TRBC Youth Blog

Baptist Choral Fest: 3 Videos of Rehearsals

2009-05-26T00:50:00.003+08:00

2008-10-03T11:05:00.003+08:00

Ahhh haaa! I shall be late today! Will not be suckered again! Haaa haa!!!!

Eh you know, every time when we're done, I step back and feel really amazed. I mean, how the heck do we manage to pull off crazy looking banners every year with more insane looking cartoons and so many different colours with just a few pots of basic primary colours?!

Shall take a picture of our poorly neglected paint pots later. The purple so nice! And, I didn't buy purple!

Outrigger Island - Decor works

2008-10-02T22:14:00.002+08:00

Day 1

Every year, it gets better. This year, Celesta's heading it, so we're going towards a more Eco-friendly route. Air-conditioning at 25 degrees! Save paper!

VBS '08, Outrigger Island.

Aiyo, my parents are watching 2Fast 2Furious. So noisy, I can scarcely hear myself typing.

Argh, one OHP blew a long time ago and no one got it fixed. So, we only got one left now, and that feels like dying too. Maybe it's time to use the projector, but it seems so mah fun leh. Anyway, thanks for coming, people!

See, I never worry! I can count on mah friends!

Lunch!

Celesta, "The papers are taller than me!"

Yay! Can start painting already!

Joel was saying something, but I didn't catch it until the last part.
" ... Eh... We've been doing for three years now." Haha! I suddenly remember I have his pictures leh! From three years ago! Can form a time line leh!

TIME LINE
of
JOEL THROUGH THE CEC DECOR YEARS

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Year 2005....
*What the hell was I thinking with that hair sia?!*

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Year 2006
*We're heading to the Arctic Edge, where adventure meets courage!*

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Year 2007!
*Yeah Mr Lam, your son was here.*
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And now, 2008! So cool now! No more monkey faces!

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Awwww!
Me, "Man! Let's both continue to do this for another ten more years!"
Joel, "C'mon, you think the kids will let you? They'll get rid of us in a couple more year."

Okay, let's see the other faces for this year now!

Sambang. Bang! And, the dirt is gone!

Da niu.
_____________________

Our newcomer of the year, se! Who decides she's still very giddy after several rapid rounds around the twirly-chair playset. *Walks to me before bathing* "I'm still very giddy...."

Painted until 4 plus before we decided to pack up. Left a few more stuff to be painted. And, we kept the theme banner for tomorrow. (Only because I couldn't find a colour printer in time)

If you squint closely in the next picture, you can see the Flag of China. We're wondering what it's doing there, "maybe one of the staff is from China!" when se said....

".... We should throw some milk powder on the flag!"

Day 2

I feel better after a bath!

I think, when you tell people to meet at 12, they will come at 1, 1.30 or later. Take tonight's conversation.

"So we're meeting what time tomorrow?"

"11."

"Oh. That means 12 la."

Painted the Tiki Signs. They are empty now, because the classroom locations are not arranged yet.

A GIANNNNTTT Pineapple.

And, the theme banner for this year!

I know, it looks empty. But, it's not la! If you squint hard enough you can see the pencil markings! I tell you, it's a tradition to take this "blank" looking piece of paper. Halfway through painting, Joel suddenly jumped up and said, "We never take the 'before' picture!!!"

"I did la!"

"Oh, okay." *Goes back to work on his yellow parts.*

I think, as the years go by, you slowly stop getting to choose which parts to paint. Walao, this year it was ...

"I want to paint the green!"

"Can gimme paint the orange please........."

"I'll take the red!"

"No, I want to take the red. Can?"

"I wan paint the blue one! I wan paint the blue!"

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.

"...... All right. I'll just take whatever colour you all don't want." =.=|||

***

*Think. Elves working hard here*

And, we're done!

Of course, everyone never fails to stand back and criticise our own work.

"Eh, you see here, not nice. That part you paint one lor."

" .... This part still got abit of white colour..."

"Walao!! Heck la! Is damn nice already lor!"

***

Let's all take a picture!!

*wx drags a chair to the back*

Take a proper one la!

*Ka Chhhink!*
CEC Decor Team 2008!

Operation PG27: Complete

2007-12-28T13:49:00.000+08:00

All the photographs from the event can be found here.

After about a week of planning by Ben, Daniel, Esther, May-Ann, Jeremy and Mandino, Operation PG27 was ready to launch. The sabo-sessions were done, the forfeits were bought, the appointment with pastor was set... everything was in motion.

Ben brought Pastor out for dinner, supposedly to talk about Yimei - May-Ann has sneakily planted the seeds of doubt in Pastor's mind - in United Square. They were taking soooooo long to come back though - they were supposed to return at 730, but tsk tsk, Pastor. Late for his own surprise party.

Tim acted as the "host" - a la "The Amazing Race":

After some wrangling, we managed to get the blindfold on Pastor... and proceeded upstairs for the ~~torture~~ celebration.

Apparently, not much of a surprise anymore, since someone had spilled the beans,
but there were more people than Pastor had expected, so... SURPRISE!

Then there were the "tekan" sessions: "酸甜苦辣" (sour sweet bitter spicy)
- except that we did them in the order of "苦辣酸甜" - saving the sweet for last.

苦

辣

(yes, that's fries with a whole load of wasabe!)

dying, dying...

crying, crying...
(some more at first he said "no kick!"

酸

Super lemon + PURE lime juice = sour face.

甜

Sharing...

Thanks...

Hugs...

Couldn't resist one last sermon... :)

Prayers...

Photos!

many, many photos!

TRBC CEC2007: Some music practice

2007-11-15T23:20:00.000+08:00

We really need to make a "how to" video like Jeff Slaughter for all our songs... if not quite wasted.

Arctic Edge (VBS/CEC2006 theme song)

I Reach Up High (??? - one of many)

And the perennial favourite - The Donut Song

Glue, glue and more glue

2007-11-14T22:29:00.001+08:00

I'm pretty sure the structure we see at the end of the construction's only going to LOOK like it's made of cardboard - but in actuality, it's a glue structure through and through. When the amount spent on glue exceeds that spent on cardboard, it's a glue structure, no matter what anyone tells you.

And of course, the highlight of the entire day was watching Chun Wai's amazing fingers solve the Rubik Cube again and again and again... he's one of those people who will take the Cube apart in order to oil it to make the turns go smoother. When we were video-ing him, his Cube "exploded" when he finished. Take a look:

(for the world's fastest guy, look here)

CEC '07 Decor Day 4

2007-09-07T21:03:00.000+08:00

Note: Lots of exclamation marks today. Am very excited. The end is near! New pictures and dinner entry!

And the theme banner is done! Check it out! From plain mahjong paper, to rough sketches, to painting, to touching up, and finally, to the end product!

The decor team should be so proud of themselves! It's a bleddy work of art!

Here! Check out the work in progess!

Clockwise from top left:

1. Work started with tracing out the drawing on several MJ paper stuck together.
2. If you squint your eyes, you can see the complete rough sketch, without any paint. Everyone's gathering up brushes, mixing colours, and arming themselves with paint at this point!
3. A few swipes of strokes from everyone. Some words appearing!
4. Slowly but surely, the theme banner is coming out!
5. Just a flag and the bottom of the shield left!
6. Joel doing the tedious work of touching up various mistakes, accidental blobs of paint, a footprint.. (Ok, was joking about the last one)

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CEC 2007 GAME DAY CENTRAL
Where Heroes Are Made
Hebrews 12: 1 - 2

WOO HOOOOO!!!!!!

Of course, lest we forget, there are still things to be painted...

Left: Seeing it's really hard to paint this particular poster (4x) Joel and CW decided to prop themselves on a tiny table and paint. It really boggles the mind.

Right: Hui Yue painting the Music Score Board. By the end of this, she become slightly deranged and had her hands covered in green and black paint.

Top Left: CW and Bennie finishing up an Australian Rugby player. I did an American one. Yu Min, Crystal did two baseball players between themselves. When it's mounted on cardboard tomorrow, I'll take a picture of both of them, and the rest of the cartoon athletes, side by side. The helmets were a pain to do, 'cos it had many ridges to outline. It took 30minutes to carefully paint the helmet, clothes and shoes, and another 30 minutes just to outline. All will be placed in the music hall! We didn't have any real sample pictures to follow so we just painted off the top our heads. Turned out quite cool!

Top Right: The other pride of the team. An 8x MJ Paper sized stadium with various cartoon athletes in the foreground and a modified version of the theme banner on the top. Work on this giant banner has begun, with the painting of the background. Till tomorrow!

Middle: New! Other posters.

Bottom: New! Bennie acting shy, (fake one) and Joel painting.

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The decor team '07!

I finally manged to get this, one, very precious shot of the very hardworking, fun loving team with a wicked sense of humor, coupled with bits of innocence. (Definitely not you, Bennie and Joel.) You all have become master contortionists, what with twisting here and there, stretching for all your paint brush's worth to just cover that weird spot.

Missing are: Charity & Yvonne, and Hui Yun. (Who insisted on taking the picture. Thank you!)

One more day to go everyone! Absolutely smashing job so far!

And then we went for dinner at United Square.~~That's another entry, once I get my hands on those pictures. Watch this space! Later!~~

Left: The Koreans held a funfair in our church today, and when they left, they left a bottle of coke, sprite and some ice mountains in the fridge. We simply helped ourselves to it.

Middle: Elusive no more! CW and Bennie, caught on camera!

Right: Reached US within a few minutes, constantly marked by people screaming, "Argh! Hide! She taking pikture!"

The elusive Hyunn, finally being caught on camera too! MA had to pretend she was checking her handphone and sneakily took this shot. And beside her is Hui Yue, who's reaction was admireable and managed to remain.. Well.. Illusive.

CW on the left, trying and failing to remain illusive, after this picture, he gave up and started playing around. Crystal, on the left, tinkering on her handphone. Everyone was chilling, meddling with their little handphones while waiting for the staff to take our orders. Seeing the staff was constantly looking in the other direction, everyone tried to get their attention, angsty teenager style. Got the chuut chuut, the "Er Hrm!" and from Bennie, "ASSSS-A-KUSE ME AH!!!"

"Good ad for Challenging Addition Mathematics. She look like she died doing it."

And so, our soups arrived after a very long time, during which everyone started talking about school and sharing little bits of exciting news with each other. Nothing major, it's really nice and safe and friendly. Then the pizzas arrived, and fuelled by Pepsi, cheese and soup, everyone started to get really, REALLY high.

Someone "My school power right! The people so havoc!"

Ben "Hahah! Please!I think my school set the record for the entire Singapore's N Level standard. I think only 35% pass and go to Sec 5 ah!"

Ok.. High already.....

And we swapped exciting tales of people doing weird things in our school. Joel mentioned something about his classmates setting a paper plane, coated with deodorant , on fire and send it flying down to the near by condominium's swimming pool! Bennie, displaying the ever fervent Changkat Changi Sec spirit, declared, "Oh man, I'm gonna try it!"

Mix CCSS, Monk's Hill, Pierce, ex ITE and SJI together and you get...

"No! Put a lighter in front of a hairspray gel bottle and then spray!! *yells in middle of restaurant* FLAMETHROWER ATTACK!! FLAMETHROWER ATTAAAACCK!!"

"YEAH! I'm so gonna try it man!!"

"Bennie! Try already, film it and put on Youtube and send us the link ok?"

"Hell yeah, sure!!"

And the stories got bigger and wilder...

" ... My discipline master said the lower sec are immature, childish and stupid!"

" ... When my school merge with Balestier, the other school start to jio my school girls la!"

" ... Last time I was painting something, then I fall down and the paint drop on me! My mother tried to wipe away the paint with thinner, and I sniff until I become superrr high la! Everything white colour and very bright!"

*the thinner story is true, and so is everything else*

And we continued on this rein for a good 1 hour, pausing in between to wave at random people, "Wave at the people carrying food, maybe they will drop their plates!" and to crack jokes to make CW choke, "The hospital very near only!"

After much chortling from MA, we finally finished our dinner and got out reluctantly. Finally parted at the train station, with great food and great time of fellowship!

Day 4, last day, watch this space again!

"Argh! I painted my knee!"

2007-09-06T21:04:00.000+08:00

We are painting in the kindergarten's play area this year. It's much, much better than painting on the roof. The sink is within 5 meters, there are ceiling fans and an electrical outlet to plug laptops etc. The area's very nice and cosy, sheltered from the elements and we weren't really bothered around there.

Started by bringing down the giant styrofoam boards from the roof, tapping them together before painting posters on top of them. They are big enough to ensure no paint spills on the floor. Even if they do, you can wipe it away because it's water soluble. Thank God for water soluble paints.

Here are the pictures for today!

I think this deserves a space all to itself. This is the theme banner for this year. We've traced it out and are probably going to colour it in tomorrow. It's rather tricky. The words have multiple shadows beneath them.

From clockwise:
Bennie painting a basketball without reference to any picture (There wasn't any)
Charity painting the animal mascot. "Last year got shocked moose. This year got shocked dog."
Here, we have Hui Yun, Hui Yue, CW, Joel, Yvonne and Charity.
Joel. The only person not allergic to cameras. He is supposed to be non existent, but I think it was good he came to take a break.

Left: Yep, CW asked his school mate to paint his shirt. Anyway, he did a kick ass banner. Check out the blending of blue and white on "Heroes"!
Right: Another view of everyone, and a soccer ball banner.

Clockwise from left:
1. The laptop's only function was serving as a live webcam. Music, playing from the pathetic speakers, was too soft though.
2. Yvonne doing something, but I've no idea what's she doing.
3. Hot off the floor! Check it out! Everything is so brilliantly painted, it's amazing.
4. Everyone took a break at 5pm and munched on burgers from Macs and subway. Bennie was the runner. Haha.

The end of another day. Finished off the 1x MJ paper sized posters, and we will tackle the stadium, theme banner and 2x MJ paper sized athletes tomorrow.

Man Down! Man Down!

2007-09-05T19:07:00.000+08:00

Sustained a few losses due to the O levels, but it's ok. We've completed about 90% of the drawings already! We'll finish up the remainder tomorrow and start painting as well. I'll let the pictures do the talking, since I'm really tired now.

