Tuesday, May 24, 2005
back.. after 6 yrs, the church decided to reward the leaders again with spring! refresher aka retreat on sun-mon. it was fantastic, i felt so blessed that i just have to share this out-sun 22nd afternoon-
roy gave us the wrong gathering timing (ok not really his fault actually).. me and bao reached YWCA way too early so we helped dasmond out with the preparation. without realising, more and more ppl came. the feeling is just like having church camp, i saw many familiar faces, started to take pic here and there. the registration time was super long, so we went to have lunch with jasmine first at ps. back to YWCA, wenjun's finally there! brunei didn't change him at all =)
we checked into the rooms and went to ps again (for the 3rd time in a day). basically we were just trying to slack first before the event started-
evening-
after great time of pnw with all those ancient but very ministering songs, pastor shared bout the most basic lesson of all, remaining in God.. having an intimate relationship with Him.
a thought: it's possible for us to do a lot of things for God everyday without real relationship with Him.
but how long can you last?
God spoke to me clearly in two areas of my life as ps dinah prayed for me during the ministering time. it made me frozen in amazement for a second, "how did she know? i never really told anyone about it.. i think it's true" but God knows everything and He revealed to me through her. a reminder, an assurance.. the presence of the Lord was so strong.
after everything, we gathered in bao's room and roy wanted to have another round of midnight prayer, so we did. everything was poured out, four of us just kept on praying and praying... and yes prayer can do wonders.
i went back to my room feeling great, but my 'neighbours' were making a bit of noise errmmm so i went there to join them hahah i saw meihwa (that would explain the noise), huixian, jeremiah, donnie, collin, donald.. we played games together for a while.. funny games ^^
monday 23rd-
the guys had to wake me up cos i slept like a log =p
afternoon was the highlight of the day, cos we played 'amusing race'!! thank God for pris who prepared sooo well, everybody was having so much fun =D well it's actually a simple version of amazing race, with 26 teams competing. i was in team P and i didn't really know my fellow team members at first, we only had short introduction and bonding during lunch time. with 8 girls and 1 guy in a team, i have to say that we did a great job haha..
there were 11 stations to complete along the orchard road and all of us really ran all the way man.. madness.. we managed to skip 4 stations cos of the fast forward - none other than eating raw celery and onions (thank God for everyone) bwahaha and yes we finished the race 3rd!!! unbelievable hahaa... well we didn't really get any prize but to beat 23 teams was a big satisfaction.. no i should say.. to finish the race itself was a big satisfaction!
but after that all of us were lying on the floor half dead and yah we're all smelly.. ><
it's great to see the other teams finishing the race one by one, and the last team received a big clap n standing ovation =)
evening was the time for presentations from each district. tertiary had a slapstick show -_- that almost made me fall from the chair; the youth ermm i'm not sure how to describe hahaha... ; but the best one came from the adult.. they had this drama about missionaries and star wars.. ok it's hard to imagine how to link these 2 together hahaa but it was really very funny and it made us think about how our prayer can help the missions.
we closed the day with breaking plates with all our struggles written on them. all of us took turn in using the hammer, it felt like we're breaking certain walls in our hearts with it.
it was only 2 days and 1 night event but i think we're all enjoying it so much.. and we didn't even have to pay a single cent. pastor mentioned how it will be like when we complete the race together and receive the crown from God.. gosh it's much much better compared to any amusing race. people come and people go, but isn't it wonderful if all of us as a family can end this race together?
if only we could stay longer haha..
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passage of the day- Romans 4: Abraham Justified by Faith
20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness."
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