Woohoo...

The days since my last post have been pretty good. On the 14th to the 17th, I attended the church camp which was held at Tanjong Puteri Golf Resort in Johor. It had been a long time since my last church camp (Kuantan 2000) so I was wondering what this one would be like. All the same, I felt pretty sure it would be a fulfilling time.

And so it was! Before I elaborate, let me say something about the accomodation. The campers had organised themselves into groups which would occupy individual villas. Now, before I got to the resort, I didn't really expect much of the villas. After all, a villa is a really luxurious building which is usually the preserve of the rich and famous. Of course, the villas didn't live up to this definition. However, the villas were basically bungalows with 4 or 5 bedrooms, two living rooms, 4 or 5 bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, and a utility room in addition to a two-car porch. Each villa was surrounded by green grass which gave the villa a feel of beautiful isolation. I occupied the master bedroom together with Luke. That was the biggest room in the villa but I figured the rest of my housemates wouldn't fancy sharing a double bed. One bad thing about the villa is that if you have one of the villas which is further inside the villa compound, you have a long way to go to get to the clubhouse where the talks were held and meals were taken. Fortunately there was a shuttle service which served us quite well.

Anyway, the camp was pretty well run. The talks were fine, not great but meaningful anyway. The speaker was Mr Kenneth Tan, a council member of OMF and a SBC board member. He's a few other things too but I'll just mention these two. I like John 15:7 but I'm not quite sure it was a good thing to have 3 talks on the verse. Something funny; he came to the camp with his wife and two of his three daughters. There I was, looking through the camp booklet. On the page describing the speaker, there was a photo showing him with his family. To my great surprise, I saw a familiar face! You see, there were two occasions when I was on a bus when I saw this pretty girl who appeared to be Eurasian (sometimes you can't help but notice pretty girls). Of course I had no idea who she was so when I found out her identity and realised she was at the camp, I was pretty shocked. Haha.

Along with the camp theme came a camp theme song. It's a beautifully worded song though the music seems rather dated. So everytime the intro music was played, I would break into a smile because it felt like a song that you would hear at the beginning of a sitcom or 80s Mandarin drama. Nevertheless, I enjoy singing the song.

The camp program was quite packed. Yet there was time for exercise and devotion, which was quite good. I managed to do a bit of everything; a little bit of snooker, a little bit of swimming, and to my chagrin, a little bit of soccer (I had hoped we would play a bit more soccer). There was also time to watch the World Cup and play Cranium together with some of the guys and gals at the camp.

Cranium was quite fun though there were times where I felt a little stupid when my team couldn't answer the questions posed. We had our usual guys versus girls rounds; we split two rounds, which was a pleasant surprise (I didn't think the guys could win. Then again, why can't guys be smart? Hmm.).

I was the assistant leader in the group Love. The group was a rather mixed bag of adults and youth and it seemed to me at first that we weren't too happening (I don't really like this word but I can't think of anything else). But I guess things worked out fine in the end. Interestingly, we won all the competitive games - the tangram icebreaker, Discovering Truths Through Fun, and the outdoor games. As prizes, we were given parcels of snacks and sweets which were quite useful considering the villas were kind of isolated from any food and drinks. If I ever go to that resort and stay in the villa again, I must remember to bring some snacks and drinks.

Darwin was the group leader. He was chosen when Eng Tian, who had refused the position, said "The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.". At this, I quickly scanned the group list and found Darwin's name was the last name. So I said, "Darwin for group leader!". The group (less Darwin) endorsed my nomination with a round of applause. Naturally, Darwin appointed me as the assistant leader to "get back" at me. But the joke was on me later on in the camp when we had to prepare a group item for Glory Nite, a sort of fun talentine. I was hoping Darwin would choose something simple. However, he chose skit as the other groups snapped up everything else. The first I knew of this was during the tea break on Friday, when I was talking with some others about the items for Glory Nite. I said to them that I hoped to do OT character when someone said that Darwin had chosen skit.

