Back from Camp

Back from X29 - It's OUR Chapter Camp!

(Gosh I realized that I haven't blogged for about 2 months =P)

It was an awesomely refreshing and tiring camp at the same time. The first day was completely fun, especially the Captain's Ball, MinOps guys vs NS guys. The thing that burst me to laughter was Dan Feng's funny comment: "How can a group of national protectors lose to a bunch of musicians?!" LOL. The opening ceremony was quite cool as well, the dancers are equipped with glow-in-the-dark sticks that make them look like glowing stickmen, very cool concept. Learned much from the teaching by Pastor Shirley as well.

Oh during the teaching, Ben was commenting that the way that the way the message was preached seemed to imply that we're competing against each other to gain better rewards, while in fact the Bible says that in Heaven there will be no sadness and no sin, only joy and love etc, so does it really matter? (I don't know how to paraphrase it better =P) I took some time thinking and I came up with the answer: It's true that it doesn't really matter for us, but I think it's because God just wants to reward His kids that have worked hard for Him accordingly, just like how parents want to give gifts to their children when they do well in, like maybe, studies? When I think about it that way, it really makes sense, and I think it's really the Holy Spirit that prompted the answer, because I've never thought of it that way before, haha..

At night we had our Y-Comm Core meet at the guys room, to share our camp objectives. Talking about Camp Objectives, I've only accomplished 2 out of 3 actually, didn't get the chance to write cards for people very tired and can't think of any encouraging words >_<

2nd day I was really looking forward to the workshop, planning to go for the intermediate guitar workshop led by Simon and Kaiwen, but apparently there are more pressing things to do, namely YHope TV! So I took a step of faith by denying myself, haha, so I stayed back to help out in Y-Hope TV despite of the others' persuasion to go for the workshop. In the end I didn't do much actually, only made a "lollypop" for Yushan and Qianjin, which looked much like a Vitamin C. =)

And then came our long awaited Yo! mag, which I thought it was really well printed, compared to the posters (so pixelated!! The printer cheat our money!!). We also spotted a major mistake in one of the articles as well (and I'm not telling which one) and we were so shocked, especially Puay. We were so discouraged at that time but moved on to do Y-Hope TV nevertheless.

I also want to thank God for Boss for bringing Kaixiang along after work, although he was only there for a while, but I really2 hope that he was blessed by the teaching that night before he rushed back home for work. Afterwards, we the late-night workers of Y-Comm gathered together to chiong the Y-Hope TV again, digitizing and editing all the clips and photos that we've gathered during the day. After Boss left we were lost on what we were supposed to do and the rest was down for a while. Aloy was there too, and down as well. Some of use took turn to wake up and sleep, just to actually cut the clips into pieces that we could show later on. I wasn't down till last minute though and did my best to help cutting and trimming the clips. I really2 think that we really need to plan well before the actual thing actually happens. Most of us were not ready for this last minute thing, and all the clips that we came up with are really2 mediocre ones; we know we can do much2 better, but under so little time and lack of pros, we really had to give our optimal performance up. However thankfully we got just enough time to finish up the minimum to show during the camp. Oh well though we sacrificed much, we were blessed much as well in one way or another.

I really2 think that we need a breakthrough in this area, plan well! Include resting time in the plan as well! Rest is really important for optimal work and capacity to bless even more people. During the games I took a rest for like 3-4 hours before another teaching started and I dreamt some interesting dreams which I can't remember now =P

Anyway the 10th Anniversary CG Appreciation was quite interesting, especially the NS performance, super funny!! Totally hilarious! The others are quite interesting as well, what caught my attention was Northeast's and West's performances, quite touching and relate-able for me, haha.. The highlight was the Concert, RESONANCE. With the launch of our very first animated background for lyrics and the debut of our new symphonic bands, the Praise & Worship atmosphere was like never before. Especially when Daniel started to affirm Pastor Shirley and started singing "I love this family of God" song, whoa, everyone started to get emo (in a good way) and they were appreciating their shepherds, CG ppl, etc. I came to find Dingchuen and he told me, "Stay strong in God, you've impacted many lives in ways you may not know." Wah I was so touched and I just couldn't hold back my thanksgiving to God for blessing me with this family. You're worthy of all praises!

At that night there were Gigs and screening of short films. Boss' film was shown and also the MVP show, which was very funny knowing that Ben, EC, Gideon, Dewen are all acting inside. Simon, EC, Wal and Yaoguo were playing some songs for the Gigs and Leejun was playing around with the spotlight, trying to focus to Wal and changing the colour, quite funny though. Well on the last day Cong and me woke up so late, like 10am like that =P Luckily can still make it for the rest of the programme to continue. After everyone left and while we were cleaning up, the people started to dismantle the hockey sticks, just to reveal the many different interesting stuff the people actually use to make the sticks. Quite fun, hahaha..

After that took cab with Matthias, Lays and Carmen. Thank God for Matthias man, such a giving guy, hope his life is transformed after this camp.

I think that's all for this post, such a long post man, haha..

My verse of the day:
"This service that you perform is not only supplying
the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in
many expressions of thanks to God.
Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves,
men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies
your confession of the gospel of Christ,
and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.
And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you,
because of the surpassing grace God has given you.
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"
[ 2 Cor 9: 12-15 ]