We mounted the paper on the wall and started drawing on it.
Didn't really do a good job with sticking the papers together, so there are wrinkles all around.
Found 2 OHPs lurking around the church today, but it's just right for the 7 of us!

You cannot really see it, but this is Chun Wai prepping the giant backdrop. It was hastily conceptualised the week before. CW drew a nice stadium on paper before transferring it onto transparency. Then, we blew it up, as you can see in the picture on the right, and drew it directly on the Mahjong paper. Hope it turns out just as nice after we paint it!

You've really got to hand it to the Sunset youths for being so meticulous. They use rulers to draw straight lines!! Bizarre! Me? I just scrawl a vaguely straight line whenever I'm supposed to, as seen in bottom right picture. What?! I'll paint properly over the lines anyway!

Random Conversation overheard

After finding out Bennie is a left hander..

CW: "So you're left handed?"
Bennie: "Yep."
CW: "Oh.. So how do you write with your right hand then?"
Everyone: "He can't! He's left handed!!!!"

Picture on left :
Crystal: "Ohh, look! It's a wonky hand!"
sx: "Har? I drew it ok... "
Crystal: "No wonder it's so wonky looking!"

On the right, we have Hui Yue, Hui Yun and Crystal drawing a modified version of the theme logo on top of the giant stadium. I'm sorry I do not have a better picture of them, where you can see their faces, because they are all very camera shy. Allergic to to flash la.

We started packing up at around 5.30pm and swept the entire place clean. (Gotta keep Uncle Mu He happy...) On the way to the train station, Yvonne was accosted by a bunch of evil looking pen sellers (the kind that make you buy $2 pens in aid of dubious charities), and we dragged her away. Rather exciting.

That's that! We'll try and complete the remaining 10% tomorrow and start painting! See you there!

Boxes and more boxes

2007-09-04T22:21:00.000+08:00

Hello! We're getting ready to start drawing. Crystal and I were up at the roof today, getting everything ready. The place is now spruced up, ready to take on a new batch of crazy camp banners.

And here we are, ready to go!

Help needed for CEC 07 Decor

2007-08-30T12:58:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone! It's the time of the year again!

The decor team needs tons of manpower to draw, paint, cut, paste, pose for pictures, hang stuff.. You get the idea!

Interested parties, please contact me - psyfaq[at]gmail[dot]com. I'm also contactable via the game messanger in AuditionSEA. Hahaha. Ok, right. Not funny.

We are most probably going to start work on the week after next. It's really a lot of fun, you don't need to have any artistic flair in you (well, maybe, paint within the lines..). We paint huge banners, ~~play in the rain~~, fix up giant models, ~~play water bomb on the roof~~, and generally do lots of fun things. >=D

I'll update this site regularly. See you!

- sx

Another fellow, off to the Army...

2007-04-11T17:14:00.000+08:00

And thus, this is the last of Puden we'll see in 3 weeks.

NO MORE COLD JOKES!
YES ARR!!

*Coughs* Er hrm. =X Ok. We all went for dinner at a Japanese Fast Food restaurant in Cini. The food isn't bad. Just a tad cold, and someone ate a slice of Ben's Brinjal, re-fried it, and placed it into his Bento box again. You could still see the "half moon" bite marks. SICK!

We wanted to eat Ramen at Level 4, but it closed down already (so did Cafe Cartel). Someone suggested Crystal Jade and the idea was immediately shot down. Walked past the gym which was across the road and Ben suddenly said, "Don't the people on the treadmill look like hamsters?" =)

" ... Right. "

Before dinner, X and I were sent off to the 7 Eleven, to "buy something for Puden, and the item must have a significant meaning." So we went in, bought him "Snakehead Prickly Heat Powder" and brought it down to the Jap food store where everyone was waiting for us.

And here's what we gave him!

- Little PC gave his big bro 4 packs of Tao Kay Neo Big Sheet Seaweed!
"Big Sheet 吗，很像 Big Shit lor." Nice one. PC can take over his brother soon.

- Daniel, Voda Voda Bottle, Water for Life, “Nah，这个送给你。因为你每天要做 Water Parade!"

- Ben, Oreo Cookies: "I tell you ah.. At night, you sure hungry, then you can only eat this. I guarantee! Sure hungry one!"

- Eddie, Gardenia Bread, "Every day you eat breakfast, you can think of us!" =)

- JJ, Kaya spread, "Erm, to put on the bread one."

WAIT! At this point, I must add that JJ forgot to check the expiry date of the Kaya spread and the Kaya actually expired last week! HAHAHA! I wonder which 7 - Eleven outlet he bought it from! Damn disgusting! We all had a good time laughing over the Kaya (and at JJ)!

- Beverly, Plasters, "Plasters are a woman's best friend! They are for your blisters when you wear your boots!" To which, Puden replied, "I packed three rolls of black tape to tape my feet."

- Hui Yun, Insect Repellent, "For the mosquitoes when you go field training ok!"

Ben also bought a calender thing, on behalf of all of us, with bible verses in it. It was still wrapped up, so I didn't really get a close look. But it looks very nice. I hope Puden remembered to pack his bible.

Anyway, at the bottom of the paper bag was a transparent CD wrapper..

Puden *pulling it out*, "I wonder who give me this!"

Ben, "Ya! I was wondering too. I was thinking, 'Wah.. So abstract..' and I was trying to find out what meaning, then I remember! Its the wrapper from the VCD I bought yesterday! Hahaha! Sorry ah!"

All, " ...."

***

Bye bye Puden! Good luck! I hope you'll still remember how to play the guitar when you come out! We'll miss your lame, cold jokes (at least, I think). Cheers!

Tepanyakiiii

2007-03-08T23:21:00.000+08:00

I thought things were looking a bit dead so I've decided to post something. Just sharing our Tepanyaki dinners. I hope you all had a nice CNY.. I still have lots of pineapple tarts, preserved squid and whats not, so if you want, tell me, I'll give them all to you.

A very cute crab. According to Poo, one's male and the others' a female. They used to have little crab eggs darting around in the tank, but they were all eaten up by the tadpoles he saved from the mud pool outside church.

Betcha didn't know there's a mud pool with frog eggs outside church right...

Anyone who drops food on the floor has to either do the dishes or clean the kitchen floor. Ya, so can you imagine, the whole night everyone going "ORHHH!!" at the person who dropped food on the floor? Even rice is also counted ok! And Tepanyaki is very popular in their house. So imagine 11 people, squashed in a little kitchen, huddling over the little frying pan and jostling for a place to snatch a bite.

Obviously shuz doesn't handle anything larger than an eye liner.. *opps* =X

I thought Puden's family has a very novel way of cleaning the floor. They just pour water and soup and clean liddat leh! My mom uses a mop and pail lor. Actually, I used pour a bucket of water and skid around the wet floor when I was younger la... HAHAH.

And Puden has to help her. The rest of us just kicked the water into the little drain by the stink while doing the dishes.

We used to play Street Fighters after dinner, but with Man U vs Arsenal (whatever the other team is called) and se finally learning how to chuk patterns using Ryu on the game, things weren't really loud as it used to be =\. You used to be able to hear us screaming from the 24th floor whenever someone trashed se on S.F. But it was still fun la because she hasn't quite grasped the skill yet so she lost occasionally.

Disclaimer - se: no. i win alot of times lor.

Ok, take care everyone!

Happy Birthday Julian!

2007-01-28T23:56:00.000+08:00

Happy birthday to Julian!

Birthday boy is shy... Kaelyn was supposed to kiss him!
Can't wait to start eating the cake...
Bit boy already...

Christmas Eve @ TRBC

2007-01-03T22:55:00.000+08:00

My phone doesn't capture it well at all, but Michelle really does sing like an angel.

Of firecrackers, mudskippers and dead fish

2006-12-29T13:16:00.000+08:00

Edit: Added "Bolly Bolly~!" video

MA says:
you should cut and paste your blog entry on the kukup trip there

MA says:
which no english or sunset youths went to because we all thought it was a kindergarden expedition

[ skinny twit ! ] [ young and idiotic. ] says:
wad the.
okok.
i will then.

Kindergraden expedition?! What were you guys thinking?

Anyway, I'll try my best and give you all a brief description of what happened la! Long entry with lots of pictures so go make yourself a nice cup of milo fuze. (drank that everyday there) Will update it with more pictures and videos soon!

Ok, so we all had to meet in church at 8 la. Nothing much happened except Shuz's cup of Mcdonald's tea spilt all over every one's bag la.

One for the camera before we leave.

We cleared through the customs rather quickly (except in M'sia cos the officer refused to stamp ZP's passport for goodness knows what reason) and sat on a long and boring 2 hour ride. We landed in Pontian (what a name) and had our seafood lunch. It was very nice! Except there were a lot of flies buzzing around.

I suspect people in Kukup don't drink water because they seem to only have Pepsi and more Pepsi around the island. Oh wait, you could ask for Chinese tea but that's for the oldies. Yep, so Pepsi and 7 Up it is for the next 3 days!

I'll post up more pictures as I get them. Lunch in Pontian was a noisy affair. Like, duh. With Puden, Beverly, Shuz and the rest of us laughing our heads off at the flies, boats and sea.

Right, so after lunch the tour agents organized a trip to a kelong. I haven't been on one before, but it's really.. Amusing. It's basically strips of wood tied to floating barrels in the sea.

A little boy of 15 showed us around the kelong. As usual, Beverly screamed when Puden and I jumped on the planks behind her. *Sniggers* (You too Shuz!)

This is a gao hir. Some fish you can eat. Although it looks really big here. Must be the water. I must emphasise, the water is really dirty. It smells of trash and dried salted fish.

This bunch of squirming mass is called Archer Fish. Pu Chuan and I got to feed them. You hold a dried (or in my case, live) ikan bills in the air and wait for the fish to shoot water at it and then it drops into their mouths la. Pu Chuan got hit in the eye.

This oyster is very special because the boy said there's a Pearl inside.

This is a cute little sea urchin. It resides in a water container along with a cute little sting ray. Both are very cute little things. They are so small you could hold it in the palm of your hand.

This is a horse shoe crab. It looks exactly like some shell fish from the prehistoric times. The boy offered to let me carry it, but at times like these, it looked too icky. I didn't even dare to hold the shark.

This is the shark I'm talking about. I can't remember it's name. What Dog Shark in Hokkiean. Anyway, as you can see, Puden holding it. It's skin is really weird. Sort of smooth one way and rough the other. Amazing likeness though Puden!

As usual, must take group picture.
*SMILE*

Right, so after the kelong trip, we reached back to the jetty in Pontian (which is the only modern building in miles and it's not even built finish yet) and took another ferry, this time to the place we are lodging. Pontian's sort of like the "market" la.

Do not let this picture deceive you. The air smelled terrible. No nice "salty, sea breeze," you get in the books. The smell of shit was overpowering.

This is how Kukup looks like from our ferry.

It was orientation time. Then worship, then dinner. I must highlight dinner. It's steamboat la. And since we are living on the sea. We get nothing but fish, prawns and more seafood. I sat with Beverly, Ben Ben, Shuz, Ed, X, Pu Chuan, Justin, HY and Celesta.

Beverly was going on about the finer points of prawn peeling when I suggest we have a prawn peeling competition. Loser eats 2 fish balls. Yeah, so we all sort of held the prawns high in the air before Beverly said "GO!" Very hot ok! I finished first, followed by X and Shuz was last. HAHAHA!! She had to eat 2 fish balls! Bluff one, you still peeling when you said done. HAHAHA!! Make you eat fish balls!

Then it's bed time, but not before singing karaoke. There's nothing to do there except fish or k-boxed or play mahjong. (Which the guys did) The chalets are like little one storey houses. The living rooms were built quite solidly and the girls rooms even had marble flooring. But the guys' rooms seem to be built over planks. Their toilet leads directly into the sea. You could see the sea water underneath the toilet bowl. = =

Here's the 2nd day! Today's talent-time. Stress ah. We had only 1 day to prepare. Haha! The results were good though from our very crappy Ed, Pu Chuan, Aaron and Puden.

Yes, the nice bright sun.

Someone "Look! A jelly fish!"
Someone else "No.. That's.. A plastic bag."

Puden went fishing in the morning I suppose. We were strongly advised not to eat the fish because goodness-knows what rubbish they feast on in the sea. Human shit and stuff. So Puden threw it back into the sea.

This is breakfast. At least they gave an egg. Tomorrow's breakie will be spicy noodles! (In the morning?!)

So rare to see Shuz without make-up. It must have been years.

You made your own milo and took your own food packet. You don't have to wash up after yourselves, but almost everyone did so. (except me) Hey, I pick up after myself at home ok! I wash my own dishes and stuff. Must be you all never pick up after yourself at home la..
Happy breakkie.

Ben Ben toying unenthusiastically at his food. Classic.

The milo must have been good.

Beverly grouchily stirring her milo. Must have been over a hundred times.

No one's really awake. The sheets were scratchy and strange smelling. The houseflies kept buzzing around. Luckily there weren't any (maybe 1 or 2) flies in the girls' bunk. The guys' chalet smelled weird. Ming Zhi must have went trigger-happy with his insect repellent.

This is how a room looks like.

We had our 1st real sermon (which I promptly slept through along with the other kids) and the preps for talent time. We had lots of free time, which was really great! Zhi Yuan planned time time table and he did a great job. We had time to go around and explore the village and well as visit the market. I really liked this camp because of the amount of free time. Will future camp co-ordinators please take note? Give us more free time!

We had over an hour and a half to eat and more than 4 hours of free time a day. It was really good because if you were tired, you could take a nap at noon. Really nice!

We played games and my group had a wonderful score of negative 18 while Hwa Chuan's group had 18^2 because they managed to pick the square bonus point thing. Zzz.. But the kids went overly mad and cheated in round 2 ("Pass-The-Message" game) and poor Zhang Ping had to deduct points. I wans't aware because KKK and I were busily talking and taking pictures.

Who's fingers ah? Must be a girl's because it's painted with pretty flowers.

