Semper Fidelis™

There will always come a time of the year that a camp will be held. And so it came, 12th December, CGBC Youth Camp 2008, Stella Marris, Penang. It was a great camp, because not only where there souls being saved, but at the same time, CGBC Youth were united once more. However, I would like to begin this particular adventure from the very beginning itself – the planning of the camp.

First of all, I'll introduce to you readers the committee of the camp :

Director – A. Esther

Camp Commander – Chan Ming Sheng

Assistant Camp Commanders – Wong Jean Li , Samuel Lopez
Worship Coordinators – ME, Grace Yap

Games Coordinators – Adrian Yap, Daren Boey, Alex Ngam, Chan Wei Minh

Booklet - Chan Jue Ern, Ee Mun, Rachel

Name Tag Committee - Bryan Lim, Rena Ng, Rachel

Not forgetting those who did registration, presenting – Lai Har, Jian Ai, Leong Pei-Qin

Also, the one whole called the people to conduct the workshops, and also having a hand in inviting our speaker Joseph Raj for this camp – Doreen.

Well, that's about it.

The committee had its first meeting somewhere early November. Can't remember when exactly, but anyways. There were plans for new ideas, creativity certainly did not fall short. However, time was against us, due to certain issues that came up midway through the planning. It was a struggle alright, having to learn the true meaning of “submitting”. Will not go into detail about what happen exactly, but in the end, everything turned out well. Or so I think it did.

Camp day arrived. 12th December 2008. The committees were supposed to meet at church at 7a.m, but I woke up at that time. Realising how late I was, I quickly rushed, having to fetch my cousin as well. Reached church at half past 7. There were a lot of setting up to do, and packing up of equipments as well. We had breakfast served to those who are new comers, and had an ice-breaker with them as well, where they had to find their fellow group members and in the end find their group leaders. There was a minor setback later though – the buses did not arrive according schedule, which forced us to depart late. Not only that, we arrived late at Penang as well. Went to Gurney Plaza for lunch.

Side-tracking: A bunch of us (Well names : Kerry, Kar Pui, Sabrina, Ee Yen and me) were looking for the food court. Got news that the food court was on the highest floor. Went up there, only to find a restaurant. zZz. Anyways, we ate there. I didn’t eat much, because I saw the price of the food, and it kind of looked like the price was about to eat me instead. Also, forgotten to bring my toothbrush, so I bought it from Gurdian.* Moving on.

We reached Stella Marris at around 2 plus 3. Checked into our respective rooms, and my goodness, there were not enough beds for everyone. My room had eleven people, and there were only beds for 8. However, there was a living room, and three of them decided to sleep there after all.

After checking in, the worship team introduced the new theme song that Samuel composed to the youth. Kind of nice, the song, called “Believe”. Then it was time for games, and Alex’s game, a.k.a the safest game, got the most injuries. lolxx. The game was abandoned for a while, then it did not continue. zZz It was a mess alright. Moving on.

Dinner time came, and most of us were freaking hungry. Man, I use the word “freaking” because the food did not taste so good, yet we enjoyed it. Understand now? Haha. First session. I led worship for it, and man, God’s presence fell on that place alright. Sermon was good as well. Mr. Joseph Raj talked about whether we are ready for a change. A challenging sermon it was. Night ended with the youths going out for supper at a nearby coffee shop. Didn’t go though. Ended up playing Joel’s laptop! Lolxx. Confession people. Slept at 2 plus.

Day 2 – Woke up at around 7.30 in the morning. Wanted to wake up early, but well, typical aftermath of sleeping late. Had an early morning exercise with Mark the dance instructor, and man, was it fun. Breakfast, then 2nd session. Worship was led by Grace this time, and the 2nd session’s sermon was about crossing the Red Seas in our lives.Then came one of the main highlight of the camp – workshops! Yes, for once, there was workshops being conducted in a camp.. Or, in my case, it's the first time in 7 years of going to camp, it has a workshop. It’s like, a totally different thing. For you reader’s information, there were five different workshops – dance, IT, relationship, career and guidance, and band. I chose the relationship and band. It was quite interesting, both workshops. Moving on.

