CF Retreat part 2

As promised, I would like to share some of the things that I learned from the trip. Firstly, the trip itself was significant. Having a trip to just leave all the worries and the burden of the world is hard to come by. Heck, I wouldn’t even think that I would want 1. But then, with God’s provision and guidance, I attended it. It really pays to just leave your burdens and take a good rest for a while. Physically, it recharges you. Emotionally, you can be more stable and spiritually, if you are going with your church members, then you can get to enjoy the refreshing of the Holy Spirit.

Through the workshop that was organized and conducted by Bro. Matthew, a theme occurred. It is about surrendering our all. In my case, it’s about surrendering my whole life. When you come to think about it, Jesus Christ seems to be totally out-of-this-world. He is God, willingly coming to earth, to be human, and then, although blameless, was willing to bear our sins, and be crucified on the cross. At that time, dying on the cross was only for the filthiest criminal ever. And yet, He chose that death. Good news was, He didn’t stay dead, for on the 3^rd day He was resurrected and conquered death. He said, that He is the Way, The Truth and the Life, none can go to heaven except through Him. It truly is different from the world. The world says, ‘Keep your life, get whatever you want’ and He says,” Deny yourself, forsake your life and follow Me’! As we have decided to accept Him as God and Savior, He demands us to surrender our all. The world could not understand, but those who have experienced His loving mercy and grace, would. In the midst of the teaching about surrendering our all, Jesus also mentioned about the attitude of serving. In the Bible, Jesus washed His disciple’s feet.

They were reluctant because washing someone’s feet means that the person that does the washing is the lowliest of all servants. And yet, Jesus did it. This is the perfect example for us to follow. He didn’t just talk the talk, He walk His talk. As how He has served, we are therefore urged to follow. In essence, it is having a humble serving attitude. Are we willing to let go of our pride, cares and worries and just give our all to God? Bro. Matthew washed our feet that night. Yet, what’s more important, we realized that we ought to do so in the same manner of service to those around us. We may be working or studying. One thing is therefore certain, wherever God puts us in, we are to serve and glorify His Name! Bro. Matthew demonstrated to us what it really meant. Yes, he washed our feet, in the hope for us to understand what it means to humble ourselves and serve others. How to forsake our own selfish ambitions. And I could say, with utmost certainty, we had learned it. Now, the time comes for us to apply it.

--And you cannot be my disciple if you do not carry your own cross and follow me--

Luke 14:27 (New Living Translation)

CF Retreat Part 1

Taking time out from a hectic schedule is a must! It doesn’t help at all, being burdened and full of stress. These are then the times that we need to leave it all fro a moment, and seek God’s providence and comfort. I went for my church Christian Fellowship Retreat. It was very refreshing. The venue is Bethel House of Prayer and it’s located at the Middle Station (Viaduct) at Penang Hill. It’s my first time being up at Penang Hill. 11 of us were there. Many more were interested but couldn’t make it. This is the whole group.





Making our way up to the top was not hard. We just need to wait for the tram. It was quite efficient. There isn’t a single route straight up, rather, there’s a transit station in the middle.
We had to wait for quite a while in the transit station before boarding the tram. Even at that point, the view was amazing.


( view from the transit station)

After taking some pics and admiring the view, we got on to the tram and continued our journey. Along the way, there were some wooden houses and the air was getting cooler. It wasn’t after roughly 10 – 15 minutes before we got to our stop, Viaduct.

walking on our trail




viaduct station, alighting from the tram

Our destination required roughly 7 minutes of walking. The trail, view and atmosphere along the way is calm and cool. It really is great leaving the cares of the world and just escape to recharge ourselves with God. This was the first glimpse we had of our resting place! Look at the small pool. Unfortunately, our stay was brief and furthermore, we didn’t bring any swimming gear (it’s a small pool anyway!). So, we missed out on that. The interior of the house was just nice. It seems a bit colonial yet renovated. (with hot water shower!!) It retains that so-called country-side charm. It was definitely serenity. The view in from the place was also breath-taking. You could see half the island from here. You would be speechless from it all.

small swimming pool

The interior of the house was just nice. It seems a bit colonial yet renovated. (with hot water shower!!) It retains that so-called country-side charm. It was definitely serenity. The view in from the place was also breath-taking. You could see half the island from here. You would be speechless from it all.

