i am back from camp people! And i cant wait to tell y'all about it.

i didnt expect anything from camp, so i wasnt really excited about going. yea. then at the last hour before camp i was still watching tv at home. haha. but then josh called and asked how i was going. he kinda assumed i would go by car. thats what everyone would assume of me. but yea, i was planning to cab there anyway. haha. so then i didnt really have any choice, i went by cab with josh and we actually reached on time.

oh then when we left the cab ( it dropped us off in full view of everyone), amy jie, daddy, james, jon, ivan goh and other were like shrieking dang loud. haha. like," ahhh, cheryl! joshua! you all.... scandalous eh!" that kind of stuff. super hilarious la! haha. we cabbed together cos our houses were relatively near and the campsite wasnt near. yup. thats all. haha.

so then after all the commotion, i finally registered and daddy walked me up to my bunk. haha. he had to carry my bag up 4 levels of course. exactly like 2 years ago.

along the way, we talked about packing our bags of camp as stuff. and duh daddy obviously overpacked la. haha. he always does. so he said if i needed to borrow shirts, i could borrow from him since he brought like dunno how many extras. haha.

day one was quite boring. briefing and ice breakers. man i was so sian i was tempted to go home.
at night after all the icebreakers and dinner, we had our first worship and word. it was hard to let go and worship properly since i wanted to go home. but then the message was great. haha. after that i didnt want to go home anymore. i decided to take a day at a time and let God lead me.

Pastor dave reardon talked about selling out fully for God, being bold and greatness. to be BIG. its amazing how i have heard all these somewhere before but never really understood what it all really meant. i did that night and i was so so refreshed.

pastor dave is one gifted speaker whom can actually capture the attention of even the most hyperactive kid. haha.
really interesting and cool. and then at the end he totally changed my mindset on how i should look at camp. yea. i should have gone with an expectant heart. so then i decided to ask God a few questions and for some stuff and waited for replies. i asked for peace, joy, to walk away from past tribulations and all.

slept in between eelaine and gracie. haha. gracie's super funny la.

day 2.

played this outdoor game in the morning after breakfast. we had groups then we were supposed to walk around the area outside the school to stations and play games to earn items. the items would help us in the final warfare game at the end. we had about an hour or so to walk around collect the items.

each station had 3 difficulty levels. the higher the difficulty level, the better items. we could choose the level we wanted to do and can do all 3, but would get the better reward between the 3 levels only. not rewards from all 3 levels. yup. then at the first station, there was this man standing around. we were at the void deck of one of the HDBs around the school.

when we were about to leave the station, i heard this loud sickening thud behind me and immediately felt the same sensation as in thailand during mob, when lynn our translator kept fainting. i still dunno what i felt but anyway, i turned around and that man had actually fallen flat backwards. maybe, i'm just over-sensitive, i dunno. maybe i was just scared. i cant possibly be shocked. cos i wasnt shocked in mob. or maybe i was, since this is singapore. oh whatever la.

pastor dave was there and he went to help the man. he squatted beside the man and asked how he could help and whether he could sit up. the man was like flagging his arms as if in some spiritual attack.

after a while, the man was fine and he sat up. then i saw that there was a pool of blood behind him. his head was bleeding. pastor dave then asked one person to call an ambulance. moses did. but then the man could just sit up like he just woke up and smile. yea and he kept saying he was fine and didnt need an ambulance. so pastor dave brought him home (upstairs) and we walked on to the next station. for the whole day from then i was stuck to the sound and image i had experienced. couldnt get it out of my head. that whole experience was so wierd. that man could sit up and smile and become normal like nothing happened.

the rest of the stations were fine. we had to walk the " tian1 tang2 lu4"- the pebble pavement for old people to do self foot reflexology- to unlock locks ( by luck we completed in record time since there was a whole pile of similar keys to try the locks) , do charades from across the junction with ongoing traffic ( i think the motorists thought kenneth and i were nuts), use sour power in our mouths to write a verse in a tray of salt ( i just sat down beside the tray to shake it after every turn and made sure the words were clear and eliel -station master- saw it. haha. ultimate slacker. other stuff we had to do i forgot. whoops.

i especially liked the charades one. it tested my acting skills and kenneth was so cute acting with me. i shall repeat the important point. kenneth was so darn cute! he makes everyone laugh like mad! haha.

ok. the next part of the game was the warfare in school. every team had a boundary and we had collected stuff from the 1st part of the game which could help the second.

tealights- points. more=good.
plastic bags- those used to make water bombs. used for that purpose.
cardboard- deflecting water bombs
poncho- ultimate deflector. the person wearing it is like " immortal", cannot 'die' from being hit by bombs.

tealights were placed anywhere in the boundary. we could send attackers to other boundaries with bombs. we would have to declare war, wait one minute and attack. bomb a person inside to lessen defenders and get in the boundary to collect tealights without being tagged by defenders. tagged means die.

