What a Beautiful Rainbow..Haha.. Its the only picture I have of the camp I have at the moment.. Very few photos were taken were taken.. No one wanted to take with me lehzz.. Sob Sob.. Haha.. Maybe next camp ba.. Next camp I must bring a camera and snap some photos of myself with some of my dearest friends..
Well.. This camp has being a very fun and fruitful one for me..
Let me first talk about the place.. This place that we had our camp is this place we call Vision Farm.. Its a farm in Chua Chu Kang.. Haha.. Yup.. It very far.. Its in the middle of nowhere but at least the scenery was nice.. And from where we were, we could see a beautiful sunset in the evening and awesome lightning strikes when it was about to rain.. Took a stupid route when travelling to Chua Chu Kang for the camp.. Wasted a lot of time which I could have spent sleeping..
And speaking about sleeping, let talk about the accomodations.. For this camp, the guys and the ladies had different kinds of accomodation.. The girls got to have air-conditioned rooms with bedding, power-points and a few clean toilets with heater at their disposal.. For the guys, we got an big open air tent, with a double-deck wooden plank beds, a SINGLE dirty, old, rusty metal container toilet with no heater, limited supply of water, a whole lot of wild life and the toilet like 5cm next to the shower in the same cubicle, low-wall which allowed taller people like myself to see the person next to me bathing and not to forget that "great smell" of the place as a whole.. Naturally, I was quite happy of the arrangements as these arrangements of accomodations brought back some good old memories of the great camps I used to have when I was in my NCC unit in secondary school.. So happy infact that on the 1st night, when I had a chance to talk to pastor Jasmine and she asked me about the accomodations, I even crack a series of 3 back-to-back lame jokes about the toilet, bedding and insect respectively with her.. Thought the jokes had an element of truth behind them.. Haha.. However, some of the guys were seriously pissed, and some could not take it and went home for the nights..
On the 2 nights that we were in the camp, the guys were offered the hall that we held our activities in and the dorm A which the girls were asked to clear out of to sleep in.. Immediately, the majority of the guys that were allocated to the locations flocked to the respective locations.. And for the TP guys, we were offered the dorm A to sleep in and the use it's toilet on the second day.. Naturally the guys flocked there too.. This time round, even I went to check it out, and eventually decided to sleep in it.. Kind of disappointed at myself for giving up on good old mother nature.. But through this, I realised how dependent our generation had become on all this material comforts.. And by all means, its nothing for us to be proud of..
And because of the fact that we were surrounded by forest, we had wild life problems.. And through this, I saw just how dependent some guys are on insect repelling products.. Some were even afraid of a little bug.. And the first thing that came to their minds were to kill the bug when it has done nothing to them.. That is one thing I am truly very disappointed of.. Though God let us rule over all of the creatures on this earth, it is my believe that He did not want us to kill them indiscriminately..
Through the wild life issue, I also discovered something very interesting about myself.. That is that when in a comfort setting like when I am somewhere urban, I tend to not want to come into contact and handle insects, reptiles.. However, when I am in a place where I am close to nature, my compassion for this creatures kicks in.. And in a situation when most of the people is screaming and shouting to get the insect or reptile away or to kill it, I often find myself being the one to step up to save the poor creature and bringing it to a remote location for release.. Something in me just doesn't want to see the creature getting killed so indiscriminately..
For the food.. Haha.. It wasn't half bad.. It was in fact quite decent for camp food.. I guess my favorite meal was the 2nd day's lunch, where we had rice with sweet n sour fish, potato stir-fry with mixed veg and minced meat, and chicken strip cooked with black-sauce.. Though the fish was a quite towards the sour side of the flavor spectrum.. I quite like it as eating it made me want to finish off the rice.. Though I doubt under normal circumstance I would even have gave the fish a passing grade as it was really too sour for sweet and sour fish le..
As for the workshop and teaching, overall, I find it to be fruitful.. I learned a lot through the teachings.. And I am sure that I will be able to put the things I've learned to good use in the future.. The workshops were great too.. Learned a lot of things and had some of my doubts cleared.. Throughout the workshops, I also observe some people asking questions about the topic of the workshop and I feel that somehow, I came to understand them, and what they might be going or had gone through.. Jia You my friends who has doubts, you all can overcome it de, because God has already overcome the world..
