Thing I want to say but I’m too lazy to write now:

Meetup with some of the s15 people
Today’s meeting with the sunday school teachers
(Results?)

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Friday

Meet up with some of the s15 people at Settler’s Cafe. I think the last time I met them was… the class gathering at Anqi’s house? It’s a pity that people like Hui Yian, Ying Jia and Ruoxi weren’t around, but I’m glad that the rest could make it. :)

Since we were at Settler’s Cafe, we obviously played games. I think for some of the reaction games all our reactions we really slow! Sometimes after one person makes a move the others are still like “huh?”. But perhaps it’s also because we’re not used to the game yet? We need to meet again some time, hopefully when the rest can come too!

Saturday

We had a youth sunday school teachers’ gathering cum meeting in the afternoon. Even though we’ve all been teaching sunday school together for a year, we’ve never really had the oppotunity to gather as a group for something other than meetings. I’m glad that this time almost every one serving next year managed to come, and it was nice to be able to celebrate Wanling and Mao’s birthday together.

Next year sunday school and fellowship will be split up once again, and fellowship will be on saturday night while the time slot for sunday school remains. So now the current teachers are only involved in sunday school, but we have the option of helping out in fellowship as well. I don’t remember fellowship ever being on saturday night before, so this is a really big change for them. I know the committee may have some concerns about the change, but I’m sure that they’ll be able to lead the fellowship fine.

As a new year comes, once again our partners change. This year I’ve had the opportunity to teach with Jing Wen and Zhen Wei, and when I think back about it, I don’t see how the partnering could have happened otherwise. I’ve learnt so much from the both of them this year. Jing Wen is very experienced as a sunday school teacher, and he’s like a fatherly figure that the students respect. Zhen Wei is my ex-partner back in the days when we were in youth fellowship, and he’s someone I feel comfortable with. I really thank them both for guiding me along this year. Next year I’ll be with Ben and Jireh. Ben’s teaching style is quite different from the others in the sense that he likes to use activities or something else to capture the student’s attention, and then bring in the main topic. He was my sunday school teacher a few years back, and his lessons were always interesting. Jireh is another of my ex-partners, so we shouldn’t have any problem communicating. It’s funny how I seem to be working with my ex-partners once again, but when we partner for the second time, it’s interesting to see how much we’ve changed or remained the same in the span of a few years. I’m looking forward to a new year teaching the sec 1s with them!

Are you tired of chasing pretty rainbows?
Are you tired of spinning round and round?
Wrap up all those shattered dreams of your life
And at the feet of Jesus, lay them down.

Give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus
Shattered dreams, wounded hearts, and broken toys.
Give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus
And He will turn your sorrows into joy.

He never said you only see sunshine,
He never said there would be no rain.
He only promised a heart full of singing
About the very thing that once brought pain.

Give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus
Shattered dreams, wounded hearts, and broken toys.
Give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus
And He will turn your sorrows into joy.

Spent the past 2 days at youth camp to “look after those who were participating”. I guess a more convincing reason for a few of us seniors would be to make up for all those camps we missed. When the church building was bring rebuilt, we didn’t really have any camps because we didn’t have our own compound. So now as seniors we go to the youth camps. ;) But hey they need seniors around during the camp as well!

They had the amazing race on the first day, and each group had to carry these huge lollipops (for the lack of a better name to call it) around. Us seniors didn’t follow them everywhere, but instead headed for the last station at Sentosa. From what I heard (and expected), they got plenty of stares everywhere because of the lollipops. And the police even talked to one of the groups, because one of the guys was joking that the lollipop was a gun or something. -.-;

The greatest scare of the whole camp came during the game, when 2 of the groups were at Harbourfront. When we walked to Vivo City, Melissa’s group realised that Esther was missing. It was quite scary because this has never happened before, and she didn’t have a handphone with her. After some phone calls to other people, searching the place by Yixin and Melissa, and a lost person announcement, Yixin and Melissa finally found Esther at the MRT station. Luckily she didn’t wonder around, it not we might not have been able to find her. That incident was a harsh reminder that it’s extremely important to look out for and count your group members especially when you’re out of church. Even though we’re talking about people from primary 6 to J2, who aren’t exactly that young, we can’t assume that everyone will always be following the group. It was a lesson learnt the hard way, and I think all of us are just relieved and glad that we found her in the end and nothing happened to her.