we defended ours the whole time. since we had lack of manpower we only attacked twice. and gotten loads from it. edwin and josh took turns to wear the poncho and i must say they were awesome at defending man! never saw them look so pro before. our defend system was quite powerful i must say. haha. we actually put some tealights on the ground, cover with cardboard, pile shoes secretly filled with tealights and slippers on as well, and boy did other teams struggle to get tealights.

oh yea. we attacked 2 groups at the same time. the boys attacked one, 3 girls including me attacked the sec 1 group. haha. and josh was left to defend. we thought no one would come cos they might think we had the CARD, which could hold play for 4 minutes.

but still they came and so the girls quickly finished play and went back to help josh. super pro la josh! defended by himself.

that day's messages were about being self conscious, having self control, confirmation, God's voice and praise. man were they good. never thought there were so many ways to praise God. even noise counts! haha.

yada actually means to raise your hand
hilare- to laugh
tahila- to sing

all these are hebrew and are found in the Bible. how cool is that! haha.

praise is actually a weapon. man when i'm in trouble next time, i'm gonna just sing.

a bit of tears during worship. i think it was really cool. haha. we didnt have like a whole night of sobbing and slain people everywhere. instead we jumped and praised and it was a totally different experience. praise party! synergiz and all that planetshakers hillsongs stuff cant compare man. just cant. i actually walked away from my past and all the horrible images i saw. that was a prayer answered by God.

i even decided to really pray and perservere for beefy. God made me great and i just cant do nothing. so i also decided to be bold and thick skinned and invite my clique down to captainsball again, even though i did already and most didnt even reply. even if they replied cant, i invited them again.

that night after supper i talked to amy jie and daddy about what happened in the day ( that man who fell and knocked his head). and they prayed for me. they told me a few things i was quite shocked to hear, cos i didnt expect myself to actually...

its quite difficult to comprehend and believe. but i will wait for confirmation. for now i will just put it on the shelf. just like pastor dave has taught.

daddy walked me up after that from the canteen to the bunks and lent me one of his shirts. i asked for a mega huge one to sleep in cos i borrowed one from bryan and had worn that already. whoops.

slept super well. much better than the first night.

day 3.

captainsball outreach. woohoo!

esmond asked me to join his team before camp. so i did. cos i thought his team would be strong.

here's a breakdown..

esmond- captain. hwa chong. used to be gymnast. small but quick.

edwin- mega tall. hwa chong. wushu.

justin ( my chinese dictionary) - hwa chong canoeist. previous shuttler.

malcolm- like mega mega tall. hwa chong. i think canoeist.

bryan- hwa chong athelete.

wen- something ( sorry. i cant remember chinese names well) - hwa chong athelete.

gracie- nanyang netball vice pres.

me- nobody.

yeap. my team consist of 6 guys from hwa chong and cos there is a minumun of 2 girls on court at all times, 2 girls. total of 8 max people.

haha. guess whats the team's name.

wait for it..

small small boys.

haha! like so the opposite! all the guys were mega tall except esmond but he's still taller than me! haha.

anyway, we played quite well. winning everything. there were teams from acjc, innova, st.andrews, hwa chong (us), RI, nanyang, sports school.. there was even a player from team singapore basketball. man was he pro.

the funniest match was against acjc. crap their team scared me the most la. during the match i was literally swept of my feet by this guy from the opposite team. unfortunately he wasnt very good looking! haha. and it was because he knocked into me. not as if i fell in love or something. oh well, too bad.

haha. anyway, he knocked into me real hard and i almost flew a few metres if not for the fact that he did quick thinking and grabbed me and held on to me really tight immediately. so i just swung about half a round around him. thats all. yay. haha. if i fell i would probably have cried. brick floor man!

oh then in the second half, i was standing about 5 metres in front of our receiver and there was another opponent( different guy) behind me ( in front of our receiver to deflect balls). the plan was that if we got possesion at the other end, they could throw long to me and i could just throw to out receiver. that was what happened. however, when i caught the ball and swung around 180 degress to face our receiver, the acjc guy had actually moved directly behind me. then he went," BOO!"

what the crap man. i was so shocked so hard i screamed super loud. haha. then he retreated and so i shot to our receiver and scored. haha. what kind of freakin' tactic was that? scare-the-opponent's-girl-so-that-she-might-drop-the-ball techtique? rargh. everyone laughed la.

we still won anyway. hah. our defender was the height of their receiver standing on the chair. haha!

then it started to rain and we moved to the hall. it all went downhill. we lost every match and came in 4th overall. crap no prize. but we placed our "bet" on the winning team ( small side game where teams could guess the winning team. at the end, if there were more than 1 team who guessed correctly, there would a lucky draw. the prize was worth more than 3rd prize of $50 pasta mania vouchers - it was 4 pairs of movie tickets to see anything any gv cinema anytime, just enough, 8 people) and we had a quarter chance of winning it. we did win it. haha. so i count ourselves as having won the second and a half prize and 4th as well. it was so lucky! haha.

we're going out together to watch something. hopefully this weekend.

