I’m back! =) With the report from the camp, of course. I will try to keep recounting short, as I think my thoughts are going to get darn long as God begins to inspire me to write. It is with utmost hope that whatever that I have written here will refresh my brothers and sisters in Christ and encourage them on, or let’s just use “you”, if you are a Believer, as we draw nearer to Him. If you are not, then, er, hmm… hear me out?
Day 1: Our preacher for this camp, Ps. Prayoon, was a powerful, sincere preacher. His message on following Christ began as he laid out the eight requirements to “take up [the] cross and follow [Jesus]”. (I’m not going to talk a lot on the sermon because it was so rich that if I did, I will end up writing a book.)
During dinner God divinely arranged a wonderful appointment. After the first sermon, it was personal time, so I decided to spend time alone with God for a while, then headed down early for dinner while most of the teenagers were still playing cards somewhere. I was alone, so I prayed for someone to have dinner with me, and after taking the food (dinner was buffet, more on it later) I was walking around, looking for a place to sit down when Meow came along. She invited me to eat with her and we sat down at an empty table and began our meal. I recognized her as being part of the church’s worship team. Then, Nat, in the worship team too, joined us at the table and after she found out my Singapore background, she introduced herself as a Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) staff and very eagerly asked for my contact so that she could get a Singaporean CCC from NUS in touch with me. She mentioned that someone over at the other table told her that she wanted her to know a “nephew” from Singapore who was in the camp. It turned out that the someone was the Auntie, and the “nephew” was me! Hence, it was a divine appointment fulfilled and my prayer answered. We had a great conversation that night. I testified, and would testify many more times for Jesus during the camp.
After the second sermon, we all went up to the room and before anything, Santi (nicknamed Ti), an EXCO member of the church’s youth class, out of the blue, decided to teach me the basics of evangelism. It was unexpected, but I happily listened to him and learned a structured way to introduce Jesus logically to someone.
Apart from that, we played Winning Eleven (naw, I didn’t play because I sucked terribly at console games; I was commentating) and I went to sleep earlier than others.
Day 2: Today’s sermon was on the qualities that people who follow Christ have. It reinforced Day 1’s sermons, and showed that the benefits are not physical; they are spiritual. For the evening sermon, the pastor laid out the four types of Christ-followers: people who follow Him to see, those who follow Him to try, those who follow Him and are with Him, and those who follow Him and is given His authority to preach on His behalf. I do believe that I am in the early stage 3, and I want to go all the way to stage 4.
Late in the morning, we had a meet-the-preacher session, for the youths. I feel that the fact that the youths were too shy to ask questions or didn’t have questions to ask made the session a real waste. (I was guilty of that too, though.) I knew that the pastor had plenty to share. Thank God we were blessed as we were as the pastor shared re: his life and advised us so strongly about our life partner and again, although I agreed with him, I felt that some teenagers had an awkward feeling to it because of the world’s notion that there are girlfriends, and then there is a wife. The world says it is okay to have girlfriends, for whatever reason, but God says be faithful, wait upon God-given partner and commit to her. Love life is an area that Christian youths might be struggling to let go and let God be their love. From what I see in Singapore, Christians who really love God could care less about finding a bf/gf, because God is their love. Even at marriage, love for God comes first, then love for partner, and it is really wonderful. (One of the things that drew me to Jesus. Love that is really love.)
During the Creative Fun section, the camp participants were divided into four colours, and each colour had to come up with a play that incorporated the camp’s theme, “Follow Me”, into a theme unique to each colour. I was in red and we were given the theme “Superheroes”. I ended up starring for my colour’s play, as Ultraman. o_o The main protagonist, actually. o_o;; With only three hours prior notice and no script, I was very worried. After a practice or two, we were off to do the actual thing. Then, I did something incredible. I decided to commit the play to God. I prayed that the play will be fine and that I will be able to bring the theme of the camp across well in my message, and for peace of mind. I knew it was fah-nee to commit this kinda thing to God, but as I have come to know, God hears my prayer, no matter how small and insignificant it is. ^^ Off I went into the play, and we were really playing out impromptu. XD When my part came, I simply went up and did my best, and came back for the American Idol’ish criticism, not knowing what to expect. One of the judges told us that we were all very articulate, and the play was as good as it could be for an all-youth cast (we were the only colour that used an all-youth cast for the play, other colours used a predominantly adult cast) and that with proper training, we can turn professional actors. I never thought of myself of that, so I felt that it was God who allowed me to perform well. Thank God! =)
During today’s personal time, I was talking with Ps. Charnwut and Yong, a youth classmate. We shared that both of our families have not known Christ yet, and were encouraged to pray on by Ps. Charnwut, whose parents came to Christ after so many years. Then, I went to Nat to get clarifications on CCC. Apparently, CCC is more than literally being crusaders. (Scary…) While preaching the gospel is CCC’s primary goal, CCC branches out into many departments such as IT (which Nat said I will fit excellent in), media and music departments, each with its own specialized goals in addition to the common goal. She said that in CCC, members try to maximize each other’s potential in serving God using his or her gifts (by gifts, it does not necessary mean spiritual gifts, it can mean a flair for songwriting or the ability to write excellently) so everyone will have an opportunity to serve God in CCC according to what he or she is good at. Not bad. After dinner with Nat and Meow (again, yeah, now that we know each other, we eat together), Mew, a new Believer (he was spiritually a week old!) asked me to come over and sing with him, so I sat there and sang hymns with him for a good while, until the actual worship+sermon session, session number four, started.