And then there were night games after dark! This year those in charge of the game spent quite a bit on artificial blood and that sort of stuff, and the game was quite scary. Actually, make that Xiao Ke was very scary! While some of the rest looked scary in the dark, Xiao Ke looked scary even when all the lights were switched on. And some people cried during the game. Too bad the photos are with Ben, or I’ll show you all how scary he looked.

I went home after the night games, but Amenda, Yien, Wanling, Xiao Ke, Ze Ling and Hongen stayed the night. Heard fro the rest that Hongen ended up sleeping in the car because there was no space, and according to Xiao Ke, Ze Ling came pretty late, headed straight for the guys dorm, slept and by the time Xiao Ke woke up the next morning, Ze Ling was already gone. I think he came because they needed one of the older teachers to stay the night.

Second day, and after part 2 of the talk from Pastor Chen, there was group time and games. While the weather was relatively good (as compared to the recent weather) on the first day, the same cannot be said on the second day. It was raining for most of the day, and we couldn’t have any camp fire at night due to the rain. But talentime went on as usual, and there were pretty funny skits this year as well. Though I must say that in recent years, the standard has fallen quite a bit, and this is something agreed by quite a few of the seniors who had been to the earlier camps. In the past, there was always a skit, dance and song for talentime, and everything was very well rehersed. For the last 2 years the best actress prizes have also gone to guys who acted as girls, but I guess one reason for that is because we have more guys than girls in fellowship this days, as compared to the past, where the converse was true. But girls, please win the prize next time round!

There was sharing after that, but I didn’t stay for it (though I would have liked to). I’d like to know what they’ve shared about. Hopefully today’s programmes went ok, and everyone has gained something during the camp. And I hope that the committee especially has learnt something as they organised the various programmes. I know I was quite harsh at some points, but as seniors and teachers, whenever we see something that shouldn’t be happening, or when we see that safety is being compromise, we can’t just sit there and pretend that we don’t see anything. If we are harsh, or serious and firm when we’re talking to you all about some things, you might not realise it, but it’s because we care. While we want all of you to enjoy the camp, sometimes we have to come in and tell you all some things, even though it may appear as though we’re spoiling your fun. Hopefully you all can see from this point of view as well. And to the people who think that I’m fierce, I’m really not! And I wasn’t that angry on the first day about the problems that occurred with the groupings. I was just being serious when I was talking to the 2 guys. When I’m really angry I’m not like that. I think most people know what I’m like, but to the minority, I’m not scary ok? I’m nice! :)

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” - Luke 2: 10-12

… since 3 days ago actually.

It was an ok trip, since I prefer going on trips where I get to see new things rather than trips where you spend most of your time shopping and walking around. But it’s a new experience, and another place to add to the list of places I’ve visited.

I think we were really lucky that we decided to take a coach rather than a train to and from KL. If we had decided to take the train, we would have most likely been stuck in KL on wednesday, since parts of the railway track were flooded due to the heavy rain over the last couple of days. And even when we were on our way back by coach, traffic was really slow along some roads as vehicles had to be diverted onto other roads because of the flooding. It’s a good thing we made it back without any major problems! And the ride back was a really comfortable one too, since the seats were really big and there was a lot of leg room.

So where will my next holiday destination be? If I had it my way I’d want to go to Japan, but my mum wants to go to Turkey and my dad prefers South Africa. Maybe we’ll end up in Taiwan instead, since going to Taiwan was the original plan, but we ended up in KL because the only plane tickets to Taiwan that were available when we were booking our trip were the really expensive ones.