Saturday, March 28, 2009

Daniel's Gift

Now many of you have seen Daniel's drawing of our youth group. Perhaps some of you haven't seen that picture yet, so it's posted at the bottom of this page so you can download and save the picture to your own pc or hp if you haven't already done so. I think you can also get that picture from Daniel's FB. Some of you are suggesting this could be our next youth tee shirt design.. drop your comments here.

Daniel also sent a sms to us to say farewell which I will put here for everyone to read (this was sent last night).... "hey guys, I'm leaving really soon already. I have 8 more hours to go. So I just wanna say thanks for being in my life. You guys rock my life. Without you guys I am nothing. You guys are something I call brothers and sisters. I love you guys till the end, and Clement very lame lo. XD hehe. Bye guys, take really good care. Please always go to youth. Don't skip ah. Especially the blue moon girl :) Bring more ppl! When I come back, I hope to see more strangers la k? Take care guys, love you all. God bless."

I'm sure Daniel won't mind me putting this here. I do it to encourage all of us, especially the leaders. Whenever you get tired of serving in the youth ministry, when the effort seems too much, when the load gets too heavy, remember Daniel's words and be encouraged that your effort and love are appreciated, are effective and God is using you as a channel of blessing to the youths. Keep striving!

Life Goes On

This morning a few of us went to send off Daniel who is on his way to Perth. Guessing from the FB activity, I am sure he's settled in and am online even as I write this. Take care Daniel, we all miss you. Sigh.. this year there will be many guys who have and will be leaving us. I tell the leaders that youth ministry is a sending ministry; you send people off when they leave for further studies. It's heartache seeing them leave but they gotta lead their lives, their studies. You must have noticed that our Away From Home column is getting longer and longer! Yikes!

Even as a youth, you truly gotta appreciate every moment of your life. Live your teenage life to the fullest, serve God faithfully, attend youth meetings consistently, have fun and laughter as much as possible, study hard because we all live our lives only once. Things will not be the same when you come back after your studies, assuming that you do return. People change, their attitudes and interests change too so as a young adult, you will never get back the same kind of fun you had as a teenager. Somehow being a teenager is really cool. Sure you get problems too; parents, teachers, other teenagers, pilaks.. the list goes on.

We all have our lives to lead, and one day we too will leave for our studies, just as Daniel did, and many others before him. We thank God that he's placed us among great friends in youth, that we had the opportunity to be friends and be a friend to those around us. And for all those who are away from home, you are all missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Challenge

Hey, our last post was the 100th one! Not bad huh? Of course we have lots to talk about lah.

There were so many fun and memorable happenings during our retreat that we just can't stop talking it! Hahaha.. what we wanna share now is the challenge that was laid down by Ps M in our final session. He took the story of the little boy with 5 loaves and 2 fishes (John 6:1-13) - Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand.

Let's quickly recap the story: A great crowd of people had followed Jesus as he preached on a mountainside. When he saw the crowd, he asked his disciple Philip where shall they buy bread for these people to eat, to which Philip replied that eight month wages wouldn't be able to buy enough bread for each one of them to have a bite! Then Andrew, another disciple, brought forward a boy with 5 small loaves and 2 small fish, but questioned how far can that go among so many. But Jesus have them asked the people sit down, he took the loaves and the fish, gave thanks and started distributing to the people. Not only did Jesus fed the five thousand, there were twelve basketful leftover! So the lesson to be learnt here? And the relevance to us as youths?

The little fella with the lunch didn't have much, did he, but he was willing to give that to Jesus and boy, in Jesus' hands, the little lunch became big! The little that we have in our hands right now; our talents, our gifts, we may think it's little, but give it to God and see what he can do with it. Our parents and adults may not believe we have a lot, in fact, a lot of times they tell us we don't have much to offer. But Jesus has plans for us. All Jesus needs is a willing heart, to give him our gifts and talents and he will use that to glorify God. Are we willing to give to Jesus? Like King David, we serve God in our generation. We serve God now, not wait till we finish our education, nor wait till we start working and become an adult, start our family, geesh, we might as well not start then? We serve, and we serve now. In whatever capacity, with whatever talents. Willing hearts, do we have that? Think about it.

