Ck retreat - 17-20 dec

i've just come back from ck camp. it is the last camp i have for december, it was enjoyable and i got to know the ck youths better. they are quite okay actually, but i still stuck with nat most of the time.

day 1
took taxi with nat noelene and bernice to cranwell bungalow 2. met the ck youths outside the bungalow. they were waiting for the camp master, boaz, to deliver the key. after waiting for some time, bozzie came together with dorcas n kong wee in kong wee's car, we went in and starting unloading the stuff from kong wee's car. then everyone checked into their rooms. i was roomed with nat, noelene, bernice, cheryl, joanna and aunty suet yin. there were 2 girls and 2 guys dorms. in our dorm, there were only 2 beds, so cheryl and bernice got them bcos they did not have sleeping bags. i had to sleep in my sleeping bag on the floor. then we went out to have the camp briefing. we got to know the camp theme was 'the walking corpse' and the theme song, a heart of stone, and all the rest of the details. we also played some icebreakers, which involved shoes and lots of shoes. then we played a blindfold game. later on, hui shi introduced the angel and mortal game. (happened in ks camp too). this time i got aunty suet yin as my mortal.
then we had the 1st message of the camp. the camp speaker was kong wee. he talked about us being already dead spiritually when adam fell into sin and how God has the power to raise us from our death. then we had discussion in our groups. my group was chairo, the greek word for joy and consprised of ezra, issac chan, michael, bernice, noelene, hui qi, daniel and claudia. the other 2 groups were eirene(peace) and agape(love).
after that came dinner, we had meat burgers, but i chose to have the 'vegetarian' one which had the filling of lettuce, nuts, cranberry and mango. it was supposed to be the salad but i couldnt stand the meat filling. yeah and bcos of that i got dubbed by aunty suet yin and dorcas(the camp cook) as healthy. lol. after eating, i played bridge with bernice and some friends(i cant remember who). then there was a workshop and how do you know God's will. i learnt about the 4 different channels of God's guidance. 1st, the holy bible, 2nd, the holy spirit, 3rd, circumstances and lastly, the counsel of other godly believers.
we had supper and then it was lights out. i couldnt sleep at all that night, maybe bcos i wasnt tired, but the hard floor made it impossible for my to sleep well at all. nat, who was sleeping on the floor too beside me was also tossing and turning the whole night.

day 2
after the bad night rest, i woke up at 6. waited in bed for 1h30mins and then i got up to brush teeth. nat joined me soon. i played abit of the muted piano and did some morning stretches and exercises with claudia and tze yan. did the crouching dragon pose which evokes strain in almost every muscle in ur limbs and stomach. it was to go on your elbows and toes as the only support on the floor. i could maintain the position for the longest amongst the 3 of us and they were really envious. i suggested that i had great mental power to push myself on eventhough i was really shaking.
after some time, we started the day with breakfast. it was hot milo and pancakes. very delicious pancakes i must say! then we had singspiration followed by message 2. we learnt about the different parts of the body, how worldly they were. an example is the mind, its failure to meditate on God's word, the heart, it is full of the love and concerns of this world and finally the muscles, it is flabby from lack of exercise(fighting against sin).had discussion in my group again and then we had lunch. aunty suet yin and dorcas had prepared my favourite food! which is seasoned chicken wings and kai lan. i ate 7 chicken wings!
then we got ready for games time. we played the games outside the chalet, on the grass patch. we played many competitive games which would garner points for our group. the first was to wear a pair of socks and a shirt which had be frozen in bag of ice. so we had to break the ice first, it was a hugh chunk and my group members took turns to hit the ice on the ground with all our might. soon the ice broke up in to smaller pieces, thanks to our very fit and strong NS man michael, and we had to get rid of the ice in the socks and shirt. my group managed to get rid of the ice first and then michael put them on. he was screaming about the cold. lol and my group came in first for that game. the sec game we played was an improvised version of touch rugby. this time we played with water bombs. i had played touch rugby in school before so i knew the game well, but with the water bombs, i wasnt sure. i should say that the improvisation wasnt successful as the water bomb kept landing on the grass and bursting. so no group could score points. then we changed the ball to a volleyball. the game was much smoother and again my team beat the other 2! yay! then it started raining a little. and everyone got into a mayhem, throwing water bombs everywhere, i got soaked and so did everyone. i played flying frisbee for a while and then we got into our groups to play captain's ball. my team only managed a second as we were seriously deprived in the area of height. our tallest player was claudia, who is about 163cm. the other teams had much taller players. after that, the games time was over and we had free time. i was wondering if i should have a shower as i was so dirty but i decided against the idea as i was thinking that since i am so dirty, i should play a while more. many of the youths were playing soccer. so i played volleyball with another few youths. i mean not the real game but just juggling the ball. it was really fun, then some of the youths wanted to go shower already, so i wanted to play soccer but someone was a little unhappy that i wanted to join in so late. so i left for the shower.
after that was message, the last message of the camp. it talked about the injection life into the dead person to make him alive in God. followed up was discussion. then we had dinner. it was spaghetti, except without cheese. :(
then next up was camp fire preparation. we went into our groups and discussed about what we should do of the camp fire the next day. my group decided to have a skit followed by a song item and then our reflections from the camp. the skit would depict a christian entering a state of a walking corpse. isaac drove us into fits of laughter when he acted as baby which had just come out from its mother's womb. bernice called him a cry baby and he said it was an ugly baby instead. lol! we laughed too when he acted as a walking corpse. giving an ugly, lopsided face and walking with an superfluously exaggerated limb. we could not hold our laughter. soon all the girls, including me had high tide and had to visit the toilet. we rehearsed for our song item too.
it was then night games time! we played the game human and zombie. that was, the zombies would hide a rubik cube somewhere in the living room or in the kitchen. the kitchen was the jail. the zombies then would be blindfolded with a thin black sheet and they would have to catch the humans in their blindfold and bring them to jail before the humans find the cube. however, the humans could save their counterparts in jail, also, the cube could be in the jail too. so it was a chance game and a game of strategy. btw, the humans were given light sticks to wear round the neck so that it would be more fair to the zombies. we played many round of which i was human in all of them, but the humans always failed to find the treasure. so in the end, the game ended with the zombies winning.
we had a quick supper and then it was lights out. this time i was smarter, i slept with the removable sofa cushion under me, this way, it was much more comfortable. had a good sleep!