After the tea break, we gathered as a group for discussion of the message and the discussion questions. Darwin hadn't come yet so I casually mentioned to the group that were likely doing a skit for Glory Nite. Now, I can't say I enjoy preparing skits so I was hoping that everything I had heard about us doing a skit was wrong. Just then, Darwin appears. He tells me he is not feeling well and needs to go back to the villa. Darwin looks terrible so I agree that he should go back and take a rest in the villa. I then ask him if he chose skit and he says yes. Oh great!

In spite of my pessimism, I tell the group that we will prepare to tell the story of the Good Samaritan. I manage to assign everyone in the group a role in the skit. We had a surplus of ladies in the group so I got them to act as the robbers who would waylay the man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. I told everyone that we would have to exaggerate our acting to make the skit funny. I was glad when James Ong, who was in our group, volunteered to act as the donkey. I told him to act as a donkey that can walk on two feet. Then he could carry the injured man using fireman's lift.

The skit turned out to be quite funny in the end. I hope the message of the Good Samaritan story got through though.

Anyway, after the group discussion, I was on my way to lunch when Darwin's girlfriend comes up to me and asks if I know where Darwin is. I tell her he's resting in the villa. She tells me that he is not answering his phone or the house phone. So I decide that I have to go the villa and see what's up with Darwin. Darwin's girlfriend asks if she can come along and I consent. We took the shuttle back to my villa. Rushing upstairs to Darwin's room, we find the door is locked! I knock on the door but there is no response. I knock some more and hear movement in the room. Darwin opens the door and looks as if he has been sleeping. I ask him if he's alright and he says he feels a little better. I am relieved that he is ok and decide to go back to the clubhouse for lunch. But Darwin's girlfriend will not leave Darwin's side! So I reluctantly return alone to the clubhouse, deciding to refer the matter to the commandant. I think that the commandant will get the camp doctor to see Darwin, and that if the camp doctor can provide some sort of diagnosis, Darwin's girlfriend might be more willing to leave my villa.

So that's what I do. However, some strange interpretations of my actions lead to a misunderstanding which plays itself out in a series of accidental snubs and bad jokes. I'll elaborate on this some other time.

On the final day, I come down with food poisoning. I feel terrible but I manage to help with the packing up of the PA equipment and the loading of the logistics van (I'm part of the logistics van crew). Being with the logistics van meant some hard work to load and unload the van. But it also meant trouble-free movement into Malaysia and back to Singapore. Those who went with the coaches faced various delays on the return journey. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

On Sunday I had a good time playing pool. Mostly, I played myself though I spent some time playing with and coaching Shawn who cannot see very well. I teach him about cue ball control that will help him play for easy shots that he can see and make. During practice against myself, I played some really great shots. After pool, I had a chickenpox scare. You see, I found that there were red itchy spots coming out all over my body. Fearing I had chickenpox, I went to see a doctor. The doctor told me that it wasn't chickenpox. It was likely to be an allergic reaction. Phew.

After the Thai dinner, I went to NTUC with Brenda. As we were about to leave Bukit Timah Plaza, we were passing by the Korean restaurant when we saw Joseph and Linda having a late dinner there with their kids. We end up talking with them for about an hour. Linda is good at teaching phonics and teaches us some things that even I, the English Language graduate, didn't know.

Oh, I failed my IPPT today. I guess it's a fair reflection of my physical fitness: I have no upper body strength. It didn't help that I had given myself muscle strains by overtraining in the days leading up to the test. I'll be doing eight 4-hour sessions of remedial training before I take the test again. On the positive side, I made a new friend. He's Philip, and he was taking his IPPT too. He also studied in SAJC so that gave us some common ground to base our conversation on. I find out he is a free thinker though he is quite familiar with Buddhism and Christianity. He's currently studying in NUS and I hope that our chance meeting is God's way of opening his heart to Him.

That's all for now. In the next few days, I will post about that silly misunderstanding at the camp as well as the marvellous birthday present I have been given by my church friends. Ta ta!