During the worship, as I was singing my heart out, I was suddenly tempted. I was bombarded with awful, malice and horrible thoughts, thoughts that I would never have thought them myself. Not the first time, so I went “oh here we go again.” I stopped dead in the track and began praying to God to help me resist the mental torture that I was going through. Then His word came: “Let go.” Tears rolling down, I let go, and continued to sing to Him whenever I could, and when I could not, I simply stood still, knowing that He is God and no matter what kind of thoughts contaminated my mind, my God will wipe them clean. As the time went on, I could feel that it got easier, and eventually, when Ps. Jakkapan came up and declared that “Satan has no power to interfere with anything in our camp”, it was a confirmation that indeed what happened in my mind was a spiritual attack (this time in another form) and at that I felt victorious and clean. It was over. Praise God!
After that, Mew, a new Believer, and I, sat down and talk with each other. Mew, who has been very hungry to know Christ, asked me to pen something into his Bible, and told me of how his life has been transformed. He then asked questions and shared experiences, and in return I testified a few times and answered his curiosity to the best of my ability. It was a very encouraging conversation. Then JJ, another youth, then came along, being unable to sleep as he was afraid. We talked about spirits and supernatural occurrences for a while, then Mew asked me to pray for JJ, and so I did. It was my first time praying for someone in Thai, so while I was honoured to be able to do so, I was anxious, so I stumbled aplenty, trying to pray, every word coming out as I told God in my mind, “Lord, you know I speak with faltering lips. I don’t care, I want to pray for him!” so eventually, I finished the prayer. Whew, that was quite an experience!
Blessed night. Afterwards, it was PS session and I went to watch football some more. Slept later than the first night hehe. That is all.
Day 3: Wrapping up everything. The sermon was a warning, the entire thing. Warning against falling away from following Jesus, and 5 warning lights that indicate falling into Satan’s trap (which we are to avoid of course…)
Oh, in the morning, before the sermon I was walking around browsing the Christian books on sale and then Ps. Jakkapong came along. I talked to him for a while, and out of the blue, he bought Sis and me a book each! I was totally unprepared so… wow… thank you Pastor! Thank you God! ^^
During the worship, I felt that God was trying to tell me to rest in Him in quietness and trust. It was repeated over a few times too during Our Daily Bread devotion that morning.
I exchanged e-mail address with a few people in the youth class, and then we were all on our way home, with so much blessings during the past three days.
Reflection: Where do I begin?
Words cannot describe the gratitude that I feel to God for everything that has transpired in the past three days. We have a really awesome God. It’s fortunate that there is no limit as to how much blessing a person can receive, otherwise, I think I would never have been able to carry them all back! Of course, I did have fun to some extent too but it was not important… never my priority. I desire to grow more intimate with God and I am glad God sensed my hunger.
On the sermon: A difficult one. The preacher seemed fearless of losing favour with the crowd, and I think that is good. The sermon took on an honest and extreme note right from the very first sermon (out of five of them, spread over three nights) we are called to be determined to care not about earthly things and only put care in things of God. Trust me, it was difficult to commit, but I think it was God’s desire that we realize that we cannot follow Jesus on our own accord; we will need the strength and courage from Him, because following Him goes against so many things that the world vouches for. So I prayed that I will be able to follow Him and although the path will not be easy, I know that He who started the work in me will be faithful to complete it. =)
On Evangelism: Being someone who has been drawn to Jesus not by evangelism but purely by His love, I still hold the same reservation on evangelism. However, the knowledge of evangelism that I got during the camp with Ti allowed me to introduce Christianity in a more systematic way, and I know that it is going to help me in the long run. Furthermore, I initially had reservation joining CCC because of my reservation re: evangelism and I don’t see a need to join an organization (the friend who brought me back to Jesus was unaffiliated… she didn’t even oblige me to join her church. ^^) However, as I got to know more about CCC, I decided to let God lead me to wherever He wants me. If He wants me in CCC, then I will gladly do so.
On the temptation: I realized that the mind is a terrible battlefield, and when I see how messed up my mind can get, it siimply reminds me of how sinful we humans are by nature and how dependent on God we are. I emerged from the sermon not only with that night’s message, but also with deeper knowledge into the spiritual realm and more love and trust in Jesus. The question: will you fight? By what power will you do that? Or will you succumb to the mind’s tendency to crave for the things that your conscience said you should not? If you ever think deeply, you realize that there is only one way out.
The Food: Er, oh yes, the food was really good. I love Tom Ka Gai from Saturday lunch. The chicken was a lil’ tough, but the soup was as perfect as I knew it could be. The breakfasts were excellent. Two eggs, plenty of sausages and croissants, and unlimited supply of milk. I couldn’t sit after my first breakfast, haha! On the last day (second breakfast) I became more careful. Still, with the food being so good (another good dish that I recalled was steamed cabbage with mushrooms… Sunday dinner, and then there was classic fried chicken… ate plenty of them) I ate a lot during the camp. *is very scared of putting on weight*
This is for you.
havent heard from you for so long haha. are you still in Singapore?? Congrats on getting into NUS! Did you apply to like US or UK?
How's uni life?
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