So much for this morning's devotion on Integrity la. = = |||

Then it was tea time. We had baos and milo. Allow me to post of picture of Shuz again!

Zhi Yuan *Bites pao* "EEE!! You bluff me! This is not char siew!"
Xav "I help you throw away wan?"
Zhi Yuan *Nods enthusiastically* "OKOK!"

Yeah, so X peeled off a bit of the bao and threw it at the mud skippers (low tide mah) when he realized the bao wasn't getting smaller.

Xav "HAIYA!!" *Throws entire bao* "POK!"
Eddie "HAHAHAHA!! Why you throw the bao!! Hahaha!!"

And Da Hao proceeded to scold us la. I think if he hadn't stopped us, we would have throw all the baos into the mud. So satisfying to hear the "POK!" sound! HAHAHA!

After throwing the bao, we still got the cheek to laugh. =D

This is their fly catcher. You think what, got blue lights and all like those in SG huh? No! Their fly catcher is a piece of paper brushed with glue and stuck with tapes on an empty carton box! The bunch of us gathered around there and said "YEAHH!!" every time a fly got caught in it.

Dinner was BBQ seafood. Having been accustomed to the taste of Chomp Chomp, the BBQ wasn't so good. Shuz went mad and ate like about 4 or 5 sting rays at one go. I should bring her to Chomps one of these days.

Then it was talent time night. Eddie' group did a wonderful act. It's called Bolly Bolly~ I will upload the video on youtube soon. I can't put it in words. It's too funny. Obviously they won. Very creative.

In the day, Pu Chuan went to the market and bought several firecrackers. Yeah! Real fire crackers! I haven't seen any of those before. We had a great time lighting the fire crackers and watching them explode in the air. Also, he gave us lots of sparklers, similar to those in SG, and we threw them into the sea after lighting them. Very nice!

Except Eddie threw really hard and one of them landed on the mangrove tree. Everyone was hoping the tree won't catch fire, because DH had explicitly told us all damages will be paid by the person who caused it la. So we can't possibly pay back a tree. = =

Last day now..

Right, we had an hour to pack up before leaving. KKK was chosen to act as the tree while Ed and lil Pu Chuan were made to pose last night's act again.

This is to give you an idea of how the place looks like. The "house" on the right is where we have our outdoor worship while the one on the left is used by other people la.

Of course must take picture. The aunty who took for us had to hold 6 cameras. In the end, she asked her daughter to hold for us.

The boat was called "Bot B"

Da Hao told us we were going to have lunch at Shangri-la leh! So we were all very excited when we piled on our coach for the 25 minutes ride to another part of Malaysia.

Da Hao "Ok people! Wake up! Reach already!"

Us "Huh? Where the *bleep* is this?

Da Hao "Shangri-la!!"

.

.

.

.

.

"WA KAO EH ! ! !"

The napkins felt weird.

Halfway through lunch of more prawns and fish, a waitress screamed. Puden said if this is Singapore, she would be fired. Apparently, the waitress saw a rat run up the chimmy and if anything runs up the chimmy, it will come down in a ball of flames and the whole "restoran" will trip.

A Malay waiter caught it anyway. Che.

Then we had an hour of shopping. There's nothing to shop there la. It's like shopping in Shop and Save and Daimaru. I bought seaweed (really cheap there) and the guys bought chewing gum and brough it back to SG.

Nothing happened on our way back to Singapore. We cleared through the customs all right (With Ed, X and I triggering the detector and were being made to empty our pockets) but our bus was still stuck in the corner of the checkpoint.

Waited quite long leh, until Lydia Lim spotted the bus driver handcuffed to a seat on the bus! OMG! And several policemen were interogating him! All we could see was the driver furiously shaking his head. After that, this Indian policeman gave us the "thumbs-up" and lead the bus driver down, handcuffed!

Because Qin Shu is a policeman, Qin Hui asked him to go ask his policemen friends what happened la. And apparently, the policemen found "something" on our bus. So they told us, we could either wait for the bus company to send another bus or take a bus back to Jurong East ourselves. So we did the latter. It was bloody freezing cold and raining. Heng, IZ sped back to S'pore and managed to get the Church Van to Jurong East to ferry us kids back to church.

Anyway from yesterday's papers..

"On sunday, a 38-year-old man was arrested at Tuas Checkpoint. He had tried to smuggle in 1.450 cartons (of cigrettes), hidden under a tour bus floorboard. Officers dected them with a mobile X-ray scanner."

Omg! We have been sleeping under 1450 cartons of ciggies and we didn't know! Aunty Mei Xiang's jelly kenna confiscated too because everyone forgot to bring it down the bus. LOL. Anyway, it was a very exciting camp! Hee Hee!

Credits to

Aaron - for his pictures
The people in the pictures - for posing la.

Arctic Edge 2006: Day 3 & 4 (of 4)

2006-12-29T13:02:00.001+08:00

Children's Enrichment Camp Day 3: 30 Nov 2006: Day 3 goes by in a blur of action - I'm still not used to the crazy amount of preparation that the food requires, but it's even more crazy since we're headed out for the outing in the morning at 10am today! The foodstuffs: milo drink tetrapacks and muffins.

The great thing: the muffins are very soft and yummy!

The bad thing: the muffins are very soft and squishy, which makes box-stacking impossible, or the children would eat squashed muffins! And you know how kids are - if a muffin looks at one wrongly, they'll simply refuse to eat it and go hungry the entire time.

The outing to the museum chapel (the music team was tasked with returning to the previous day's scene of the crime) was the same as before, except that this time, I was ready - I had gone out the previous day to get those cheap, red plastic tablecloths (70cents each from Cold Storage!) as groundsheets, so at least the (pampered, fussy) children didn't have to sit on the grass without coverings.

Personally, I rather like sitting on the grass because we do it so rarely in Singapore - I remember a delightful afternoon where I fell asleep on the grass while reading in Cambridge's botanical gardens (free admission on Tuesdays I think; it cost a whopping £2 (S$6!) to enter on other days!), which felt heavenly, but then again I'm often called wierd when I express such sentiments, and most people can't really understand that while the grass may not necessarily be greener on the other side, it can often be softer, spongier, more comfortable, and quite often, of a completely different variety.

Perhaps now would be a good time to relate the amusing events that occurred, its hilarity stemming from Puden korkor's popularity with the little boys and girls. (Puden can be seen on the right picture, playing chee-koh-pah with some of the boys.)

The previous day, we served sausage buns and water, which were delicious, but the water was heavy. I didn't want to waste the food, and the children needed to be fed, but most of all, I didn't want us to be carrying more than half of the meal items back when they were supposed to be consumed by the children themselves.

The breaktime was almost over, and I despaired of getting these kids to eat their snacks: many of them having rejected them, saying "I'm not hungry,". In exasperation, I half-jokingly devised a very simple means of getting the children to eat the food: I announced to the children that anyone who ate 10 buns would get to kiss Puden korkor, and whoever ate 20 buns or drank 10 cups of water (they were distributed in sealed plastic cups) could bring Puden korkor home.

I was foolish and did not expect Puden korkor's popularity; I did not anticipate the sudden rush of children at the food. There was one boy (who was of portly disposition) who ate 6 buns and drank quite a number of glasses of water; I was worried enough to ban him from eating anymore. There were many girls who also did try their best to procure a kiss from Puden korkor, but to no avail. I was VERY VERY worried that someone might fall ill from the binge-eating, and declared the contest over, but some (such as SX and Hyunn; SX can be seen on the left smiling like the mischievious monkey she is) found it extremely amusing to put a dollar-value - or should it be a bun-value on each of the music team teachers.

I was rather dismayed to find out that I was only worth a biscuit.

We had to leave the chapel early as the sky was threatening to rain, and there was another huge mess/mass. Day 3's crowd was larger than Day 2's crowd, and it was tough coordinating the headcount between 4 buses. Thank God for modern technology - one bus left too early without giving us a head count, but we managed to get the count through one of the bus drivers, who had a walkie-talkie with him. Isn't that cool? I want an island-wide-range walkie-talkie too. Without being in the army.

We finally left the chapel without further mishap, although Puden might dispute that: he was almost torn to shreds as the little girls fought to have him sit by their side. I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not - those primary 2 girls are relentless!

We had a little bit of a break between that outing and the next class, as lunch fell in between them. Remembering lull periods between sessions, I brought movies like I did the previous year, so we were in the middle of watching Titan A.E. to pass the time. The games team had also discovered that we had our own little private movie studio in the form of the music station, so they joined us to watch the movie. Titan A.E. was a hit with everyone - the youth couldn't believe that this "cool movie" was shown during "my time" - my elderly status being a source of constant ribbing among them. Puden elected to show Atlantis after that, which also enthralled them all - but we didn't manage to finish the last 15 minutes of it, which was quite a shame.

The rest of the day passed by without much incident - Day 3 of the camp always feels very routine, as the teachers have already gotten used to their children and everything seems to fall into place.

Children's Enrichment Camp Day 4: 1 Dec 2006:
There was a tangible air of excitement that day - perhaps it was the excitement that arose from the children over having to perform for their parents that night, or the almost tangible sigh of relief that the workers were storing up in anticipation of the camp ending.

Whatever the case, Day 4 is always D-Day for me. Between making sure that the kids know their actions, know their standing positions for their performance, sticking down placement lines in the sanctuary to get them to stand in position, ensuring that the powerpoint slides for both parents and children are ready, briefing the teachers and helpers on the sequence of events, helping to coordinate between the entrance and exit of the children during the performance itself, it's always chaotic and a beautiful disaster.

This year was not much different, except that I think I had more fun because I was more relaxed about it. There was a distinct lack of urgency about getting it right (as I was slightly obsessed about with the previous year) and more a sense of making sure that everyone had fun and wasn't stressed out over it, which I think was more important. There's no point in burning/stressing/pissing everyone off/out and forgetting the ultimate goal of this camp: the children's spiritual education, which often comes in the form of the feelings and emotions that the camp evokes when they remember the time that they spent with us. This includes teachers and pre-teen/teen helpers as well!

I think that was the day that Jacob joined us, uplifting everyone's spirits by performing a rather NC-16 version of the Arctic Edge theme song:

Everything went well that day - it was chaotic, but there were no major injuries nor crying fits nor anything. The concert started off slightly off due to a technical fault with the slideshow, but that allowed me to tell very bad artic-related jokes (How do you put a polar bear into a refrigerator? How do you put a walrus into a refrigerator?), and after that it all ran like clockwork. The carpark was clogged though - see the photo where cars are triple/quadruple-parked in the church compound in the picture below!

After the concert, many kids wanted to take pictures with (who else) Puden korkor, which embarassed him to no end - but hey, he was the celebrity of the camp! :-) Mainly due to my advice about the little kids: on stage, smile a lot, and if they don't smile back, just keep looking at them personally, and smile at them until they smile back! I suppose this made his charm simply irresistable to a generation which is starved of good, solid, male role models.

The concert ended half an hour later than expected at 8pm, cleanup took slightly over an hour, and people were already leaving by 9pm! This was highly unexpected, especially since I was waiting for the debrief, but there was some miscommunication and sadly, the debrief did not occur (it had to be done remotely via email, which isn't as effective as it could be.)

The ungodly early hour at which the camp terminated was a shock for the youth, and we headed out to United Square to have our own little dinner at the newly-opened Jalan Kayu Prata Shop, joking to Puden that he wouldn't be able to show his face in United Square for a while, or he would be mobbed by his screaming legions of fans (United Square being, of course, a shopping mall completely devoted to children, and where a lot of the kids at our camp hung out with their parents.) It was there that X decided to have Hyunn's penguin perform the Arctic Edge theme song, which will forever be immortalized in a YouTube video:

Nothing untoward happened to him at JKPS, but as we left for the bus stop, there was kids in the next door Swensens that waved frantically at him and ran out to say goodbye to him. After they returned to their parents in Swensens, Puden shook his head in rueful despair and admitted that it looked like United Square really was going to be off-limits to him for a while.

And on that cheerful note, we closed the chapter on CEC2006, departing for a good scrub and rest at home.

Arctic Edge 2006: Day 1 & 2 (of 4)

2006-12-26T13:04:00.000+08:00

(Updated!) Some people are sooooo demanding. Here is an accounting of how I spent/will spend this week, just to put this entire Children's Camp into the context of my life.

Sun 26 Nov 06 - Studying + Friend's wedding dinner
Mon 27 Nov 06 - Sick (mild food poisoning) + Studying + Exam at 6:30-9:30pm
Tue 28 Nov 06 - Children's Camp Day 1
Wed 29 Nov 06 - Children's Camp Day 2
Thus 30 Nov 06 - Children's Camp Day 3
Fri 1 Dec 06 - Children's Camp Day 4 (last day!)
Sat 2 Dec 06 - Soo Jin+Van's Wedding
Sun 3 Dec 06 - StanChart Run (10K)

This is the tail-end of my Oct/Nov craziness, but the work week from 4th Dec onwards is packed with back-dated appointments with people who wanted a piece of me but couldn't get it during my exam period.

Children's Enrichment Camp Day 1: 28 Nov 2006
Once again, I find myself in charge of the music station - I was involved in 2004, in charge in 2005 (last year), and again in charge this year (2006.) My lovely team this year comprise Beverly Tan, Puden Tsang, Huiyun, and Mandino Tan on P.A. Bev, Puden and Huiyun are amazing - they gave up Sunday after Sunday of lunches just to learn the actions for all the songs that we had to teach in the camp. How great is that? (And we have VIDEO FOOTAGE, all thanks to Miss.Chee.Vious.!

Same start to the camp like every year - everyone blur-blur dur-dur, some younger kids crying from the parent separation, the carpark dropoff area is a complete mess, parents coming into the music hall and blocking the entrance and then suddenly it's 830am already and we're all thinking ZOMG HOW COME THERE ARE SO MANY KIDS and IS THERE ENOUGH AIR IN THIS ROOM and IS IT TOO LATE TO BACK OUT and I HOPE THEY DON'T URINATE ON THE FLOOR and HOW ARE WE GONNA PULL THIS OFF???

And then we breathe, and then we pray, and it's okay.