In the passage, Jesus also taught the adults about their lack of trust. Two of his disciples didn't think Jesus could do a miracle and feed the crowd. But he showed them, and made them go collect the leftovers. Those of us who are adults, sometimes we lack the trust in young people. We think they are too playful, too raw, too young. And perhaps all they are good for are menial stuff, you know, cleaning the compound, wiping the windows, carrying chairs etc. But hey, Jesus used a little boy and his little lunch to feed five thousand? You think we need to change our perspective as well?

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Camp Photos

A little bit of the photos we took in camp are already on the net, but that's just a fraction of it. We still have lots more and they will be posted up these few days, we promise. You can check out these sites for access and downloads.

Photos : www.picasaweb.google.com/cclyouths

Videos : www.youtube.com/cclyouths

Now, about the videos, these will take slightly longer ok, because we need to convert the movie files to wmp files and that will take some time. We also need to edit them and that takes an even longer time, hehe, so please be patient with the videos ok? We know there are many videos owing you all, Christmas 08 for example. Hannah K faithfully and routinely ask about this and I promised her she'll get it before Christmas 09! Hahaha.. sorry sorry.. we'll try our best ya? Any other vidoes still owing, please send us an sms!

Congrats & High 5's

We had a few aunties helping us during the camp and one of them asked me about the youths' SPM results. She knew the results were out just before camp and that we had a few people who sat for the exams last year. I looked at her and told her, "they came to camp to enjoy and make friends, not to talk about school and results." True or not? (School? wat's that?) And SPM results were the last thing on my mind as we ran the camp, making sure things went well. But now, camp is over and we are all resting from our fun (boy, having fun is tiring and hard work, don't you think?) so we can talk about SPM and results and school, but not too much, cos it's the holidays and we dowan it to cramp our fun, do we now?

Rachel, Moses, Joel, Nathan and Daniel sat for their SPM exams last year, did we miss anyone out? (Sorry if we did, still tired from camp bah) Now, we won't list out their results one by one la, if you must know, go ask them yourselves. But we congratulate them for their results and we give thanks to God for them and we pray God will continue to grant them wisdom as they continue in their studies. Great work everyone! Proud of you all.

p/s We also congratulate Mark on getting excellent results in his single paper. Way to go, man!

Retreat


We just concluded our retreat, To Be.. or Not To Be and I thank God we had a great camp. We had 21 campers joining, out of which 6 were newbies and we hope we will get a few of them to come to our youth meetings in future. Most of them are from other churches but we are glad they joined us and we bless them as they return to their own youth groups (although truth be told, we'll be glad if they join us weekly! hahaha.. so sue me!)

Things went well, from our first programme of Welcome and Icebreaker, to all our sessions, including the movie time. I think our only hiccup would have been the games, because the rain kept coming, but thank God He held off the thunderstorms throughout the 3 days of camp. We had rain but it was manageable walking around and I think many of us wanted to go play outside in the rain anyway. Don't worry everyone, next time we will do that okey? Haha.. Daniel got a bit sick on Sunday, came down with fever but he bounced back by the afternoon so that was real good. We also played a few games with the uncles in our church, including AD JY. I think we all had fun splashing AD... and I was glad I had my camera with me, else you all would have come after me, I know la. I thought it weird Clement came up asking to see the photos I took. After he pestered me for 10 seconds I caught on and shooed him away, and made sure everyone can see I'm holding a camera! Hahaha... I escaped, this time! Thanks everyone, for being so lenient with me (if I can put a smiley, it'll be one that's smirking!)

I loved the drama that you came up with during our "Puzzle Nite" and Vanessa commented that you just had to break all the 10 Commandments, dincha? I think the cucumber was the greatest prop.. so versatile! (Note: We gave each group 8-9 props to incorporate into the drama and they did so marvellously) The toilet paper was also useful to use as money, and sea creatures.. I mean, the sea. The Capulets did the 10 Commandments, and The Montagues did Parting of the Red Sea. Hahaha.. both were very hilarious. You all did well, proud of you!