day 3
woke up at 8. slept throughout this time. we had breakfast which was bread with different fillings, such as peanut butter and fruit jam, butter and sugar, nutella and of course hot milo. :) then we had a workshop on divorce and remarriage. a past top controversy that divided my previous and present churches. and also the reason why i had to transfer church... elder leong who conducted the workshop drew a line very clearly on the different stands and explained to us many on the things. he also answered many of the burning questions from the youths.
then it was lunch time. we had rice with omelette and veg and other ingredients. then we prepared ourselves to go out for the outing at east coast park. we were going to cycling there while participating in a treasure hunt contest. again, we did this in groups. yeah so we went off to east cost park. it was a long journey there. then we rented the bikes for and hour, getting 2 additional hours free. so we started the contest. my group had started off in the wrong direction in the beginning but soon we manage to recover and we got last for the first round and first in the second round! i cycled like crazy. i can bet that i had cycled at least 30km. and that's a lot for me! i was pushing myself on, telling myself to go at a constant pace and it paid off! my group won! at the end, i was really hungry, i could gobble up a whole bag of chips. but isaac chan told me to save my stomach for dinner, a hugh feast. so i listened to him.
on the bus back, i watched claudia solve the rubik cube with cheryl teaching her, disturbing nat a little while she was trying to sleep and smiled at myself for no reason(maybe i was thinking of things pleasant).
we finally reached the chalet! and guess what! it was steam boat dinner for us! i seldom take steamboat, so i guess i was quite excited. i sat in a table with the usual people plus hui shi, elias. the food was delicious, the only problem was that i couldn't finish everything. in the middle of dinner, since all of us had small stomachs, the adults came in stealing bits of food from our table. after i finished my food, i left for the shower. i wanted to be clean and cool and knew when was the best time to avoid competition for the bath rooms(there were only 3 bathrooms available for a good number of 30 campers). yup, i struck when the iron was hot and i showered. so i came out much more refreshed and ready for the rest of the activities.
some leisure time followed dinner, it was when the groups did last minute preparation for the special item, and then the much awaited campfire commenced. we started of with singspiration and then it was time for my group to perform our skit. we made the audience laugh when we acted like walking corpse, because we all looked really retarded. but i feel that our skit reflected all of what kong wee had taught us. then we presented our reflections and lastly, we sang the song i've got the joy, since we were the joy group.
the second group was eirene, the did very well they gave their version of the 12 days of chrsitmas in the the ck camp form and when it came to the second day, they threw some water bombs at us, singing: on the 2nd day of camp, we played with water bomb! and suddenly all the water bombs came flying at the audience. poor ivan, he got hit on the head and went into a sneezing and coughing fit for the rest of the night. poor guy, he should have ducked but he was too blur(matthew had warned him). some of the judges got wet and isaac chan went screaming, saying that the performing group need not perform already, they would get bad results for 'offending' the judges. lol! then they gave their reflection and played a small game between my team and agape. it was a memory game. and i felt that that wasnt really a performance, more of like organising a game. so i though they would be marked down on that.
the last group, agape performed a skit too and sang a song and gave the reflections too. they sang the camp theme song with actions and their skit was about the new man vs the old man. (i felt that it was only relevant to the first message and not all) and the memebers of the group gave their individual reflections. the final result for the performance was agape was first, eirene second and chairo last. but good news was instore for us! we had won the overall, after 3 days of competition, we had won! so we got the top prize and we were very happy.
then after the camp fire, some campers roasted marshmallows by the campfire. i roasted 2 and did not go for more as i wanted to preserve my health. :) then we entered the house and started to play mafia. we played for a while and then we went into playing a very cute game, which is the diu diu game! it was realyl interesting and it was very childish. (i do not wish to explain the game here as it is quite complicated) furthermore, the forfeiters who had made 3 mistakes, would have to become a human jackpot. 3 of them would have to close their eyes and perform an action of of 4 given to them, when someone said kaching! they would have to change action and if they showed the same action, jackpot was hit and their forfeit was over. yeah, so the whole chalet roared with laught whenever some one made a mistake as the mistakes were hilarious. we played all the way to 2am, then it was lights out. again i collected the cushion for me to sleep on and i had a good sleep.

day 4
rise and shine at 9.30. woke up, had instant noodle for breakfast as dorcas wasnt around anymore. i ate tom yam flavour of nissin brand, it isnt as tasty as the myojo one. and later ate ice cream with bread. good life huh. then packed up, i had actually done my packing last night and was doing the last minute packing in that time so i was done with it very soon.
then everyone gathered to reveal their mortal,my angel was noelene. and i could guess! i realised that in ks camp and in this camp, my angels are very close to me, but i always never guess! :( then we sat in a circle and played more of the diu diu game. now it was full force as the whole camp was participating. and more laughter came.
then we played more mafia and it was time to break camp.
dad mom and er jie came to pick me up, went to eat at changi village then went home. :)

byebye and see ya!