For our station, it's just music, music, m usic all the way. Our schedule's tight and we always don't have enough manpower for this, but the kids dancing and singing is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS worth it, especially the pre-schoolers because they're just too adorable for words. Unfortunately, even the adorable-ness of the kids couldn't help Beverly clear her foggy head, so we had to send her off after lunch to visit the doctor and concuss on knockout drugs.

This was really bad for us because the first day is the only day we have two sessions with the kids - and this means we'll all be standing and dancing for nearly the whole day, stopping only for lunch and teatime. By the end of the day, waist-sour-back-pain doesn't even begin to cover how our lower limbs felt. But praise God! Everything went according to plan, although - and I am not kidding - one poor girl did urinate on the floor. Someone joked that my station was "too exciting liao."

One thing that really impresses me during the camp is the task of providing food for everyone in the camp. It's ALWAYS a military task to coordinate everything, although in the previous two years, it was a lady doing the work. This year, things definitely looked military-style, as Uncle Andrew took over from Aunty Anne in the cooking department. Because he's also in charge of logistics, stocks were ordered weeks in advance, and everything was delivered the weekend before the camp started. Boxes of the same size were put together, gunny sacks of rice were stored on top of boxes so that rats couldn't get to them, and physical barriers were put in place to prevent hungry mobs from overwhelming the kitchen staff.

A section was set aside for workers to eat and run, and Uncle Andrew was always around to remind us to eat more, and the daily menu was printed out and pasted in numerous locations to prevent parents and children from asking the same "what are we having for tea/lunch today?" question ten billion times over. How expert is that? And check out the amazing stacks of disposable cutlery we got - it's definitely NOT environmentally-friendly, but we tried the opposite last year - only to have it backfire on us as the kitchen staff were too stressed out by the washing up to concentrate on the cooking! Ergo, the decision to use styrofoam. We're still looking for solutions to this problem, and we welcome suggestions.

Debrief occurred at 6pm, and we all vamoosed by 6:30pm, tired and achy and having the theme song bouncing around in our brains.

Children's Enrichment Camp Day 2: 29 Nov 2006
The day started out with me not seeing the camp committee as we met to pray at 730am. Turns out that they were hiding in an obscure corner while I was wandering around church for 10 minutes. I got there just as the last "Amen" sounded, and after that it was a mad rush again to get to the music station to set everything up.

Praise & Worship, rest, teach, tea, rest, EXCURSION! This year, we went for two outings - the camp was split up into two groups, one to Changi Memorial Chapel and one to the Botanic Gardens. The groups would swap locations the next day, but yours truly was assigned to distribute tea at Changi Memorial Chapel.

Loading up the buses itself was a huge problem, because there were more butts than buttseats on each vehicle. Thankfully, the kids were squeezable, so we managed to hope on the two buses and head out to Changi. The bus took a wrong turn somewhere near the prisons, and we wound up staring at some airplanes, which woke everyone up and got us all quite excited. Too bad we were going to the chapel, and not touring Singapore Airline's hangars instead.

Changi Memorial Chapel is a very quiet, unassuming place. A dignified rememberance to the suffering that occurred during WWII and during the years of Japanese Occupation, it is situated in a pictureque little corner of Singapore, with an open-air bar/cafe at the side of its entrance.

~~(TBC, but I'll post this up first. Too sleepy to continue.)~~

It's a solemn place where you can go to remember the heros of the Japanese Occupation and see how Singapore fit in the greater context of WWII. Everything went well, although the rotating was kind of difficult due to the (1) massive number of children (2) the fact that we didn't really have a "holding area", and (3) the restriction that the kids couldn't make noise.

My duties were to distribute the water, cookies, and buns to the kids who were scheduled for tea break. The kids didn't seem very hungry, and the food/water boxes were so heavy that I decided to try and do something about it. I started selling kisses to Puden for 20 buns - all in jest, of course. But this soon spiralled out of control as I underestimated the love these kids have for their dear old 'Pooooden kor kor'. Kids really did start coming up to us and getting more buns from us, until we got quite alarmed that the kids would make themselves sick and vomit on the bus from the crazy force-feeding. One (rather fat) boy actually ate 6 buns and a lot of water, which pushed us over the edge from "amused" to "so cute" to "weird" to "ZOMG TAKE THAT BUN AWAY FROM HIS MOUTH BEFORE HE PUKES."

Herein lies the genesis of the Puden Fan Club, which is a post so hilarious that it deserves its own post, so hold tight while we all gather more incrimiating evidence.

Plus, I'm sleepy again.

Arctic Edge: Music Team Rehearsals

2006-12-02T12:59:00.000+08:00

The music team this year comprised Puden, Huiyun and Bev, and I have to say that they have worked extremely hard, and come through for the kids in a most fantastic way!

Of course, this wasn't done without substantial rehearsals... which Celesta "kindly" video-ed for posterity.

Some people of course, think that they can do the moves without putting in the time. The results are... side-splitting, of course! Especially if your initials are E.K. or J.L. Have a look:

Puffins, not penguins

2006-11-03T21:09:00.000+08:00

Sun came out today after the rain. Rain, sun, Rain, Sun, Rain, Sun, But no rainbow. =(

Was really hot in on the roof. The guys took the banners down to a 3d floor classroom and cut them out in the coolness of the aircon. I want to protest. By next year, I insist we have airconditioning installed on the roof.

Well, at least the dumb eagles dried very quickly. (So did all the paints) = =

The eagles are dumb because some of them have brown heads but some of them have white heads. I paint wrongly la. Eagles ok. Not pigeon. If anyone say pigeon, I'll make them eat a real pigeon, feathers and all. Grr.

And we painted more dirty polar bears, A4 sized. Pretty cute. They look like an army. Anyway, the eagles and bears are meant to be used for classroom decors. But MA can go nick some for church decor and leave the rest to the teachers.

Lelong Lelong! First come first serve! While stocks last!

Anyway it rained and we had to borrow umbrellas from 牧师 la. = = And the whole floor outside their house was wet. Actually, it gets wet whenever it rains and because we have to walk past their corridor to get to the toilet on the 4th floor. OH YA! There's no sink/tap on the roof and we have to travel miles to get to a toilet. *whine* Anyway, I feel kind of bad. Imagine coming home everyday to a wet corrior with footprints. Yurgh.

Oh, better mention who helped. Erm lemme see. There's one girl name I really don't remember. But I know she has another brother and sister in sunset and they all look alike. ^^

Chun Wai (SS)
Joey (SS)
Jie Min (SS)
Charity (SS)
Benny (SS)
Bryan (SS)
Valerie (SS)
Joel (SS)
Xav (Chi)

Who else ah? I don't really remember. I'm sorry if I forget your names ok. You all always go downstair enjoy aircon la. Hahaha..

Um, we have one more Walrus that needs painting. Anyone who wants to help out can go to the roof and grab a brush and paint yourself hor. We are all sick of painting already. If I see another puffin.. Grrr.. Puffins.

Someone with nice handwriting can help us write words on the sign =)

OH YA. Everyone loves Goong! We all make sure we reach home before 7 to catch it everyday!

No really, I'm not making this up.

VBS Prop Making '06

2006-11-02T00:28:00.000+08:00

Skipped Career Fair at Simei ITE to continue with the prop making! Simei is too far, I have to wake up at the crack of dawn to catch the dumb bus that takes us there and there won't be any transport back.

No go.

Lots of pictures!!

This is Bryan and Joel taping up the Styrofoam boards together before placing the big banner on it. In case it rains, we can carry the entire thing in without crumpling the banner mah.
It serves another useful purpose as seen below.

We did the shields..
This is mine.

We outline our paintings to cover up all the ugly mistakes.
But Yu Ai's mom is so good, her painting is flawless.

Another shield.. I did these too.

"Know" shield's Xav's.
Check out the moose.

Someone: "Eh! Hahaha!! Shocked Moose!"
Thus, the painting is known as "Shocked Moose" since then.

Later during lunch time...

Joey to Chun Wai: "I ordered Double Cheese burger Happy meals for us, budden the person give me 2 Cheese burger meals instead." =(

Boys and Girls, speak clearly next time when you order at McDonald's.

The final product. This banner is the size of 6 mahjong papers.
It isn't really huge, as you can see later.
May Ann!! It's really hard to paint ok! This year's banner is so hard!!
Didn't help that it was so hot on the roof too!

Xavian: "KING PUFFIN!! Hahaha!!"
This stupid puffin (1x MJ) took 3 days to complete. Started by Joey and Chun Wai but they never completed it and so, Xav had to take over.

Joel and Xav's polar bear. (2x MJ)
It took two guys 30 minutes to finish painting it. Claws are painted wrongly also.
Tsk. And I take the photo so nicely too.

Xav: "Haha! It's a dirty polar bear!"
Joel: "Ya lor! Ya lor!"
Xav: "Paint the nose red leh, Arctic very cold, so it caught a cold."
Joel and SX : " =.= "

I did this myself ok!
Only one mistake at the horn. Hmpft.
Xavian take until so ugly. =(

Xav: "It's a mammoth."
SX: "No~"
Joel: "Ya. Mammoth."

Afraid of stepping on disgusting, wet brushes on the floor?
Stick their ends on the Styrofoam board so no one can step on them!
*Invented by Valerie*

Right, so now it's 7.30pm and we just had our dinner courtesy of Yan Yan 老师.
Time to sit down and discuss properly what to do tomorrow because I won't be around and only Joel and the gang are there.

Xav: "Want to draw Moose again?"
Joel: "Nah. Wait, I see others."
Xav: "Eh! You see. This flower look like the pokemon 'Bloom.' "
SX & Joel: "YA HOR! Haha!!"

SX: "Eh you do the puffins la. Draw 3 sets. Then you stick on cardboard and cut out so we can make them stand on the ice cubes."
Joel: "Ya, ok. I also want to do this sign but I don't like the words."
Xav: "Put puffin crossing!! Put puffin crossing!!"
Joel: "HAHAHA!! Okok!! Then this tall sign leh!"
Xav: "I know! You put Polar Bear, Puffin, Moose, and King Puffin!!"
Joel: "HAHAHA! Okok! Friday we write! I ask the others paint first!"

Joel: "Just now I was looking through the pictures, I saw a chipmunk leh.. Where ah.. Oh, there it is."
SX: "That's a squirrel, goondu."
Xav: "No it's a mouse. Are we drawing this?"
SX: "Don't want. No link. If draw the squirrel must draw the tree trunk and so hard to draw."
Joel: "Ok. Liddat, then don't want."
Xav: " =( Why don't want to draw me?"

Joel: "Wah, so fierce this one."
Xav: "Draw this la, but we draw a smile on the face like this"
*SMILE =D*
All: "HAHAHA!!"

Xav: "Haha! Eh! This looks like the Hogwarts train! The Hogwarts Express!"

Xav: "We can draw Sun Wu Kong under the mountain!"
Joel: "I know! We can cut a hole in the center then put a sign that says "Here is the King Polar Bear", then the kids can crawl through and walk in!"

*May Ann, if we do that, where can we stick it?*

This is the biggest banner ever made in TRBC. 8x Mahjong paper. It's a background of a mountain. I bet it can't be painted in a day. I don't know what are they gonna decorate it with. Joel is mad. He did this with Xav, Joey and Chun Wai.

This is the place where we paint and store stuff on the roof.
For people who don't know, it's really hot up here in the day and when it rains, the water splashes in. It's really cramped to work in too. The only good point is that no one comes to bother us while we are working and we don't need to get a key to enter this place.

Xav: "When rain, flooded. When hot, sweat until the person also flooded."

That's about it! We have had much fun today!

- sx

VBS Decor: (1) Items in stock (2) team members

2006-10-28T11:54:00.000+08:00

Today was the first day of decor planning, and already we're pretty much done thanks to the hard experience of the previous two years of childrens' camp. First year took 2 weeks, second year took two weeks as well, now we're cramming it into two days! Amazing!

The team has worked VERY HARD, starting from around 11am and working till 7pm. They used the OHP and traced the outlines of all the Arctic Edge materials onto mahjong paper, and then started painting them.

Now I am only worried about the rain spoiling everything if the wind is blowing INTO the 5th floor rooftop, where we have been working (we have been unable to resolve location issues, and that was the only space that anyone could give us. A bit uncomfortable, but we make do.) So far it has been okay, and there are two VERY narrow storerooms with doors that we are using to store some of our things, but if the wind blows and rain falls, things WILL get torn/damaged, or worse, the paint might spill and create a mess. We've tried to minimise the damage by ensuring that all the paints and pots and cups and other stuff are in boxes at the end of our shift, but in tropical Singapore, there's always the danger of a thunderstorm anytime, esp now that the monsoon season is rolling in.

(1) Items in stock
What we have from International Baptist Church (not very much):
1) A lot of loooong backdrops of ice/glaciers, which we can use in to decorate the music hall's stage (we will stick it on the wall with masking tape) - classrooms are also welcome to these while stocks last
2) A lot of random animals (eagles, puffins, walruses), but a lot of them are torn, but still can be used with a little scotch-tape

What we have (planned, as well as made):
3) A lot of signs which are meant to be put around the way to the music hall, to brighten up the place - to be transferred to the sanctuary/first floor lobby on the last day)
4) A signboard (half-done by Shixuan's father) which is made out of notice-board cork/felt/wood, which is approx 2m high and can be used as a visual signpost on the 1st floor. We can pin up a mascot holding a sign, which points the way to different locations, and pin the rules of the camp/instructions/announcements there as well. This can and SHOULD be re-used every year.
5) A snowmobile (mostly done) which is meant as the showpiece for this year
6) A cascade of snowflakes from sanctuary to 1st floor lobby balcony (to be made tomorrow). Approximately 300 A4 sized snowflakes are going to be made tmrw.
7) 50 Arctic Edge logo hanging mobiles to be made tmrw, with rubber bands, to hang from the ceiling of the church corridors (like on 3rd floor ceiling, a row of hanging mobiles, like last year)

8) huge ice blocks/cubes to make the backdrops look a little more realistic

(2) The Team
The people who have been helping so far are:
1) Shixuan (CHI)
2) Xavian (CHI)
3) Joel (SS)
4) Joey (SS)
5) Chun An (SS)
6) Charity (SS)
7) Charity's mom (SS)
8/9) two other girls from ss whose names elude me for the moment
10) Joanna (Shelter)

Some names haven't been added because I am old and forgetful. :)

Enjoy the pictures!

