This is the Labour Day long weekend and we had the Young Adults Camp held at the Phillip Island Adventure Resort. The first thing I’ll say about it was the fact that God provided awesome sunny weather over the four days. It was drizzling on Thursday, and the forecast says there will be showers tomorrow (Tuesday).
On the Friday, it was a rushed day in itself. I attended a 9am class in uni, and then went home. Only to discover that I had yet another compulsory class on at 2pm which I couldn’t miss (otherwise some marks for my final year project will be forfeited). So I had to quickly do some last-minute packing and stuff everything into the car. Including the keyboard! On the way to the city I managed to get hold of Aimster, who allowed me to store my keyboard at her place, so I can pick it up again on the way back from uni. There’s no way I’d risk leaving my keyboard in the car while parked in the city. I made it in time to the lecture, and then headed back to Aimster’s place to retrieve my keyboard. I made my way to Lisa’s place to pick her up and then to James Kok’s. Now with a full load, we began the road trip to Phillip Island. We made just one stop in San Remo for a pizza dinner. Arriving at the Resort in 2 hours (due to traffic, and not counting the dinner break), we quickly settled in and prepared ourselves for the first meeting. With some swapping around, I was appointed to play the keys that night, and although the praise and worship was short. It was no doubt an awesome time praising God. At that time there were no more than 50 people at the camp. This number soon increased to about 100 as time went on. Matt Fielder, youth pastor from Planetshakers, was the camp guest speaker. He was a fantastic man of God, super-hilarious, and someone who shows a firm stand on the Word of God. Not to mention too, that he was very sharp: if you happen to catch a few winks, he’ll point you out and say something like, “You there, I know you’re tired, but you’ll have time to sleep later. Please stay with me for the next half hour okay?” Another quirky fact, is that Matt can do many “voices” – including Donald Duck’s. I think I may have met my match here!!
Saturday, the following morning. A few of us began the day playing tennis at 6:30am and observed an awesome sunrise. Our second session was held over breakfast at 8am where Matt shared about preparing a place for God in your life. After that came the Amazing Race, which lasted for about 3 hours. Much planning has gone into this event, and I really applaud everyone involved in making it happen. There were many “checkpoints”, in which we had to complete a certain task. The first leg was a 2km run to a beach and find a card amongst some seaweed, and the run back to camp. Yet another was a canoe relay. Still another was a drive to nearby Cowes town to find the answers to a questionnaire. The whole event was also geared to get to know the people in your “team”, which was randomly formed. One thing to mention is the fact that my team had a major lead at the very beginning – about 5mins! But at the end we came about 4th (out of 9 teams). The winning team won by a huge 15mins ahead of the runners up. The canoe relay was one of two options. The other being building a raft and riding it to the middle of the lake and back. If you did the canoe option, everyone had to take turns (you had 8 in your team: that meant 4 laps to the lake-center and back), whereas if you did the raft option, you had to build it, but only a few need to take it for a single lap. The winning team built a tiny raft and two guys (Hangers and Ken Ng) decided to ride it. Actually, swim and push it! This instantly took them to the lead. In the end it was all fun and games, and nobody got hurt. We all got the fantastic opportunity to know some new people. Lunch followed, and then we had about 4hrs of free time. Some free-time activities included the flying fox and the giant swing. We had our third meeting after dinner, where Matt Fielder shared about the Holy Spirit and fire. It was awesome. At the end the leaders went up for prayer and while I was prayed for, I was thinking, do you need to fall to the ground to experience the Holy Spirit? I know full well you don’t have to, but I’ve seen it happen to others, but not to myself. I thought how awesome would it be to experience the power of God. So I wanted to fall over, not just in my strength, but I wanted God to push me over. Twice I felt my knees go weak, but I managed to stand strong. The third time, I felt the blood drain. I lost complete control of my legs and fell. While lying there like a dead fish (haha!), I felt encouraged and had a new revelation of God’s power. But I wanted more. 5 mins on the ground, I decided to get back up, but couldn’t move. I was like, paralysed. I really felt God ministering to me there and then. He was telling me that I should stop telling people that “God is going to do something big in my life” and start believing that “God is already doing something big”. I was so encouraged, and I pray that this isn’t a once-off event, but something which will have permanent effect on my life, long after this camp is over.
Sunday came, but Dave Badman and I woke up at 7:30am. Only half an hour of tennis, but hey it was good, because I beat him 5 games to nil! Breakky came, and then we had a water baptism session. Wen Yeen, Jie Lian, Kim Nguyen and Cat Nguyen were baptised. Praise God!! Clayton shared in our fourth session about the components of the Great Commission. After the meeting, we broke off into cell groups (as we were grouped for the Amazing Race). Here we had a time of sharing what God has done in each other’s lives in the camp, as well as discussing the challenges we face in carrying out the Great Commission. Lunch followed soon after and we had some more free time. Some of the guys threw Jazzie (the camp organiser) into the swimming pool – poor girl! Before dinner, we had the fifth and final session, where it was basically a prayer meeting. We had the praise and worship, and we had people praying for Young Adults, and for God to really move through us. At the conclusion of the meeting, we spoke words of encouragement to each other. Here are the words I received:From Clayton: “Although you are young, you carry an ‘old head’, full of maturity. I can see that God has blessed you with much wisdom. You have an amazing influence on others as well as the gift of leadership. God’s got a mark on you.”From James Chew: “I can see that you are awesome at playing the keys. The natural is a reflection of the supernatural; and as you play those keys, just understand God is watching you from above and is pleased with You.”From Craig: “Seek God. Once you find Him, seek God again.”Following dinner, we had free time again, where some people went to see the Penguin Parade, (apparently it wasn’t the right season for it), some (me included) went to the beach and looked at the stars, some headed to a nearby café, and others just bummed around at the campsite.
Monday finally arrived, and well, to say the least, I didn’t want to go! But I guess it will have to end sooner or later. Quite a few people have already left when I woke up at 8am. During breakfast, some people shared their testimonies, and we thanked the camp committee. A job well done: very organised, despite having given not much time to plan. I gave Lisa and Mandy a lift homebound; making it back to civilisation in 1 hour flat. I somehow managed to reach 180kph on the car!! (haha -- and it was only a small 4-cylinder =P )
Just some final words: The camp was terrific. The most amazing thing was the way God has impacted many lives during these four days. I just pray that the effects of it won’t die away now that the camp is over. It has to be a continual and lasting change. One in which this change can bring about a positive influence in the lives of others we see everyday.