After the workshops, beach games. Mark, the dance workshop conductor, selected about 10-15 youths to practice for a dance, which they will perform later in the day, so they missed the beach games. Anyways, beach games were fun, especially if you are the one conducting it. I’ll have you know, I had my share of playing games conducted by others, so it’s my turn! Muahahaha. Was freaking tired after that, but I had to go back and bathe, due to a practice scheduled later. Dinner.

Then it came. “Saturday Night Fever”. It's kind of different from any other sessions, because first of all, there was a high praise, led by Jerome Jacob and his team from the Philippines! Man, they were great musicians! After that, Joseph Raj’s third sermon. He talked about crossing the wilderness in our lives. Once again, a striking sermon, which hit me about my life, whether I am prepared to “fight the giants in the Promise Land, even thought they are huge.”

After that, the dancers performed their dance, which was taught by Mark. They did quite well, all of them, considering they only learned the moves in the afternoon, and only had such a short time to do so. Then came the performance by the committee!

Side tracking again – Ming came up with an idea that the committee should do something for the camp this year, and Jean Li and Rachel came up with the idea of doing “Storm”. So we had practices, 4 days before the camp. Samuel chose the song “This Is Your Life” by Switchfoot, as he has seen a video done by other people using that song, just that they did something else with that song. At first, no one had any idea of what to do. However, as the practices went by, ideas slowly crept in, and by the time Thursday came, we were done! Praise God. Back to the topic.

Before the committee performed, Samuel introduced another song that he just finishes writing. It was kind of a last minute, as he wanted to finish it before the camp initially. However, due to business, he couldn’t, and he left it till the very last minute. Praise God A.Esther helped him! Anyway, it was a nice song, though I don’t really remember what was the song about. After that, then the committees performance came. Not only did we enjoyed ourselves, but so did the youths! Ohh yeah, did I tell you that we also did the Madagascar song “Move It”? All of us danced, like we had never danced before! It was a great moment, full of craziness and SS-ing. Ahhaha.

The night came to an end, and once again the youths went to the same shop nearby to have supper, only this time, it was different, because it was BPL night! Haha. There were football matches going on, and when I reach there, they were broadcasting the match between Liverpool and Hull City! It was an entertaining game, and although it ended in a disappointing draw, at least it was good. Slept quite late that night. We played cards - "cho-dai-di" and "heartattack" with my roommates and my neighbours. Slept at four.

Day 3 – Sunday. My dad is preaching today, back in CGBC. Side-track. Anyways, woke up late that morning. The groups were busy preparing for their group cheer. Ended up having a late session. In other words, everything went behind schedule. The session itself ended late, because of what Joseph Raj had to share with us. It was kind of amazing, what he shared with us. He told us that he had to change his sermon at the last minute, because God wanted him to share something else. He shared of the need for the youths and the leaders to be united. He also prayed for all the leaders, and certain youths. It was a great moment, for God’s presence was there, falling upon all of us.

Session ended quite late, and everything went even more behind schedule. We managed to have photo sessions though, which will be posted below. The youths were suppose to go to Queensbay Mall, but in the end went back to Gurney Plaza. Managed to find the food court this time though. It was on the ground floor, the same floor that I bought my toothbrush from! Lolxx. Had a quick lunch, and we were on our way back to Ipoh.

On the way back, we “cho-di” again, just as we did on our way there. Halfway through, AdrianY got bored, and he decided to use his creativity of creating games to create one in the bus – using people! He coned people into getting them to come to him, and asking them to call someone else. The process repeated, till I decided to call off his bluff. Ahhaha.
We reached Ipoh around 7 plus in the evening. Unloaded the stuffs, and everyone went back to their respective homes.

Overall, it has been a great and superb camp. In fact, it has been the best camp I've ever been to, in my 7 years of going to CGBC camps. Not to say that the previous camps sucked, but it’s just that there was something different about this camp. Something never experienced before. What was it, I have no idea, but it was like, even after leaving the camp site, God's presence came along with us. Yeah.

-The End-

Here's the camp in pictures: