Weekend Mission

Craving : Lagsana (Maybe I'll make one this friday or something :P)

Phew....what a long month. It's been weekend after weekend of activities. First there was the Orphanage Visit, then the OA camp, and now just this last weekend, the Youth Fellowship sent a small team up to Taiping and Kuala Kangsar to take their Youth meeting and Sunday School for the weekend. Sort of a mission trip for the youth. Seven of us made the trip up, three teachers and four youth. Those who made the trip were Zhi Hao, Kylie, Bryan, Esther, Amy, Weng Soon and myself. I have to say the trip was a good one and en experience for all of us. I believe it was a real eye opener for the youth as well. There is quite alot to write about but below is just a brief summary of what we did there.

We started out on saturday afternoon and headed up to the GLO School in Taiping. There we had lunch (at KFC) rested for awhile, cleaned up our rooms for the night and then headed over to the church building to get ready for the youth meeting. It was a larger then usual crowd that day of about twenty youths, larger then usual because the average attendance of the youth there is less then ten people. I did the ice breaker which was followed by Zhi Hao's worship leading with Esther on the piano. It got off to a shaky start as the youth there didn't really know the first song, but the rest of the session went pretty well. Weng Soon then gave a talk on guidance after which we went out for a game of touch rugby. That was when the walls were really broken and the youth really just mized around and had fun. My team lost, but I blame it on my star player *cough* Esther *cough* who became my star liability..hehehehe. It was all in good fun. A BBQ followed and as per the usual TLC way, the best fellowship came over food.

That night after all was said and done, we had a briefing for the next day with Eugene Yapp and it was really an eye opener. We discovered we weren't really prepared in many areas for the next day. Our dress code for one wasn't actually formal enough. Most of us had no idea that the men had to all wear shirts and slacks and the ladies were required to wear blouses and skirts. So in the end, only Amy, I think was properly attired, while the rest of us had to make to do with a barely acceptable dressing of collared t-shirts and a jeans/slacks. Then the issues just came rolling along, Sunday school songs weren't chosen yet due to a miscommunication, we didn't know we had to make our own transparencies and the clincher....one of the guys was supposed to give a sermon on sunday. *insert ominous revelation sound here* Eugene said he could bail us out if need be, but after alot of silent prayer and thought, I decided to give it ago. That night all of us really pulled together in preparing for the next day. We burned the midnight oil and just worked at getting everything done. Thank God we did, and I'm extremely grateful to all the help I got while preparing the sermon, especially to Amy and Esther who gave me ideas and helped me look for verses.

Next day we all got up late and rushed to the church which was about 30-45 minutes away. I was feeling quite relieved when we got to church, because in light of my formal attire, Eugene was going to speak instead. Esther was also brave enough to take up the challege of playing the piano for morning worship which she did well. Zhi Hao also chose a song for morning worship which was good. Now so there I was at the end of worship, eyes closed, head bowed, during the prayer of thanks for the offering when I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder, then I heard Eugene's voice saying "I will go up and say a few words first, then I'll ask you to come up.". Now the nervousness kicked in. I really thank God I managed to pull through that sermon.

After the service we had a delicious brunch after which we got started with Sunday School. I really have to hand it to Bryan and Kylie for really getting the children into it during the worship, and Siew Ling's suggestion of "Making Melodies" at the end was great too. The sunday school then broke up into two groups divided by age. Zhi Hao and Kylie took the older group, while Esther and Bryan took the younger ones. Weng Soon also went with the older group while Amy and myself stayed with the younger ones. As I wasn't with the older ones, I cannot comment on how Zhi Hao and Kylie did although I heard they did well. Esther and Bryan however, really did good with the younger ones. You could really see how much they loved those children and I feel that one day those two are going be really awesome in children ministry. I was really proud of them, seeing them being able to handle the class like that. :)

And after all that we started our journey home. There is just so much to talk about and so much to say yet so little space. :) My thanks to Eugene and Siew Ling for having us and to Weng Soon and Amy for really pushing for it on our side. It was a lovely experience and Zhi Hao, Kylie, Bryan and Esther....if you're reading this I want you guys to know that it was a real encouragement serving with you all. I could really see the potential that the Lord has cultivated in you guys and I just pray you will keep on shining for Him. You made all of us proud and it was definately a well run leg of the race for God :).