Just so real

Cravings : Christmas cookies, turkey stuffing and gravy, minced pies, and other Christmas goodies

Phew! What an amazing week and a half it has been. Just so many things have been happening and there is just so much to write about!

I went for Teenstreet Malaysia 2006 slightly over a week ago, and I'll have to admit I didn't really feel like going for it. I was tired, with work and church stuff and I just felt like it was another thing to do. There some apprehension as well. No youth guys from my church were going for teenstreet this year, and I was going to get a net of strangers. I didn't think I had prepared all that well for all this year either and I was really nervous. So when I headed to Teenstreet with only my fellow coach in the car, I couldn't help but think how different it was from last year when we had 2 cars of noisy teenagers.

God had a plan however, and He really showed me that he is in charge. This year my net was from Brunei, which was interesting. They are great kids, but man....they are just so rowdy and hyper. Almost every net time was a challenge. Even now I don't know we got through the six days...God really just gave me the patience and just got us all through. I felt that God brought me to Teenstreet for that net. The guys came from a very conservative church and I felt that coming from Life Chapel helped me to empathize with them when they got their taste of charismatic worship. God was working there too and after a couple of days most of them were able to worship. I also some how was able to connect with them. I still am not too sure if I was able to help them improve their relationship with God, however I can at least take heart that I challenged them and said some things which needed to be said. I wasn't sure if I did the right thing after that, I mean that was a pretty blunt wake up call. Through a couple of unexpected messengers, I think I sort of got God's confirmation that it was the right thing to do ( Not to mention the "interesting letter" on the last day)

Another amazing thing was that I met not 1, not 2 but 3 ex schoolmates at Teenstreet. Something pretty amazing because when we left school two of them weren't Christians, and now today both are serving Christ. I wanted to get a picture of us 4, but sadly we had no camera..:(

We had lots of fun too. I mean when one gets to Teenstreet and finds out that your surname has been switched with a fellow coach's name...it's got to be interesting. There was the "Teenstreet Taboo" game. Which is basically Taboo, but with customized, more Christian cards. It was hillarious. I wish I could get a copy of it. It really tests the bounds of your Bible knowledge. We actually ran through the game twice, once as taboo, the second time as charades....let's just say people can get really creative when you can't speak. There was also the 5 Be's we learnt in the guy's only session. We learnt the world has stolen our middle finger, so now instead to us it represents "Be Real". Lol I don't quite think the rest of the ppl are quite ready for that yet...hehe.

I could just talk more and more, but let's just move on to after teenstreet. Last friday I went for the Planetshakers concert, mostly just to meet up with my net people. Even got laid hands on, was pretty hillarious though, because I think this guy who was praying for me kept expecting me to "be slain by the Holy Spirit" and I just didn't fall. Did feel a bit weak kneed at one point, but that is probably because the guy was rocking me back and forth slightly too. One highlight was that the message that night echoed the message during the guy's session at Teenstreet and I was really blowned away. Be strong. Stand for God. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego what awesome people. Daniel 3:8 - 4:3.

Then on saturday was my company paintball trip to Bukit Tinggi. Long story short...my team won! Woo Hoo! The course we played was amazing. It was called the Vietnam Paintball. One team had to defend a village, while the other attacked. with 10 on each side it was pretty tough going. I really felt like I was in a war somewhere, the atmosphere was just that good. My team defended first and managed to hold out for the 20 minute limit. Second time around, we attacked. I sneaked all the way around and into the opponents area, only for my gun to jam, which was ok because my opponent was out of bullets. But then as I rushed in to look for the flag (which would give us the win), I was felled by friendly fire. Sigh....it's a sad sad thing. But we still won in the end, we found the flag with 2 seconds or so to go. No kidding.

On last thing though...the view that morning at the Japanese Teahouse in Bukit Tinggi was amazing. Maybe I'll post up some pictures at a later date. The fog was around us and it was just so beautiful. So serene and sureal. As if we had been transported to some fantasy land. God really is an awesome creator. HE created all of that...so what is it that he cannot do.