Old School #7894

2006-10-17T01:36:00.000+08:00

In a distant corner of the church lies a dingy little room..

It is musty, small, cramped and the aircon doesn't always work.

But we have Sunday School there every week with uncle IZ..

In this little dingy room, there is a big, black wooden table.

Guess what I found in there.

OLD SCHOOL ABACUS!!!!

It means the church admin and treasurers must have been using this to count offerings la! I think it's only.. 3 years ago that they moved all the old stuff to the dingy little room? Wa lao, when I say my church is old school, I didn't mean.. until like that la!!

五百加一千。。。

Actually, you know right, I found a $10 bill in there last time. Really! I think it was left forgotten when all the other offerings made their way to the bank. I really saw a $10 bill in the drawer last time. I wanted to take it, but I thought Jesus will be very sad because I steal in His house, so I never take.

The next week I went back to take a look, it was gone already.

Someone took it la. =(

But I'm glad it's not me.

Tanlines

2006-10-13T01:58:00.000+08:00

Talking weird stuff again... but take a look at his tanline!

Youth Camp Planning 2005

2006-10-13T01:56:00.000+08:00

Remember those days... :)

Yet another thinly-disguised beancurd outing

2006-09-03T00:17:00.000+08:00

... after spending the afternoon at Calvary Baptist Church's PTL (Praise The Lord) many-band concert. I only got there at the end itself (had to work, bummer), so I caught the tail-end of everything and dinner.

Poo is supposed to do the blogging on the band stuff, but I will now just upload pictures of the concert and of course, our "traditional" taohuey session after a gig.

Shaking something other than your bon bon: Planetshakers

2006-08-17T01:58:00.000+08:00

At the suggestion of someone, I'm just reposting my own blog post on this blog, just to let you TRBCians see what some crazy kids went to do...

Needless to say, it was awesome. Short, but awesome. I'm slightly disappointed with the sound; the singing wasn't very clear, and we often had to strain to listen through the bad sound plus the Australian accent, which occasionally made it impossible to pick out any words.

The songs were (as usual) generic stuff; Planetshakers hasn't really impressed me with their lyrics, but their heart for capturing the youth crowd is there - all the tunes are youth-friendly, lots of cool basslines and the occasional in-built shout-lyrics (like Running After You, and Jump Around/Get Your Praise On).

However, despite the cool-factor, the only redeeming grace for songs like Evermore and Always and Forever are their tunes. I hate to be harsh to a band which I rather like, but the truth of the matter is that they've got a long way to go before they find better lyrics than constantly rhyming "Lord" with "God", "today" and "say" and "obey" and "way" or "ray" etc.

Starting from the beginning, SX, X, Ed, JJ, Bev and Ben arrived there first, meeting YX, who opted for the old-person's seating waaaaay in the far side of the Max Pavillion at Expo. The setup was simple - a stage, a large area for jumping around (not quite the equivalent to moshing), and about two hundred plus raised seats. What stood out in the setup were two mini bungees (which I forgot to take pictures of), which were supervised, and which you could try out for free. I came late and there was too long a queue, and after a hard day's work, I didn't have enough energy to strap that thing around my waist and try to turn myself upside down.

We each exchanged our tickets for a glow stick and a goody bag, which contained a noisemaker, a whistle on a string (you twirled it around on a string until it goes fast enough to make a whistling sound), a balloon, and a small stick of facepaint, which we promptly took out and started vandalising each other with. Ed was particularly traumatised as we tried to draw on his face. "I don't like the smell!!!" he doth protested. That's him being tortured on the left.

I decided to have some fun (come on, you're only young... er, young-ISH once...), and painted my eye area white. Too bad our group got stuck with only white; we would have had fun with colours. That's me (and my eyes) on the right.

Even though the tickets weren't sold out today, there was still so many people! The emcees played a game while waiting for the band to come on stage: they requested the pastors/youth pastors who were there at the concert to come up and play soccer... which just meant that they kicked a soft soccer ball off the stage and everybody else tried to keep each ball up in the air, depending on which "team" they supported. That didn't work very well because nobody could tell which ball belonged to which "team". The game eventually fizzled out (note to self: must plan good games if emceeing), and the pastors danced the Chicken Little Dance, which was hilarious. Even more for us because we were all busy imagining our staid, starched-white cotten shirt-and-collar pastors doing the Chicken Little Dance. Not. Gonna. Happen. :)

The concert finally started at 8pm, and went on till about 9pm, when the "sermon" came into play. This time, it wasn't about how God worked to bring a child into a barren couple's womb, but about how God can satisfy the deepest cravings of your heart: when you have to have noise and people around you constantly, and when you do know ABOUT God, but you do not KNOW God personally. The example given for this was in Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 to 23: 21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

In this simple sentence, the greek word for "knew" isn't about head knowledge - it's not the knowledge of an acquaintance, or the knowledge of a book. It's about a relationship. The dangerous thing for any Christian to do is fall into complacency - do you really have a relationship with Jesus, or is your apparent "relationship" just a passing acquaintance that you could live without?

It was a wonderful message, and I think that it was presented thoughtfully, albeit in a little bit in a rush. But I think they've done their homework on this (or it could be at Lawrence Khong's request and/or suggestion) as the basic message was not to new believers, but believers who have been in the church a long time, for christians who know ABOUT God because they grew up in a Christian home, but who do not KNOW God and Jesus.

The concert ended with one last rendition of Get Your Praise On, and then even though we shouted ourselves hoarse for an encore, none was forthcoming. We met up with the rest (Beverly had semi-passed out in the middle of the concert, and Ed took her to the first aid area for some R&R), and decided to queue up to meet the band (since we were accidentally near the front of the line.) Bev and I decided to take photos with the band members, which have been stored in her phone, hence you don't see it here. I'll bet she's still squealing over the keyboardist.

After that, we ended up in our Rochor Road Soya Bean, now almost a ritual after concerts. 4 taohui, 1 chinchow, 1 youtiao. Yum! Good friends, good food - the perfect end to a really good day.

One Of Our Very Own Idols

2006-04-29T02:39:00.000+08:00

So, I had this callback - no, not for reservist, but to AJ for AJ Idol 2006. Thinking that it would be a nice diversion, I went. And ooh boy, guess who was there? Jem Tiong, singing an awesome acapella rendition of The Moon 代表我的 Heart. Yes, you read right - The Moon 代表我的 Heart. Cute huh?

And here are some pictures which I'm sure he'll find mortifying (or not):

Sour Cream and Onions is the group's name.

And here they are, with J on far left in black.

Higher res shots will come when my friend with the better phone camera emails them to me! :)

Maundy Thursday 2006

2006-04-14T23:45:00.000+08:00

Being Mocked: The Essence of Christ’s Work, Not Muhammad’s

2006-03-25T13:30:00.000+08:00

John Piper
February 8, 2006

What we saw this past week in the Islamic demonstrations over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad was another vivid depiction of the difference between Muhammad and Christ, and what it means to follow each. Not all Muslims approve the violence. But a deep lesson remains: The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ is based on being insulted. This produces two very different reactions to mockery.

If Christ had not been insulted, there would be no salvation. This was his saving work: to be insulted and die to rescue sinners from the wrath of God. Already in the Psalms the path of mockery was promised: “All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads” (Psalm 22:7). “He was despised and rejected by men . . . as one from whom men hide their faces . . . and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3).

When it actually happened it was worse than expected. “They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. . . . And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ And they spit on him” (Matthew 27:28-30). His response to all this was patient endurance. This was the work he came to do. “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

This was not true of Muhammad. And Muslims do not believe it is true of Jesus. Most Muslims have been taught that Jesus was not crucified. One Sunni Muslim writes, “Muslims believe that Allah saved the Messiah from the ignominy of crucifixion.”¹ Another adds, “We honor [Jesus] more than you [Christians] do. . . . We refuse to believe that God would permit him to suffer death on the cross.”² An essential Muslim impulse is to avoid the “ignominy” of the cross.

That’s the most basic difference between Christ and Muhammad and between a Muslim and a follower of Christ. For Christ, enduring the mockery of the cross was the essence of his mission. And for a true follower of Christ enduring suffering patiently for the glory of Christ is the essence of obedience. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Matthew 5:11). During his life on earth Jesus was called a bastard (John 8:41), a drunkard (Matthew 11:19), a blasphemer (Matthew 26:65), a devil (Matthew 10:25); and he promised his followers the same: “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matthew 10:25).

The caricature and mockery of Christ has continued to this day. Martin Scorsese portrayed Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ as wracked with doubt and beset with sexual lust. Andres Serrano was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts to portray Jesus on a cross sunk in a bottle of urine. The Da Vinci Code portrays Jesus as a mere mortal who married and fathered children.

How should his followers respond? On the one hand, we are grieved and angered. On the other hand, we identify with Christ, and embrace his suffering, and rejoice in our afflictions, and say with the apostle Paul that vengeance belongs to the Lord, let us love our enemies and win them with the gospel. If Christ did his work by being insulted, we must do ours likewise.

When Muhammad was portrayed in twelve cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the uproar across the Muslim world was intense and sometimes violent. Flags were burned, embassies were torched, and at least one Christian church was stoned. The cartoonists went into hiding in fear for their lives, like Salman Rushdie before them. What does this mean?

It means that a religion with no insulted Savior will not endure insults to win the scoffers. It means that this religion is destined to bear the impossible load of upholding the honor of one who did not die and rise again to make that possible. It means that Jesus Christ is still the only hope of peace with God and peace with man. And it means that his followers must be willing to “share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10).

Footnotes
¹ Badru D. Kateregga and David W. Shenk, Islam and Christianity: A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue. (Nairobi: Usima Press, 1980), p. 141.
² Quoted from The Muslim World in J. Dudley Woodberry, editor, Muslims and Christians on the Emmaus Road (Monrovia, CA: MARC, 1989), p. 164.

P.A.G. Punks

2006-03-21T10:41:00.000+08:00

P.A.G. = Pastor Andrew Goh
whose blog is here:
http://goandrewgoh.blogspot.com

Wrestling with God

2006-03-08T00:03:00.000+08:00

Genesis 32:24-26
So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

I've always been fascinated by Jacob's audacity - this guy stole his brother's blessing from his blind father, wrestled with God, and had the balls to say "I will not let you go until you bless me"?! I've also thought it was poetic justice that Laban tricked him into 14 years of slave labour for Leah and Rachel - who says God doesn't have a sense of humour?

While frantically writing my report (due on Monday - stupid, stupid me for procrastinating!), this passage somehow came to mind, and thanks to the wonderful thing called the Internet, I could read it between fits of panic and prayer. I'm wondering what sort of relationship Jacob had with God, that he could actually say such a thing to His face.

While it's true that we're all children of God and beloved by Him, shouldn't most of our supplications run along the general lines of "we are not worthy, so if You have the time, and if it isn't too much trouble, could You please grant us this or that"? I cannot imagine demanding something from God, like it was my right to have something of Him.

God's relationship with us has always been described as something like from a Father to a child - family. There are certain things that I expect of my parents that I do not, or do not need to articulate; "invisible privileges", if you would. That's not what Jacob is asking here - he's asking for a carte blanche blessing - almost like saying "God, I will not let you go until you give me an ang pow." The analogy is imperfect, of course, since ang pows bring to mind money, but you get the gist of the idea - what rude manners he has!

And yet, God blesses Jacob - a strange blessing, but a blessing nonetheless. God changes Jacob's name to Israel, or "he struggles with God". Perhaps it's self-explanatory - if Jacob had such a strong, wilful personality, to be subject to God's ruling must have chafed quite a bit on his person.

Perhaps I see this as permission from God to wrestle - to discuss, think, dialogue, toss around, struggle, "work out (my) salvation" - it's not forbidden, and it's been done before, the story chronicled and legitimised in canonical scripture.

Yay.

Deeper: What's Behind That Facade?

2006-03-03T01:22:00.000+08:00

In these days, where we want broadband instead of 14.4kb, where we want MMS instead of SMS, where we want to go at 110kmph when the speed limit says 90, it seems, nobody looks deeper anymore. Nobody bothers going deeper and seeing the people behind the facade. Everybody looks, but nobody SEES anymore.

And the strange thing is: everybody seems to be okay with that. Even in our church.

Yes, OURS. I'm not talking about "the world in general", or "everyone else". I'm talking about our own church, the one at number 45, the nice new beige-ish one, the one with the gorgeous sanctuary, the one with the idiosyncratic lifts.

We seem to be content with what we see in people. Oh, he's the holy-moly one. Oh, she's the one who never brings her bible. Oh, he's the one who only comes because the church bus comes to fetch him. Oh, she's the rich one, comes to church in a mercedes. He's the one, she's the one, he's the other one, she's that other one.

The trouble is, we've got many "ones" within us. He may be the holy-moly one who's also the rich one, who also is the one who drinks a lot of water, who may also be the one who actually has a problem. She may be the one who never brings her bible, who is also the one who talks very loudly, who is also in debt because she bought a new mobile phone beyond her means.

I'm dissatisfied with this state of affairs. I'm guilty of the "hi-kisskiss-bye" phenomenon that's so prevalent, but I'm still dissatisfied with this status quo. Perhaps it's just me, but I think that church, especially the youth, should be spending more time with each other of their own volition, and work together because they like each other, instead of being pushed into it by the older folk.

I used to hate it when the older folk would go "Hey, we need some young people in here... let's just call XXX and YYY lah, they are young, let them do it." Like I was part of some mindless mob, lumped together because we were of a certain demographic. As I grow (up? heh...) OLDER, I find myself slipping into this pattern.

I'd really rather not.

