopping centre to buy them for us at their own expense. We came to understand that one staff cleared it and was later reported of having no remorse about the incident that had happened. Thankfully, most of the armours were salvageable and I found my scissors cover. I'm not sure about what the camp committee would do. Either way it was quite an eventful night for us.
I am feeling bad for telling Fiona about me not feeling any better after she tried to console me. That's so straightforward of me! I should take better control of my feelings in future. I pray that she won't take it to heart. {T.T}
Friday
It was a wonderful day. I missed my devotion because I overslept. Not sure if Gwyn went though. Anyway, we went to have breakfast and then rehearsed with the children before the dedication and camp closing. The presentation from the kids were great - they were not crying or having stage fright and they did a wonderful job with their armours! Praise God for such wonderful kids singing for Him!
Our noon was in a rush as we packed our stuff after lunch. We managed to have some coffee while waiting for the coach and the hotel prepared some macarons and cookies for us. Eh, I gave them all to my brother who enjoyed it very much. Everything went smoothly and I'm grateful to God for journey mercies and an enjoyable stay, despite having no wifi at all.
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