josh's group - the RI team won 2nd. christina and penelope were in their group. yay man! super pro! haha. oh yea. since there were 6 girls and 3 sec 4 teams, every girl had to play. angel and eelaine were in sherwyn's team. haha. jeanne and i helped sherwyn decide the team name. MOJOJOJO. haha! sherwyn rejected 'powerpuff girls' and 'small small girls'. haha.

that night was gala night. we had earned points throughout camp with could be redeemed as "bart" money. our team had the third highest amount earnt though we had the fewest boys.

the auction went crazy. we auctioned like mad and at the last auction, nicole and i joint alliance to beat pastor dave reardon and the camp comm in a one-on-one bidding session. uber cool. since no other team had more money they sat out.

evenutally we won. yup.

then at night we had the most awesome sermon. about merging our dreams into 1, perserverance, revealing purposes and all. it may sound crazy but you gotta hear the actual sermon to understand.

i turned back once and saw that josh's friends from RI were still there and i was so happy.

then later during response i actually walked to the front when i had no intention to. so i just stood there like some idiot waiting for something to happen. i think the whole room actually walked up front.

then i saw people being prayed for and being slain. it was really cool. then uncle shukun walked pass the people in front of me and stood by me. he then prayed for me. i thought that was cool. like he had some wierd calling to choose to pray for me, and not the people in front of me.

anyway, he did but i didnt really expect anything though i asked the Holy Spirit to fill me. i was almost disappointed until at the end, i felt like super hot when i leaned forward and his hand touched my forehead. the heat spread from my head to the back of my shoulders and i knew the Holy Spirit was at work. yea so i cried a little..

then uncle shuks moved on. i asked God for another prayer and true enough, Gracie jie came to pray for me. this time, i sobbed uncontrollably and i couldnt really stand up. then i fell on the floor and my crying stopped. God gave me two words," Joshua's friends." i just laid there very silently and was almost positive God was speaking to me. couldnt possibly be i speaking to myself.

i had absolutely no idea who were they but i knew i had to pray for them. like God had put a burden on my heart or something. but i wasnt very sure. so i didnt really pray for them.

after that we all prayed together for pastor dave and i thought it was really cool.

then we had this wierdo game at midnight. we were blindfolded and taken to a strange place. we were given a very badly drawn map and were tasked to find our way back. we did and then cos i was wearing the last piece of clothing i had, and i was soaking wet, i decided to bathe and just wear daddy's clothes to sleep and home the next day.

last day. day 4.

pastor dave mann gave the sermon. how to lead an extraordinary life and all.

then we had some secret game at lunch. where there were pails and objects below. the aim is to shout out the names of the objects in record time. under one of the pails was edmund's head. he was actually wedged between two tables and the gap was covered by cloth. super hilarious to see the reaction of the girls. haha. each group sent one person. my gosh when the reps held up the pail with edmunds head below, the whole yf roared with laughter. hilare!

then later there was testimony sharing. bryan shared for the first time! woohoo! haha. so happy. i was shocked too. then he shared how we cancelled our japan trip and all and could come for camp.

then a while later i decided to share how mummy and i had a communication problem cos she thought i had an attitude problem, willing to rather stay in singapore with friends for camp then go to japan with the family. then i shared how i had walked away from the past tribulations and all and how i received peace. and how amy jie and all my jies had encouraged me to perservere.
yea. then i said i would go home and say i love my mummy. well i already did. haha.

there were many testimonies and i was very touched that i teared at some.

josh shared how his friends stayed on but how one said that he was more certain he would never be a christian. for a while i felt very bad. but i was glad cos i knew that one day that very particular friend would be saved and maybe be even stronger than a "normal" person's faith. maybe he'll grow up to be an extraordinary man. i dunno.

after the sharing was camp clean up. my team and 2 other teams had to clear the bunks and move the tables and chairs back. i hurt my finger when i pulled out a chair from a stack. super painful. haha. then cos there were not enough chairs we went to the seminar room to get more.
melissa and i were carrying 4 chairs together. then daddy saw us and went like," daughter, daughter. put that down." haha. then he singlehandedly carried it. woohoo. my daddy is my daddy!

yea then i followed the coach back to church and help move some stuff. then i almost went for dinner with the whole group of camp comm people but then i decided i wasnt hungry so i went home.

throughout the whole camp, i saw korkor and korkor saw me. but we chose to ignore each other. until the 3rd day, i decided to ask him why he was dao-ing me. then he said i dao him first and all. haha. so then we made up and he went back to normal. actually, that was quite true to a certain extent. haha. a lot of misunderstanding. at the beginning of camp i was too distracted to see he was trying to interact with me or something like that la. then after we made up, everytime we met each other we were trying to either trip each other, knock or punch or whatever la. haha. thats was quite funny.

at church, korkor tried cheese crackers for the first time. before that he said he didnt like cheese but after that he was addicted to them. haha. so funny.

i think this camp was so much different from other camps and i believe it actually is going to impact many lives. not the one week high, but the long term high. God works wonders. He rocks!