"Believe it or not"

Time sure flies, 5 months of planning and within a short span of 4 days, the camp has concluded. Through it all, it's been a great experience of seeing 1st hand how the Lord is building up a new generation of his people for his works, having a chance to work with people from another church who bring in their unique ways of doing things as well as knowing more people in the body of Christ within such a short space of time. Here's a short recap and thanksgiving for the camp.

Last min preparations

Immediately after my 1st paper on Monday, I was down in church to tie down loose ends and dropped by again on Wednesday till quite late to finish up things. With some help, managed to come up with the score board and putting it up. Haha, took almost 2hrs to do up everything.

Thursday - 1st day

Had a good start in the morning, explaining things to the children and though we didn't manage to play a mass ice-breaker, the kids seem to be warming up to one another as well as being in the mindset for the camp.

This is a very rare camp to witness in terms of food wise. Really have to give thanks for the very fact that we didn't waste food at all ! Imagine 2 full trays of white rice, all eaten up ! Yes, the children ate like monsters, going for 2nd and even 3rd helpings. That's what u call good food in the hands of kids growing up! It's great as well that we had enough to fill up every child. Can't say for the adults though, haha! Maybe u guys should join next year, i lost almost 2kg the past few days due to camp and exams, haha. Now where are all those people who mention they are tipping the scale :p ?

Games. Super stressed out due to so many limitations such as age, venues and stuff. In the end, everything fell into place nicely. Just enough games(5) and station masters. Thank the Lord for creative ppl who modified the games further to suit the younger ones. And yes ! A very big thank you to each one of you in M'kk who helped me brainstormed the games, each one of you have been a blessing to the children. And not forgetting the weather as well. The weather report said it was going to rain so we prayed for shine and wooo, it really was a shiny afternoon alright !

Kids love movement so yes, we did have a camp song which the children all enjoyed and thank the Lord for YCCA side who managed to come up with the actions for the song and bless the children through it.

Friday - 2nd day

To make sure the adults themselves didn't get lost in PP, had to walk around and take pictures so that there won't be lost sheep :p The lord bless us with good weather, enough people to help run the stations and the children all had fun @ the various stations

Saturday - 3rd day

Kite-making ! Praise the Lord for enabling the leaders to learn fast on how to make one and that the children all love their self-made kites. We even managed to fly them and the evening ended with a very nice rainbow just outside DCB.

Talent Night. Really thankful for 3 creative and happening MCs who came up with their own script to host the Talent Nite. The children too enjoyed themselves with their own performances as well as the mini-games segment. We played charades and the best combo was " The camp commandent is sleeping in church!"

Sunday - Last day

It was time to say bye bye. We had a good time and the children from COR side put up a good performance from the camp theme song.

This is to me a challenging and yet faith building week. Learning to trust that despite all the factors that i had to work with, God will put things together and provide the people to help out as well. It's great to have a prayer answered after a few years, the chance to work with another church doesn't happen often so yup, thankful for it. Sometimes, u do wonder are you alone in doing things and do people know what's happening in your life. Really thankful for the support and prayer from many of the adults who know i was going through exams, they've been great encouragements.

One thing which i know have to be improved on is faith itself. Learning to let others have their ways of running things, learning to depend on the Lord even in the midst of exams and many more isn't easy but each new experience hopefully will enable me to believe and trust that God will carry me through bigger things in life in the future. And yes, thanks as well to each one of you in M'kk for your prayers and support, it's wonderful to know that as you care for others, there are others out there who care for you.

A Crazy Group of camp leaders, haha. They've been a wonderful bunch to work with.

Hope

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope."

Hope is often misunderstood; it is not a "maybe so" word. Rather it means "a confident expectation."