The solution, though right in front of our noses, is not at our doorstep. At least, not yet. Youth have got to hang out together, got to learn about each other, go past the hi-kisskiss-bye phenomenon at church, and start interacting, engaging each other, and start either hitting it off and creating sparks WITHIN the group itself. This is, of course, messy, but aren't human relationships always that way?

Let's try. Get involved. Don't just answer "fine", when someone asks you how your week was. Share a little. New Radicals (and the theme song of that i-forgot-the-name show that was on a couple of years back, Shake? Turn? Spin? Round? Something like that) did sing "You Only Get What You Give", and it's something of an anthem when I teach my kids in school - you only get as much from my coaching as what you give it. Come prepared, and I'll work on your material with you. Come with nothing, it'll get multiplied, but when you multiply nothing with something, it's still nothing.

Go deeper. With God, and with each other as well.

I want to go deeper
But I don't know how to swim
I want to be meeker
But have you seen this old earth?
I want to fly higher
But these arms won't take me there
I want to be, I want to be
- Deeper, Delirou5?

Christmas: Thoughts

2005-07-05T00:22:00.000+08:00

I wonder what we shall do for Christmas...

Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year, meaning that any programme on the 24th cannot run too late or else everyone will fall asleep on Christmas Day Service... or the church will have to suffer another stayover in the choir room with everyone sprawled everywhere, and two computer corners: one devoted to CS-ing guys, another devoted to VCD/DVD watching people.

Current options running through my mind (which refuses to study, no matter how hard I try)
1) Ready-made musical
PRO
- Ready-made means no need to think, just follow instructions, add water, wait 2 minutes, and it's done!
CON
- May be expensive
- Storyline may be lame / Songs may be lousy / Musical may be too "American"

2) Write our own musical
PRO
- We know our strengths better than anyone else, can write around who we know can do what
CON
- No brain-juice to squeeze out yet another original idea
- Yuxun says that he can write the songs... just give him two years.

3) Make a movie
PRO
- Quite fun leh. Happening.
CON
- Again, no brain-juice lor. Script get from where?
- Long time to edit.
- English or Chinese? Or Singlish? Or put subtitles? (Subtitles = more time)
- May not film well.
- May not edit well.

4) Continue last year's musical
PRO
- At least got storyline to continue, so brain-juice no need to squeeze so hard
CON
- Does anyone seriously want to see that wig again?!
- Our star actor is stardee-ing in Ozland, may not return this year.

Any other ideas?

Hmm, what now?

2005-06-21T13:24:00.000+08:00

After extensive discussion, this site is now... I have no idea. Would anyone like to come out with a very nice, readable, and funky site template? (Remember: readable = NO putting the main text area in a 250 x 250 pixel frame!)

Oh, and if you'd like to blog on this board, email me with your blogger account's email and I'll add you in. You can then blog from your own blogger dashboard.

Meetings

2005-06-05T15:25:00.000+08:00

Father,

Final weekend before the camp! I pray that as we ALL gather together in various meetings tmrw, we will have a sense of anticipation and excitement for the camp, for the campers, and for ourselves and what You will show us. I pray that You DO show us a part of You that You want us to see - I pray that we prepare our hearts to receive Your message.

I pray that tmrw's meetings go well, and that we will all be suitably prepared physically and mentally for the camp. I pray for good weather, and for the general health of all campers during the camp - I want to pray especially against anyone taking ill just before or during the camp, against anyone getting hurt in any way in the camp. I ask that You protect Your children, O Lord, during this camp, placing everyone under the shadow of Your protective wings.

In Jesus's Name,
Amen.

GLs and AGLs

2005-06-03T14:52:00.000+08:00

Father,

I want to give to You the GLs and the AGLs. You know how much impact they can have on a team's mood and functioning, and we have done our best to select from our campers the very best people that we have to offer. But Father, this was done with and in human weakness. I want to offer them up to You to ask that you purify and sanctify them for this camp. I pray that You give them that awareness of the gravity of their station, the import of their words. I pray that You show them that they are your anointed servants for this task of being the GLs and AGLs for the camp, and that You equip them for the task: mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I pray that they remember to draw upon Your unceasing well of love and kindness when they are feeling down and blue, to draw upon Your strength when they are feeling tired and sian, to draw upon the hope You bring when things get tough.

Please hear our prayers.

In Jesus's Name,
Amen.

Camper Camper Camper!

2005-06-02T15:27:00.000+08:00

Father,

I thank You for the plans that have been going on so far, and the people who have been so faithful to put them in action. I praw for the non-Christians who are attending this camp. I pray that You will open their minds to the truth, and nothing less. I pray that they will see our sincerity, and know that the message God offers through us is the only thing that is true in a world which is built on shifting sand. I pray that they not see us as "having a hidden agenda" and "only wanting to convert them", but that all we offer is God's love, forgiveness, and truth. Help us speak the truth in love, and open their eyes so that they may see You.

In the same vein, I pray that our own members will be kind and including when we hold our activities. It's very easy to fall into the comfort-zone of hanging out with only your friends, and excluding the people you don't know. I pray that our youth will rise to the occasion, and make this a camp where lifelong friendships are made. I pray that we will be conscious and alert to anyone who may be feeling left-out, and for sensitivity. I pray that our words will be seasoned with salt. I pray that we truly live out the camp title: Impress! Being Impressed! means allowing God to make an impact in your life, and leaving footprints in the lives of others.

In Jesus's Name,
Amen.

Leaders and Sheep

2005-05-31T23:15:00.000+08:00

Father,

As we finalise the HR administrative matters for the camp, I pray that You be in the details. We don't have final numbers of who will be eating at what time, and I'm very sure it's been quite a headache for Beverly Tan and Pris to come up with the rooming list and namelist for food. Thank You also for Puden, who has put in quite a lot of man-hours into this camp, what with preparing for worship as well as handling the grouping and group leader allocation. I want to thank You for their work, and pray that You will bless them back for giving their time and energy to You.

Right now Father, I want to bring to You a problem that we have: insufficient manpower. We have a very limited pool of people we can trust to be responsible enough to handle things on their own, and an even more limited pool of people we can call upon to be group leaders. It is a problem, trying to balance out the gender ratios, the in/out camp ratios and the workload ratio equally among everyone. I want to give You this problem Lord, acknowledging that no problem is too big that You cannot solve it in Your infinite wisdom, and that we cannot multiply men nor manpower. I pray that You show us the way out of this entanglement that we're in. Thank You so much for listening to our prayers.

In Jesus's Name,
Amen.

Meetings and Rehearsals

2005-05-29T22:21:00.000+08:00

Father,

I want to thank You for a good meeting between Yuxun, Ben, Jacob and myself. I pray that in these final days as we all go about busy with our preparations, that You remind us who's in charge. It's been very easy to ignore the fact that You're the One Thing tying the whole campe together, and that You're the One Thing that has led us to meet. May You please continue to remind us that we are to be centred around You, not You around our activities.

I pray for our campers - please begin to prepare their hearts now, to anticipate the camp, to be excited about the camp, and to be enthusiastic during the camp. May You work in their hearts, both Christians and non-Christians alike, and let us all encounter You, and experience You during this camp. May You soften hardened hearts, open blinded eyes, and unblock clogged ears to feel, see and hear of Your love and Your heart for us.

May You also bless Dr Loo and Irene as they come to minister to us. Grant them sensitivity and the ability to connect with our youth as they come to speak to us and interact with us on different issues. Speak to us powerfully through Your servants, O Lord. I pray You touch each of us in a special way during this camp.

In Jesus's Name,
Amen.

Worship

2005-05-28T08:55:00.000+08:00

Father,

Today, as I prepare for my first worship practice, I want to say a special prayer for Shixuan and her worship teams. I thank You for this sister who is so committed to You that she's really putting in a lot of effort to arrange for musicians to come down for practice, and for arranging timetables for the camp and for the practices. I pray that You bless her for her faithfulness to You, during this time of stress and sian-ness. I pray that she remember to cling to Your word and to Your promises when the going gets tough. Thank You for blessing us with this sister who's been such a blessing herself to the people around her.

For the musicians and worship leaders, I want to pray anointing upon their hands and fingers and voices and feet. May we truly be led into a time of the worship of You, Lord.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Log

2005-05-27T14:55:00.000+08:00

Father,

Today I want to say a short prayer for the logistics persons in charge during the camp. I pray that as they begin their very intensive preparations to lug all the things to the campsite and back, plus account for everything, I pray that all campers will pitch in to help. I pray that You now go before them to prepare the way for them. I pray that everyone will take care of everything, and that the campsite, items on the campsite, and people at the campsite, will be safe from theft and unneccessary damage to their belongings.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Programme Grrrl Power!

2005-05-26T14:03:00.000+08:00

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the preparations which have been in motion. I pray that You continue to sustain and encourage those who are preparing very hard for this camp. Today in particular, I want to be praying for Esther and Camellia, who are in charge of the programmes. I want to thank You for their committment to having a good, spaced out programme, and I want to thank You for leading them in all that they have already achieved - having a good programme, liaising with the camp speakers, getting all the information on programmes from other comms, and for arranging everything in a beneficial and good timesheet - I pray that You bless these two sisters in their work, and I pray that they keep relying on Your directive with regard to all the programmes that they have prepared.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Back in action

2005-05-24T23:41:00.000+08:00

Father,

As the camp draws ever nearer, I want to thank You more and more for the grace that You've shown us in many different ways. We've had manpower changes and a lot of panic attacks over different things in the last couple of weeks, but things are, by Your grace alone, coming slowly together. I want to pray against any of the devil's schemes which might thwart Your plans for this camp. I want to pray for the people who have paid up and are committed to coming. May nothing stand in their way of attending the camp - illness and death, schoolwork, eca/cca etc. For the people who are still considering whether or not to come for the camp - I pray that You will speak to them in Your own special way, and invite them to partner with You in this journey of discovery. For the camp committee, who are all working so hard to get this camp off the ground, I pray another portion of strength be given to them to finish this short race that we've started. Please encourage us when we spend time with You daily, and tell us what You'd like us to be doing. Point us in the direction You'd like us to take - not just for this camp, but for the combined youth ministry. I believe You have plans for us, Father, but without Your guidance, we will be lost in Man's plans. Some are looking down on the ministry, and questioning us, thanks to our youth and age, and I pray that we do not respond with arrogance, but with humility, yet with firmness, holding steadfast to convictions which You have shown us. We take our directions and our cue from You, so please, show us Your way.

In Jesus's Name,
Amen.

Our Hardworking Treasurers

2005-05-13T04:20:00.000+08:00

Father,

Today, I want to be praying for our treasurers, Bev Poon, Eddie and Michelle Tay. I thank You that they have stepped forward and weathered crises like insufficient registration, "cannot find registration form" problems, "not enough bookmarks" problems, communication problems - and still come out of it with a heart that still wants to serve You. I thank You for providing for them, and pray that You continue to bless them as they do Your work and will.

In Jesus's name,
Amen.

Blogger ate my post!

2005-05-12T23:58:00.000+08:00

I had this lovely prayer for the publicity and publications comm, and then blogger ate it. It must have been exceptionally yummy. Here's me trying to recreate it:

Dear Father,

Today I want to pray for the publicity and publications comm. You have seen the hard work, sweat and tears that they have put into coming up with the materials to distribute to our youth and congregations on time, and I pray that You will bless them abundantly back for the time and energies that they have expended for You.

Father, for Ben, I want to pray an extra super duper portion of your strength to be upon him as he continues to press on in the work that he has committed to do. I pray that You send him people to encourage AND HELP him as he works on finishing all the stuff that has to be done before the camp begins.

I want to also thank You for Fan Yang, this sister who has been working so hard in the background. I pray that as she settles into her new job, that You bless her with like-minded colleagues who are good and pure of heart, and who will be an encouragement for her to live out her faith in the workplace. I pray that in the midst of her work, that she will remember to honour You in all her choices and in all that she does. May she be that proverbial city on a hill, the lamp that shines in her workplace.

Shi'en is currently having her exams. I pray that You be with her as she studies - that You grant her concentration and the ability to remember all the facts that she needs to remember, and the peace that surpassess all understanding as she burns the midnight oil these couple of weeks.

Thank you for hearing our prayers.

In Jesus's name,
Amen.

Edited To Add (ETA): Oops. Turns out that blogger didn't eat my post after all. But this is a better, longer prayer, so I'm deleting the other one and leaving this here. :)

Prayer Pointers

2005-05-12T01:19:00.000+08:00

Well kids, I'm fighting off a horrendous flu that will lay me out and take my voice with it (I'll come back a semitone lower, all the better for the alto section), prepping for the trip, and writing a journal article for publication, so I think I'd best put up a list of prayer pointers so you can be praying too. You can cut and paste and send to your friends and other church members.

So you want to pray, huh?
Here's a couple of items to get you started:

1) Praise God for being sovereign and showing - no, HUMBLING the committee members by showing that He truly is in charge of the camp. Pray that we will not be like the Israelites and forget His goodness once things get tough again. (We should think about compiling a war journal for thanksgiving purposes!)

2) FOR GOD TO MOVE MIGHTILY IN THE PREPARATION, EXECUTION, AND COMPLETION OF THIS CAMP. Pray that God will prepare the hearts, souls and minds of the people who have signed up - as well as the people who are thinking about signing up. Ask God to call His people back to His fold. Praise God for the 56 confirmed participants, and the 20-odd persons who are considering attending. (Numbers correct as of 10 May 2005.)

3) Pray for the non-Christians who are attending. That God will open their minds to the truth, and nothing less. Pray that they will see our sincerity, and know that the message God offers through us is the only thing that is true in a world which is built on shifting sand. Pray that they not see us as "having a hidden agenda" and "only wanting to convert them", but that all we offer is God's love, forgiveness, and truth.

4) In the same vein, pray that our own members will be kind and including when we hold our activities. It's very easy to fall into the comfort-zone of hanging out with only your friends, and excluding the people you don't know. Pray that our youth will rise to the occasion, and make this a camp where lifelong friendships are made. Pray that we will be conscious and alert to anyone who may be feeling left-out, and for sensitivity. Pray that our words will be seasoned with salt. Pray that we truly live out the camp title: Impress! Being Impressed! means allowing God to make an impact in your life, and leaving footprints in the lives of others. That's what we are asking God to show us in this coming retreat.