view from the place

After unpacking and a little unwinding exercise, we gathered together for some games. We played Cat and Dog, if you’re familiar with it. And then had some free time to bathe and prepare for the night.

balcony

Dinnertime was awesome! It truly reminds me of Mom’s cooking! (It’s the best there is!) The soup was great too. Although 11 people, we were able to finish the dishes and the rice. Cleaning up after it was fairly easy and we started our night session after that. Due to some technicalities, the night time view isn’t good on camera. Yet, it could not be put on words here. It is simply….unimaginable. The creations of God are truly marvelous. The way God paints the sky everyday, what greatness!!

dishes for dinner

After our session, we had another small discussion for our CF appreciation night. Then, we retired to bed at 12.30am. Waking up at 6.30am didn’t seem tiring. Rather, I was truly refreshed from it all! Not to mention the cool breeze (brrr….) There were some mist and we could see the clouds blanketing the city down below. Our morning session included quiet time, praise and worship and a session of individual prayer too. Being there and then, having a clear heart, praying to God was truly sincere.

lazing down after individual prayer session

We also had a time to share what we have learned and encouraged one another. We then packed and left around 11.40am to catch the 12 noon tram coming down. The journey down was also filled with great view and some crying baby (sigh)

waiting at Viaduct station for the tram
Reaching at the station, we waited for a while before going to a nearby coffee shop for lunch, and then more rest (tired mah!) before going for church service in the night. All in all, I truly thank God for a smooth flow of events and guidance, Bro. Matthew for organizing the trip, and each and every one present for making it an enjoyable stay, even for a night only. Picture credits go to Bro. Zhong Hau and Sis. Jia Ning. Thanks so much!!

Children Camp and musical Drama Nite!!

Well, it has been a while since I last written my post. Many things has happened, many more to come in the future. To say that the busiest time in my life has passed, would still be an understatement. But it has also been a scary situation to be in. If I could give you an advice, would be to not put yourselves into a situation where you will face burnout. Running from point A to B and then attending meeting C before ending the day with project D will take the living daylights out of anyone. It has been God's grace, His providence. it has been a struggle too, as stress ans pressure mounts to its peak. So, I will just roughly post about my 2 main activities, and try to add some pics soon! stay tuned!!

Children camp,
The flow went smoothly, thanks to God. The children were receptive to the workshops conducted. We taught them on how to show "LOVE", "PATIENCE", and "SELF-CONTROL". It was a handful though, as the children were really hyper active, and they could really shout. I truly agree and believe that past experiences (Vacation Bible School and Building Character Through Craft) truly helped. Another remark is that with kids, having an extra game or two doesn't hurt. =)

Musical Drama Nite
In the night time of the same day (8 march) as the Children's Camp, the Musical Drama Nite was held. I was the emcee, together with Ci Qi from CCC. We conducted the emceeing in mandarin(gasp!). The whole event went well, praise God again! The glitches here and there did not deter the group to give their best. We are certain that our main purpose of letting people know the gospel of Christ and pondering their most important thing in their lives were with the audiences as they return home.

What to do when your PC goes out on u!!

There has been bad news. Hopefully there won't be more! I was typing on my laptop and just saved my work. Then, somehow (in a flash of automated silliness!) I shut down my gear. Thinking that it's something the pc can recover from (naively) I went out to get some fresh air. After that, I came back and started my pc. To my absolute horror! It kept on restarting, over and over again. It was disaster in the full extent. It was so, because I have an assignment to pass up the next day (it was 10pm at the time) and I lost all the 7 pages I had painstakingly typed!! So, I had to go around and borrowed my fren's laptop, and start to type, all 12 pages of it! It has been a very costly and strong lesson for me. I will NEVER forget it! I being in a place far from home, I wanted to try to reformat my pc. I had to. Gan was busy. In the end I asked around, and I decided to take matters into my own hands, and did what I could. I reformatted my computer with the Windows XP cd I had brought with me. But then I also came to realise, I don't have the driver disc. The ones for the wireless, audio and the nvidia graphic driver. (SIGH) SO, I had to find a few frens who can go online, and get whatever they could. I really had to back those files up!!anyway, I had become a technophile after that. I think I'm not afraid of 'technology, I just can't afford expensive lessons...

so, whenever your pc goes out on you, take a step back. ANALYSE. Then act on it. it doesn't take you long to find out that you need to reformat your comp. It just takes a COSTLY lesson..lol