I want to thank my group of Leaders once again for helping out so wonderfully in camp; from Stephanie doing kitchen duty and boiling and boiling water, to Vanessa who did devotion and giving moral support, Mark who came in last minute but helped so much in music and leading the guys, Vincent who organised and ran the games so well. To Jenny for leading worship and moving the whole P&W team, who truly helped me so much in the planning and administration, who put up with my 'crapness' and supported me more than she'll ever know. Thank you leaders, it was really a pleasure serving with you and we look forward to more things to come. Thank you God!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Lent

This is the season of Lent, where we remember the suffering and death of Christ. We normally associate Lent as a season of soberness, of prayer and fasting, about self-control. I seem to fast more during this period than any other times of the year, and pray more earnestly. Today, I want to share about a guy and his month of Lent.

Two weeks ago, I picked him up to go youth meeting and we got to talking about Lent. He mentioned that his friend told him about Lent and that he (the friend) was fasting for the whole month. No meat for a month. So this friend of mine got to thinking about fasting too. He prayed and decided that he was going to fast from Dota. For this whole season of Lent, he wasn't going to play Dota. He mentioned that the first few days, it was very difficult. But as the days went by, it got easier. And he suddenly found that he had a lot of time on his hands. One day he actually went to sleep at 10pm (which was probably really foreign!) because he had nothing else to do after finishing his homework! I asked him again last Saturday how was his progress and he is still on course of not playing Dota. I am sure he must have gotten flak and teasing and tempting from his Dota playing friends.

I admire him. When he first mentioned it to me, I was really impressed because I know for a lot of the guys, playing Dota means a lot to them. So much so that they are willing to save their lunch money just to play, so much so that they are willing to ignore their homework, their chores just to play. And so much so that they are willing to disobey their parents so they can go to cyber and play. I am not pointing fingers here, but I know and believe there are guys out there who have done the things I've just written about. My friend chose to fast from Dota and I know that must not have been easy. I admire your decision, Luiz, and I know God will honour those who honour Him. You go, man! For all the guys who have teased him about stopping Dota, I encourage you to support him instead, and to think about fasting from something that you love as well.

To Be.. or Not To Be

That is the theme for our youth retreat! After a postponement in December, our retreat is finally on this weekend. I know that some of our youths are unable to make it because they have other camps and tuitions, but still, we have 18 youths signed up now. We really praise the Lord for this number.

This retreat will be a blast, as we have many interesting sessions lined up. AD JY and Ps Moses will be our speakers and I can say they will be really fantastic. We have also planned some fun games for the afternoons and there will be guests joining us during those times.

Do pray for us that the camp will run smoothly and everyone will have fun and learn things and make friends. Pray also for the weather to be excellent, as there are thunderstorms in the evenings these past few days. Pray that the weather will hold up as we play our games and activities. God is good, all the time!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Thousand Apologies

I really must say sorry to all the guys and girls who have been following this blog faithfully. I have not been blogging for a long while, and like our game the other day, I'm lagging. Let me tell you what's been happening in case you want to kill me for not blogging.

Hmmm.. let's see, there's our youth retreat coming up in 2 week's time. We gotta plan the programmes, contact the speakers, the caterers, the game-masters, arrange the halls, mattresses, buckets, sound and music system.. haha, it sounds like we're arranging a gig, huh? But it's not, it's our youth retreat, which you guys must all come! Come on.. you gotta.. YOU GOTTA! Get forms from Jenny if you haven't already, and although the closing date has passed, just for you.. YOU!... we give u chance! So.. quick.. get Jenny on the phone and tell her squeeze you in!

Then I've been busy helping out in our church's 40th Anniversary celebrations. The celebration is in June, 20th June to be precise, but the preparations have begun. I'm helping out in arranging the tee shirts to be printed, I'm targeting everything to be finalised by this week so they can start printing and we can get our new tee shirts end of March.. Yeah!

Then there is this drama that I'm also helping out in, as in doing the script. So far that is almost done, also scheduled for finalising and completion by this week, then we gotta think about casting, and finding people to help in costume, backdrop, drama practice.. wheeeeeeeeeee.. it will be busy...

So, now you see why I've not been blogging.. but while I have really been busy, I will try harder to keep writing ok? Honest to goodness! But you guys can do me a favour and also contribute your posts ok? Those Away from Home haven't been writing ages! Come on guys, tell us what's happening at your end of the world!