5) Pray for the committee members. We have seen people drop out of the committee, unable to join the camp, and are facing increasing pressure as the date of the camp looms ever-nearer. Pray that we press on in this last lap, and for encouragement to be sent to us. Pray for greater cohesion and cooperation between comm. members. Pray AGAINST any mishaps or miscommunication that could so easily occur. Pray for the strength from God that will allow us to soar tirelessly, as eagles' wings do.

6) Pray for the speaker, Dr. Benjamin Loo, and his wife, Irene Loo. They will be speaking on the camp topic: The Attributes of God. It's heavy-going, but very important: what could be more important than knowing God more? (Remember Mary and Martha?) Pray that God will give them the ability to connect with, and touch the hearts and minds of our campers, both during the messages and outside. Pray that they will be able to make the subject matter engaging, and that campers will be blessed by the message, and not just "nod in agreement". ;-)

7) Pray that God will provide us with strong group and assistant group leaders for the camp. They have yet to be selected, and asked if they can serve in this manner. Pray that the right people will be chosen to serve, and that God will call them to serve. Pray that they will answer this call.

8) Pray for excellent weather for the duration of the camp. Rainy weather will waste the beachside resort that we have booked!

We Are In Awe

2005-05-08T17:07:00.000+08:00

Father,

I think I say it for all when I say: we are in awe of what You've shown yourself to do. I pray that we will be wise stewards of the money, and that we will make every effort to uphold you in all the decisions that we make.

Like Ben prayed today, I pray against the complacency that may come with the ease of the fund-raising. Truly Lord, You spoil us, and I pray that You prevent us from behaving like spoilt children, and give us the wisdom and the knowledge to put this money to good use and to forward Your purposes in our church.

For the persons who have blessed and encouraged, I pray blessings upon them Father. May you repay them back in full, with interest, and bonuses.

In Jesus' Name
Amen.

Meeting today

2005-05-07T23:12:00.000+08:00

Father,

I thank You for the meeting today, for your hand guiding us as we went through a lot of thing, and clarified a lot of small and large details which seem to grow ever-larger as the date of the camp looms ever closer.

Father, today I want to pray for strength and perseverance as we continue on this journey with You and our fellow brothers and sisters. I'm very sure there are some who are feeling the strain of school, work and just life in general on top of planning for this camp, and I want to pray for an extra portion of Your grace to be upon them and providing them with the strength to carry on. You know that some people have dropped out of the planning committee due to various reasons, and there is strain among the members who are left - Father, I pray that your Spirit be with them and encourage nad strengthen them as they run this last lap before the camp.

I also want to thank You for encouraging us with the 43 confirmed persons who are coming for the camp, and for the 17 people who are still yet to be confirmed coming. I thank You for the response from the floor to the camp, and for the 17 persons who are still considering coming, I pray You provide that last push forward to come for the camp; past the inertia that always comes with registering for a camp. I pray also that the rest of us not rest on our laurels, and continue to encourage our friends to join in to the camp. I pray for their receptiveness to the invitation; may You call Your people to Your side Father.

In Jesus' name,
Amen.

Meeting tmrw

2005-05-06T23:50:00.000+08:00

Dear Father,

I pray that we'll have a good meeting tmrw. You know the issues we have to discuss and bring out - I pray that we will bring them out in a manner that is edifying and calm and rational. Please be among us as we worship you together this way.

In Jesus' name,
Amen.

Messes and 'fesses

2005-05-05T22:19:00.000+08:00

Dear Father,

Things are, as You know, kind of in a mess right now. Slow communiqués and exams and school and life in general have led to quite a confusing state of affairs. In spite of this Father, I believe that You are still in charge of the camp planning. Only You know where you want to bring our participants, and their journey during the four days may be planned by us, but its true outcome is plotted by You.

Father, I commit the planning again to You. May Your strength and glory be shown in our weakness, that in the midst of the messiness and all, that Your sovereignty be made known to all. I pray that You send encouragement to Your workers who are labouring for You. May You take away the bad pride that is within us, and show us Your grace in our humility. If we have taken the glory away from You, and have made You too small in our eyes, Lord, please forgive us, and show us the way we should behave.

You know the problems that we face - budget, manpower, and more - I pray that You show us how to deal with the problems, and provide solutions to the challenges that we face.

We're having a meeting on Saturday to discuss certain things. I pray that the meeting may be effective and useful, and that we may be reminded and rededicated to the work that we have agreed to do in Your name.

In Jesus' name,
amen.

People, people, people!

2005-04-19T04:33:00.000+08:00

Father,

Please send some encouragement our way. I think we need it.

Amen.

(Sometimes, I get the feeling that I'm praying more for myself than for the whole comm. But out of the whole comm, only ONE person has sent me his/her prayer requests, which kind of makes it hard to be praying for everyone when you don't know half of them, and don't know their prayer needs. Please email me your prayer needs if you read this and feel moved to do so.)

Exams, Schexams

2005-04-16T19:21:00.000+08:00

Father,

I want to remember those who are in the midst of examination preparations right now. I pray that You give them the strength and ability to cope with the info overload that You know exams bring, and I pray that Your angels guard their rest. I pray for wakefulness and alertness during their studying hours, and superhuman memory banks to develop in their brains to tide them through this period. I pray for nimble fingers and quick work to be done for those who have to do project work, and I pray for cooperation with group members if anyone has to do group projects. Thank You for watching over us.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Eaten Post - 10 Days Away

2005-04-15T19:11:00.000+08:00

(There was a previous post, but unfortunately it got eaten last night by blogger due to some server problems.)

10 days since my last official online prayer for everyone; I never thought of myself as a procrastinator till now.

Today's prayer will not be logged; I'm praying against spiritual attacks, but just to let you know what started me praying was something which flashed in my mind when I was wondering why I just couldn't get the prayer engine started:

A couple of months ago, there was a woman who was jogging in a reservior park. She got assulted and was left naked on the side of the jogging trail, and if I remember correctly, she died shortly after? I'm not sure about this. It's just one of those incidences of violent assault that we read about sometimes in the newspapers, the ones where we read about and get really angry at.

I get the sense that spiritual attack is about the same - we're happily jogging along the road of Salvation and Faith, and then we're waylaid and brutally attacked by satan and/or his minions. Yet I'm not as appalled at this as I am this violent jogger assult, when it is the same thing, worse even. Perhaps it's the entymology of it - "Spiritual Attack" sounds like something that happens in biblical times, with angels wielding swords and evil red, horned demons with triangular tails and pitchforks - it all seems so removed from reality, so bizarre, so out-0f-this-world: no, it can't happen to us.

But it does. So I'm praying for you, dear ones, that we will be sheltered and protected in God's safe harbour as we go about doing His work.

Amen.

No prayer today, but how is everyone?

2005-04-04T02:45:00.000+08:00

No prayer today.

I wonder how everyone is doing, both spiritually and you know, regularly. I get around a lot on Sundays, but still, it's a lot of people to be talking to, and beyond a "hi-bye" (sometimes even within my own congregation's people), it's kind of hard to tell what lies beneath everyone's façade sometimes. No, scratch that, it's sort of like, all of the time. We're all such consumnate actors.

(I am, of course, also speaking for myself, but this really isn't a self-reflexive post; it's definitely externally-directed pensive probing.)

After realising that the above sentence wasn't really in English, here it is again, translated:

(I could, of course, be referring to myself as "acting", but what this post is really asking is: How are you guys doing?)

Another month to go...

2005-04-03T23:39:00.000+08:00

O Lord,

Thank you for a good meeting today, and for a successful launch of the camp publicity. I pray that as word goes out on the street about the camp, that youth and parents alike get excited about the camp, and that you make it possible for everyone who wants to come, to come. I ask that You break down the barriers preventing people from coming, be it non-C parents who are unwilling to let their children go, to financial obstacles.

As the examination and submissions and term paper crunch time comes down upon us, I pray that You give us the strength and the perseverance to keep running this particular race You have set before us - may we truly be a testimony to others through our youth and our energy, but mostly through our love for You, Lord.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Launch and meeting tmrw

2005-04-02T23:17:00.000+08:00

Father,

Tmrw is the launch, as well as our monthly meeting for the camp comm. As we prepare for it, I pray that you too prepare our hearts for a good, productive meeting. I pray that You lead this meeting. I pray that You allow Your words and authority to flow through Yuxun, as he chairs this meeting.

You know, Father, the people who are busy, and the people who are stressed in our midst. You know the problems that have cropped up with regard to certain items. You know the silent struggles that each of us face as we go through our lives, and how well we are coping with making all the jigsaw puzzles of our committments, time, family, friends, school and work all fit together in 24 hours. I pray that You grant us wisdom and discernment in our management of time. Please give us the knowledge and the ability to be prudent with our use of time, not to waste it on frivolous matters which have no eternal value, but to place our hope and our trust in You. In the midst of our busy-ness, I pray that You grant us the peace that defies all understanding to us - not a peace that stems from being deluded of what we have to do, not a peace that comes from being totally bochup about our committments - but a real, true peace that comes from You. May you grant us the discernment to know which is which.

Our launch is tomorrow Lord. I pray that you take our lives, our mouths, our hands, our heart, our feet - and make them move for You, O Lord. Sanctify us that we may be clean vessels to convey the spirit behind the camp to the youth Lord.

In Jesus Name,
Amen.

Publicity's on a Roll!

2005-04-01T14:12:00.000+08:00

Father,

Sunday's the day where we start our real publicity of the camp! I want to pray blessings upon the Publicity Comm (Ben, Shi'en, Fan Yang and Matt) who have been working doubly-hard to put everything together in time - thank You for their dedication to their responsibility, and I pray that You bless them for their time and efforts.

I pray that the materials that they have prepared will be ready in time - that the posters and bookmarks will be ready by Saturday, for the video to be ready in time for the launch on Sunday - I believe that You have great things planned for us during the camp, Lord, and I pray that we will be able to get the message of the camp out without any interference from anything or anyone.

I also want to be praying for the people who will be sharing about the camp to the congregations and to the youth on Sunday - I pray that they will be able to convey the message of the camp well, and be able to get people excited about coming for the camp. I pray for the youth themselves, that they will get excited about the first combined youth camp, and will psyche themselves up to attend, will make themselves free to attend, and will ask their friends if they want to attend. I pray Father, that you remove any and all obstacles that could stand in the way of their signing up and joining the camp.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood...

2005-03-31T22:56:00.000+08:00

Father,

Through the many things that have happend this week, and the conversations with a number of camp comm members, I feel that the spiritual siege against us has begun - subtly, but it has definitely begun. Cracks between people are beginning to show, and people are finding it difficult (with different reasons) to sustain their committment to the camp. Father, I pray that you seal these gaps with Your wisdom. I pray that Your love remains topmost in our minds as we go about our business for this camp. I pray that as we plan and do, that Your Holy Spirit reminds us about the things which are important, rather than have our minds focus on the urgent matters.

May our lips always be filled with edifying words to build people up, not to tear them down. May we communicate with a true meeting of minds, understanding each other without any miscommunication, dis-information, or breakdowns in communications. I pray that Your veil of protection cover us all, Father, and that we continue to pray for each other during this time of stress and work.

May You open our spiritual eyes that we may be able to discern for ourselves messages and events that are of You, and those that are from the evil one. I entrust the entire camp comm into Your care and protection Lord - You are the Good Shepherd, and we are Your sheep. I pray You protect us and keep us from harm.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

>> An explanation of why this is a "cumulative prayer":
I've been a little bugged by what some comm members have shared (it's not just one person, okay) about what they're going through during the preparations for the camp, and it's been on my mind these three days. I've been praying on and off about it here and there, but today was the day that I finally sat down and made it a point to set the prayer down on paper. Hence, cumulative prayer.

Cumulative prayer

2005-03-30T23:20:00.000+08:00

See prayer on 31 March 2005.

And don't forget to pray for the Pub/Pub Committee; the launch is going to be this Sunday!

1) Pray for the designs of the posters and bookmarks to be out and printed by Sat
2) Pray for the video to be in time for the launch
3) Pray for people sharing on Sunday to be able to speak to the youths
4) Pray for the hearts of the youth to be excited

Cumulative Prayer

2005-03-29T23:08:00.000+08:00

See prayer on 31 March 2005.

Cumulative prayer

2005-03-28T23:07:00.000+08:00

See prayer on 31 March 2005.

Prayer for Yuxun

2005-03-27T21:53:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

This is a backdated prayer for Yuxun; I tried to post this but the post got eaten up on Sunday, and for some reason it just got stuck.

Anyway, today's prayer was a personal prayer for Yuxun.

Amen! :)

Prayer for the Worship team

2005-03-26T01:55:00.000+08:00

The worship sub-comm, Shixuan, Puden and Jon Ee, were covered in personal prayers today.

Hallelujah! :)

Sigh

2005-03-21T02:37:00.000+08:00

I'm not exactly on the verge of giving up on this whole idea of praying everyday for the camp till the camp comes around, but I have to say that trying to do it everyday is exhausting on a level which I can't really explain - I mean, we all have things which we do everyday, our little rituals, but fitting this particular ritual into my schedule doesn't ever seem to work, and it's quite demoralising. It's been three days since I last prayed for anything to do with the camp, mainly because my waking hours are just filled with anxiety over the amount of readings and papers I have to write - no longer the overnighters expected of undergraduates, but the thoughtful musings of (what is supposed to be) an intelligent life-form. Rather unfortunately, that means a lot more work than what I am used to...

I guess you can classify this under "excuses", but I also am of the strong conviction that it is a sort of spiritual burden that prayer co-ordinators have to bear. I caught myself wondering in disgust the other night: what made me agree to this hare-brained scheme anyway?! I'm not one of the greatest prayer people in the world; seriously, place me with other people who are more prayer-minded than me and there is no comparison - I'll walk out of the contest myself.