When God first appeared to Abraham, He promised, "I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward" (Gen 15:1). Abraham had no natural hope of having children with a barren wife so his answer was a bit despondent:

But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.” (Gen 15:2-3, NLT)

It was clear, this man had little or no hope, and God knew Abraham couldn't receive His promises unless he did. So the Lord took him outside that evening and told him to count the stars. I believed this is how it happened. Abraham eventually fell asleep while counting the innumerable stars. The next morning the Lord woke him with a question, "Did you count them all?" Abraham said, "No, there are too many!"

God has the answer He was looking for and followed it with, "Your descendants will be like that - too many to count!"(Gen15:5, NLT) God has placed within him divine hope - a clear picture of His promise to Abraham - multitudes of children. Whenever he looked at the stars he was reminded of God's promise and heard countless offspring cry, " Father Abraham, Father Abraham!" In reference to this the New testament says Abraham:

Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. (Rom 4:18 KJV)

What was spoken? "Your descendants will be like that - too many to count!" Without natural hope, the divine stepped in to overshadow the seen with the promise. Divine hope looked beyond the evident into God's realm of confident expectation. Abraham chose to override the obvious with the divine. In fact, Scripture tells he was "fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform" (Rom 4:21). He received the promise by faith empowered by hope. We are told,

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. (Heb 11:1)

Our faith gives substance to the hope or promises of God. As we've seen in Abraham, divine hope is the vision or blueprint of God's will that we are yet unable to see with our natural eye. Divine hope is extremely important, for without hope, faith has nothing to give substance to. The Word of God not only places faith within our hearts, it also gives us hope, or vision, to the faith.

It could be compared to a collection of building materials, such as tile, windows, shingles, wood, cement, bricks, and so forth. We could have all resources, yet without a blueprint, the building process would be a disaster! You may think, I could build without a blueprint. Perhaps if there were a blueprint in your mind, but there would still need to be some sort of plan.

- Drawing Near

In what/who do you place your hopes in ?

Think About His LOVE

For God so loved the world that
he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life - John 3:16

Think about His love
Think about His goodness
Think about His grace
That's brought us through
For as high as the heavens above
So great is the measure of our father's love
Great is the measure of our Father's love

How could I forget His love
How could I forget His mercies
He satisfies, He satisfies
He satisfies my desires

Even when I've strayed away
His love has sought me out and found me
He satisfies, He satisfies
He satisfies my desires
Great is the measure of our Father's love

Place God 1st & things will fall into place

Foot notes from the Guys talk - The Every Day Man

1) Our relationship With Christ determines our identity

• Our identity is in Christ and NOT what we are tasked to do
• By making Christ the priority, everything will be taken care of by him
• It's the desire to place God 1st, pursing him and setting aside time to be with him

2) Our relationship With Christ determines our purpose

• Don't follow the patterns of this world
• Don't chase after the rewards
• Don't need to upgrade, following what the world does
• Don't let chasing the world overshadow your call to ministry
• Bear fruit
• Leaving a legacy : touching and impacting people in your life journey
• God's promises & faithfulness will carry us through
• Balancing life style of Family-Ministry-Work : Put God 1st and he'll take care of everything

3) Our relationship With Christ directs us in our life

• Grow spiritually : Do evangelism
• 5 Steps : Read bible, Prayer, Witnessing, Fellow shipping, Ministry
• 5 ways God speaks : Scripture, Holy Spirit, Godly Council, Common sense, Circumstances

Don't reply on yourself, look to God and surrender to him

You Are So Faithful

Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth."- Hosea 6:3



Like the sun, that rises every day
You are so faithful, dear Lord You are faithful
Like the rain that You bring and every breath that I breathe
You are so faithful, Lord

Like a rose that comes alive every spring
You are so faithful, dear Lord You are faithful
Like the life that You give to every beat of my heart
You are so faithful, Lord

And in the midst of the storm through the wind and the waves
You’ll still be faithful, You’ll still be faithful
And when the stars refuse to shine and time is no more
You’ll still be faithful, You’ll still be faithful, Lord

I see the cross and the price You had to pay
I see the blood that washed my sins away