Next up.. Games!! Haha.. Got to get teamed up with many familiar faces.. People like Kwok Leng who I don't know personally but have always seen, Donald who I know personally and that our team even made a cheer for, Benjamin from DI I think, who I had the chance to serve alongside with during CYL2.. Joanne and Alexia who are my dear sisters from BizArt, the unit I was originally from when I first joined Hope Church Singapore.. The sequence of our game stations was really straight-forward, 1 to 10 in order, cause we were Team 1.. The first station was the tick-tac-toe thingy.. Haha.. I cannot make it for the skipping la.. My coordination for skipping is really bad.. Haha.. But at least I ate the bread up quite quickly.. Luckily, never lose for that station because of me.. The game I had most fun in was that water bomb game that Chia Min was watching over.. Mummy something de.. Our group chose Joanne to be wrapped up like the mummy.. Then I was chosen to be the one to stand directly in front of her to shield her from the waves of water gun and bomb attacks.. I was more than glad to get wet to protect her cause that day was really hot.. That Kai En hor, not good la.. Target my that place with not 1, but quite a few water bombs.. I couldn't "siam" cause I had to protect Joanne from getting wet.. Was jumping up and down to block the water bombs with my body.. Truly enjoy that game.. It was funny and fun.. But through the things I did in this game, I was also got reminded that Jesus protected us like how I protect Joanne in the game, but uncountable times greater than just getting wet like me.. Instead He did anything to keep us from harm, even using Himself as a sarcifice for our sins.. How great is our God.. I just can't help but praise Him.. And as an added bonus for our effort.. Our group won the overall Mega Games.. Team 1 comes in First!!! We also happen to hold the record for the most number of jumps for the giant skipping rope game..
Theme night.. Hmm.. Wasn't really night yet la.. But the highlight was the dressing up la.. Many handsome lads and beautiful ladies from TP yar? Haha.. I was the only one that dressed differently from the rest of the guys.. The well the smart-looking side of theme, while I dressed as the body-guard side of the theme.. Thank God for Mei Yi for lending me the beautiful scarf to let me achieve the look I wanted.. Sorry for not protecting it properly and dirtying it.. Kinda stupid of me when I was talking to her too.. I wanted to be nice and tell her the truth that she actually looked very good de.. But ended up saying that she looked like a pregnant lady, which was totally untrue.. Yup.. That is something I have to change too.. I have to tame my lips.. Cannot always anyhow say things, especially when its not how I feel even.. Jialat la me.. Then this time round the theme night like a lot less fun also lehzz.. Never really took any photos with anyone.. No camera is one thing.. But I still had my phone ma.. Never really asked anyone, that my fault.. I have got to learn to step out of my comfort zone and start asking.. Wanted to take photo with so many people de lor.. Haizz..
Okay.. Now how was the fellowship? Not bad for me.. Stepped out of my comfort zone quite a bit and smiled and talk to quite a few people I don't really know.. Could have stepped out more de.. But didn't.. Got to pluck up my courage even more.. If not next time how to evax? Haha.. Aiyo.. Missed out again lor.. Got many people I wanted to talk to during the camp de.. But didn't put my plans into action lor.. Worst is some of the people I wanted to talked to more were sitting/standing/idling around me from time to time.. Me ar..
Then finally, it was time to go home.. Of course excited in a way la.. Haha.. But also sad to leave the place and disappointed for missing out on so much opportunities to step out of my comfort zone.. Took the 3rd shuttle with the TPguys, BizArt and Engit.. Reached Lot 1 at Chua Chu Kang around 9pm+ and went to eat Macs with Joseph, Darren, Glen and Shawn.. Haha.. Normally, you'd have to kill me to get me to eat Macs.. But still time round really buay ta han already.. Wanted to eat something unhealthy and oily.. Had a good time with the guys.. Affirmed each other a bit also la.. Just a bit.. Haha.. Then met up with Li Jia they all and took the train to woodlands to take bus.. Even then, there was drama.. That Priscilla blur blur one lehzz, lost her ez-link card.. Then cannot tap out.. Luckily there was two kind boys that returned the card to the control station and she manage to eventually come out.. Then went to take bus.. Separated from the rest of the Bedok, Tampines, Pasir Ris and Tanah Merah bunch and took 161 with Li Jia and Zack.. Had a great chat with the two of them.. Then Zack alighted earlier cause he stay at Puggol.. Continued to chat up with Li Jia.. Very long never chat le.. Then accompanied her to the bus interchange and waited for her bus with her since it was quite late by then le.. After she left, I walked home and enjoyed the cool night air..
A wonderful camp with many lessons learned and reminded.. Wonderful experience indeed..
The End..