But this isn't about contests, is it? Each person's comfort zone level is different. Me, I prefer to be pushed a little, because I believe (sigh) that adversity breeds character. I wouldn't go so far as to say this demoralisation is "suffering", but I think Romans 5 pretty much describes my attitude towards some things in life in general:

Romans 5:3-5
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

So I will press on, and if I miss a couple of days here and there, I'm going to try not to be derailed from the general purpose of the appointment, which is to pray: dust yourself off and try again, sang Aliyah, no?

Father,
Own me - take all that I am
Heal me - by the blood of the Lamb
Mould me - by Your gracious Hand
Own me.
Amen.

Treasurers' Prayer

2005-03-17T16:33:00.000+08:00

Today was a personal prayer for the three treasurers, Beverly Poon, Eddie Yeo and Michelle Tay. :)

No idea

2005-03-16T23:51:00.000+08:00

Father,

I have no idea what to be praying for right now, so I'll just pray Thy will be done.

Amen.

Some excuses for not praying are
tenseness, weariness and pain.

Some excuses for not praying are
tangled lives and broken homes.

Some excuses for not praying are
anxious fears of many sorts.

Some excuses for not praying are
bordeom, lack of time, and pride.

Some excuses for not praying are
beautifully articulated.

All excuses for not praying are
good for nothing.

Soft Launch

2005-03-15T23:49:00.000+08:00

Father,

As the soft launch goes out, I pray that Your spirit will move in the hearts of our people - the youth and parents - to spread the message of this camp amongst friends and family.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Finally! A prayer - that breath of fresh air

2005-03-14T02:39:00.000+08:00

Dear Father,

Thank You for still taking care of the planning for the camp even as I forget to pray for us. Father, I give You thanks for allowing the soft-launch of the publicity come through - You indeed are above all our plans, and I thank You for being there just watching over us as we move slowly but surely on with our human plans.

Father, as the communiqué goes out to the Youth in TRBC, I pray that Your spirit will move among them as they read the email; that they will be excited and will sign up.

Even as the PubComm pushes the camp publicity, I want to pray for Jacob and myself. I pray that as we begin to think about how to lead Your people in prayer, that You will show us the direction which You want us to be praying, and how You'd like Your people to be praying. Father, left to our own devices, our prayer will be selfish and inward-looking. I pray You show us what You'd like in this respect. I pray that we will both be faithful in praying. Please keep us down on our knees for Your people.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Backlogged entry

2005-03-09T16:13:00.000+08:00

This entry is backdated beause I didn't have internet access yesterday.

Father, today I want to give thanks for Esther and Camelia. I thank You that the programme is taking shape under these two sisters' hands, and I pray that You continue to guide these two sisters as they toil for You and for us.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Keeping Clean

2005-03-08T21:01:00.000+08:00

Father,

Thank You for what the committee has been doing so far - I know that people are hard at work putting our plans in action, and I thank You for all the grace You've showered upon us that has brought us thus far - people with willing hands and willing hearts, understanding parents, and the ability to give back to Your church with what You have already gifted us with.

I pray for good time management for all of us as we trundle along - may we have a spirit of excellence doing Your work O Lord, but may we also remember to be a living testimony for You too, not neglecting our lives outside of Your church and thus stumbling others. Please do show us how to balance everything out.

I pray also that You keep us all far from evil: Your word in Hebrews reminds us to "throw off everything that hinders" our walk with You - I pray that you cleanse and sanctify this committee, Father. I pray that if there is any unconfessed or any known-and-not-repented sin among us, that You gently bring it to our attention and prompt us to ask for Your forgiveness and turn away from the sin. Lord, only You can keep us away from temptation and sin: I pray you keep us away from sin, and sin away from us, keeping us cleansed and holy, fit to do Your work.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Remembering to Pray

2005-03-07T20:59:00.000+08:00

Father,

Today I want to be praying for Jacob and myself. I pray that You tell us what You would like us to be praying for in these 3 months leading up to the camp. In the midst of our busy schedules, I pray that we will be able to meet up to discuss the prayer newsletter, and other prayer strategies You have in mind. Please show us how, what, where and when You would like us to be on our knees for this camp and for Your people.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

An hour a prayer gives the devil a scare - Eastman

2005-03-06T23:37:00.000+08:00

Interfere at any price in any fashion when people start to pray, for real prayer is lethal to our cause.
Uncle Screwtape to Nephew Wormwood (CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters)

Interesting anecdote about prayer today about Daniel. Eastman writes that we often picture prayer as a communication between man and God - a direct telephone line. However, we forget that there are extraneous factors involved... Daniel chapter 10 saw Daniel praying... and praying, and praying. He prayed for 21 days before an angel of the Lord arrived with an answer. Turns out that the message couldn't be delivered due to a heavy server load - a hindering spirit from hell had engaged him in a prolonged battle that lasted 20 days, and had Daniel not been persistent with his prayers, the prayer might have gone unanswered, the messager defeated.

Satan is a real person, possessing awesome power to fight prayer.

Heavenly Father,

I thank You for orchestrating a good introductory session today as the camp committee met. I thank You so much for the willingness of these brothers and sisters to sacrifice their time, energy, effort into serving on this committee. I pray that You bless them abundantly in return. I pray for the persons who were unable to join us today - may they not feel excluded in any way.

Now as the committee's actions truly kick off, I pray that You grant them wisdom to know what to do, and the energy and resources to do Your will.

I pray in particular for the publicity team, who have the biggest job right now - of publicising the Youth Camp to the entire population without a camp name. I pray that You give them innovative ideas on how to conduct their campaign in TRBC, and the energy and resources to see them through. I pray that You multiply their time and give them good heads for time-management.

For us all, I pray that in the midst of all our business, we will not forget to pray.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Chapter 2: The Peak of Unbelief

2005-03-04T23:36:00.000+08:00

Prayer - real prayer - sees the answer coming before it actually arrived... Real prayer consists of bold, confident petitions and a certainty that the answer will come. Until belief is conquiered, progress will be halted. We go no further on the Road of Prayer while unbelief obstructs the faith...

According to Eastman, prayer is inextricably linked with faith. Mark 11:24 - Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Easy to say, hard to do - like the man who cried to Jesus: "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" This quote has resonated with me since the first time my attention was brought to it - what a great prayer! It's the classic "18-inches" dilemma: 18 inches being the distance between the head and the heart.

So knowing that God will answer prayer, we pray. But believing is an altogether different matter. It's like driving an upgrade of the Flintstone's car: you can run with your feet, or you can use petrol. We get into the car, insert the key knowing that it will run on gasoline, but for whatever reason (disbelief, preferring to do things "the old way") we don't turn on the ignition, preferring to run with our feet to move the car instead. The analogy is a little clumsy, but you get the general idea: we pray for things and events, but rely on our own strength to get there.

Somehow, the answer is a mobius strip. Pray for prayer.

Father,

Thank You for a good Prayer Meeting just now in church.

Thank You for all the responses and sacrifices that are being made by the Camp Committee members to make the meeting this Sunday. I pray that You bless these people for their understanding and giving hearts, and may You remove all and any blockades that the evil one may try to impose along the way to this meeting. I pray for safety as these great individuals come together for their first meeting as a team.

I pray that You preside over this meeting, Lord. May we come together without reservation, and love each other without condition as we prepare for the camp. I pray that irrational fears about meeting new people may be stripped away, irrational thoughts and unreasonable prejudices about anything or any person be abolished, and everyone come with an open heart and mind to meeting new people. I pray that friendships be born that day, and that more importantly, the foundations of Your future church be built. Father, only You can do the magic that is the weaving of lives together - I pray You work Your magic in this group, and bind us together in Your love and Your purpose. I pray that people who are in cliques be self-conscious enough to realise that cliques include and exclude.

May Your purposes prevail within the planning of this camp - please remind us never to forget who is the reason why we come together.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Some thoughts on prayer

2005-03-02T15:01:00.000+08:00

Today, I find myself at a loss of what to pray for - I could simply pick another person to pray for, just for the sake of it, but I think I will alter my m.o. a little and post a few thoughts on prayer from Dick Eastman's No Easy Road.

"The lazy man does not, will not, cannot pray, for prayer demands energy."

...

Beyond the spiraling PEAK OF UNBELIEF, the first mountain to be conquered, lies THE MOUNTAIN OF SIN, hindering many prayer we pray. Next we must pick our way through an AVALANCE OF EXCUSES, removing them from the road, to THE PEAK OF THE HABIT. We chose to cross slowly THE PLATEAU OF INTERCESSION, for difficult lessons must be learned there. Next, we pause for a time in HOLINESS COVE. The road up the towering MOUNTAIN OF SELF WILL is especially arduous and our progress is slow. Then, THE BRIDGE OF BALANCE becons. THE MOUNTAIN OF PERSISTENCE presents a real challenge. Beyond lies the rugged trail to BURDEN'S OUTLOOK. Then our goal appears: TRAIL'S END. At the summit we stand awed at the power of Christ's promise "... ask anything in my name, I will do it."

...

D. Gordon comments,

"The greatest thing anyone can do for God and man is pray. It is not the only thing, but it is the chief thing. The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean these people who take time to pray."

1. Eastman, D., 1996. No Easy Road. Michigan, USA: Baker Book House.

Father, today I ask that You help me (us all) climb the MOUNTAIN OF PERSISTENCE as I/we continue to interceed for this camp. It's going to be a long journey, but in You, all things are possible and will be done, because it is definitely in Your name that we do the things we do.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Prayer #4 - Yuxun

2005-03-01T13:58:00.000+08:00

Father,

Thank you for the fantastic promise that You will return again and bring Your people back into Your fold. I pray that I never forget the promises that You've made to Your people, and hold on to them whenever I feel that being faithful is a lost cause.

Today I wish to remember Yuxun in prayer. Thank you for this brother who has been so steady in his service to You, serving in the youth choir, and now, taking up the role of being camp commandant. In the midst of his business, I pray that he remember and trusts in You with all his heart; that he leans on Your strength and understanding, not on his own. I pray that You then give him the assurance that his path is straight and directed by You, the One who can see through the fog of our earthly cares! Thank You Father, for giving us a brother with such a big heart for Your work on earth.

In Jesus Name,
Amen.

Prayer #3 - Camp Committee

2005-02-28T11:59:00.000+08:00

Father,

I pray that in the midst of all the work that we all have to do, that we remember to be still, and know that You are the Lord. Right now as the youth committee goes about seeking You for a camp theme, I pray again that You show us what You want us to learn as a team, and what You want us to learn as a ministry. Thank You, Father, for being faithful to us.

Father, I pray a simple thing today: that the camp committee members will be free to meet this Saturday afternoon at 3pm. They have not been contacted, but I pray that the meeting will happen, if not this Saturday, then on another day when all are free to meet. I pray for a good first meeting, with rapport built, and hands of friendship extended between Your youth who do not know each other yet, but who are all brothers and sisters under Your Lordship.

In Jesus Name,
Amen.

Prayer #2 - Thanksgiving for the Comm Pt II

2005-02-27T21:58:00.000+08:00

Dear Father,

It's day 2 of the prayer log, and I'm already feeling the strain. Thank You for stretching my faith this way; I pray that I will not fail You.

Father I give You thanks for the additional manpower we have received in terms of "Yes" answers from Michelle Tay (Treasurer), Jeremy Eio (Logistics), Kenneth (R&R), Camelia (Progamme IC). Thank You for their willingness to serve. I thank You also for the people who have yet to respond: Lindsay (R&R), FanYang (Publicity/Publication), Charmaine (R&R) and Celesta (R&R) - I pray that You will speak to them with regard to their contribution to the camp, and I pray that Your will be done, not ours.

I thank You for the discussion we had on the theme; I pray that as the committee individually seek Your counsel regarding this, You will lead us to a central truth that You want us to learn as a ministry.

In Jesus' name,
Amen.

Prayer #1 - Thanksgiving for the Comm

2005-02-26T23:42:00.000+08:00

Dear Father,

[THANKSGIVING]
I give You thanks for the 5 meetings that the Youth Committee has already had, and for leading us to where we currently are now, with regard to planning the camp. I thank You for the amount of ideas and brain-juice that has sprung forth from our discussions, and I pray that our future meetings might be just as fruitful.

[CAMP COMMITTEE]
Jesus, I want to thank you for the people who have agreed to come forward and serve in the camp committee.

For the Camp Commandant, Yuxun.
For the Treasurers and Registrars, Beverly Poon and Eddie.
For the Food/Accom ICs, Beverly Tan and Priscilla.
For the R&R IC, Rachel.
For the Transport/Log team, Dahao.
For the Publicity/Publication team, Ben, Shi'en, and Matthew.
For the Worship team, Jonathan Ee and Shixuan.
For the Programme IC, Esther.
For the Prayer IC, myself.

Father I give You thanks for bringing people who are willing to give of their time, energy and talents to You. I pray that You will speak to the entire committee, even as more people are challenged; that You will draw those who wish to draw near to You unto Yourself. I pray for barriers to be removed from their participation in this camp, and pray that Your hand continue to guide us as we move towards planning for this monumental event.

In Jesus Name I pray,
Amen.

First Log: Motivation and Gratifications

2005-02-26T23:29:00.000+08:00

Hello. I've started this blog because I would like to keep myself accountable for taking up the post of being a prayer warrior for the youth camp 2005. As far as I am able to, I will try try try my very very best to post a prayer a day until the end of the camp. I have never really been a prayer warrior of this magnitude before, and right now, I'm worried about a couple of things:

1) I won't be able to pray everyday for the camp (consistency);
2) I won't be able to pray fervently and earnestly for the camp (quality);
3) I won't be able to get others to pray for the camp (contagiousness).

I will be the first to admit that I suck at praying, but I hold the role of the prayer warrior in high regard - it's the double S role: simplest but scariest. You're doing battle on a spiritual front (hey, there's another 'S' for you!) and that pretty much screws up (another 'S'!) the rest of your life if the devil wants to take pot-shots at the opposition.

So here's my plan. (So far.)

All days leading up to the camp will be numbered and allocated to Camp Committee members. Every day will be prayed for. Church members will be encouraged to sign up for the daily prayer thing too, but I'm going to make it mandatory for the camp committee to pray.

It's an evolving plan, and I'll post more once I've gotten more bright ideas.