Tuesday, June 12, 2012

IMPACT CAMPP by le Evan Wong


Impact Camp 2012 – Deeper
Wooohoooo! What an awesome experience everyone had at camp. It was back at Chefoo in Camerons this year and the place was truly stunning (since I’ve didn’t attend camp at ’10) But not only was the scenery great, God’s presence was there as well. Before I go into details, I really wanna thank the camp committee who made this camp such a success and handling all of us monkeys, especially Mr. Leon Lai who planned the camp day and night until he lost his hair!
Well so the first day, everyone reached church on time and didn’t come at Malaysian timing (Y) The bus I was in was pretty sleepy and droopy for the first half of the journey but things started to kick off and the whole bus was buzzing when we were up on the windy Cameron roads (except for those with motion sickness of course):P When we reached the beautiful campsite, it was a familiar sight for many, well except for me so I was pretty excited to explore the place while waiting for the other bus to arrive. Soon, the other bus arrived and we had a briefing in the hall. And then we split up into our respective groups and had our own team time to come up with a cheer and banner. I don’t know about the other groups but our group had to crack our heads to come up with a team name that started with the letter E, but sadly we lacked inspiration and had to settle for the Extreme Evangers, and no I’m not narcissistic! But the other groups came up with pretty cool names like Asian A – team, like a Bawse, Captain C- rious,  Dirt and F – factor. And then came our first free time for the camp, many diligent teams sacrificed some of their free time to beautify their banners and perfect their cheers while others played football, volleyball and basketball. Then it was shower time and half an hour later DINNER WAS SERVED! The food there was soooo good and they even sold strawberry popsicles which were epic! After filling our stomachs, we headed to the basketball court for a good time of outdoor worship. Soon, it was our 2nd team time where we were supposed to prep for Talentime or for some other teams, they decided to use this time as a bonding session and played games with their team. I’m pretty sure everyone grew closer to each other that night, and with that, the day drew to a close.
Day 2! Wheee! The day started off with group devo led by the youth leaders of each group. Everyone reflected on some questions asked by the youth leaders and it was a good way to start the day. Then we had scrumptious breakfast and headed to the hall for our day briefing. And yes the angels and mortals cruelty started to kick in with angels asking mortals to perform or do something in order to receive their gifts which have somehow become a tradition among Impactors! Then we had another good time of worship before we entered our first session of camp by JON! He talked about having faith because without faith it is impossible to please God,  Jon also showed us the Bible’s very own version of the HALL OF FAME in Hebrews 11! Then after munching down another wonderful meal, we headed off to our respective ‘corners’ to do our journaling. And the wonderful Chefoo landscape provided many locations with beautiful scenery for people to journal and I have to admit that even though journaling was introduced years ago, I haven’t really been doing it after camp so it was a good way to get back on the right track. And yay Praise The Lord that I’m still journaling 1 week after camp (a new personal best) and yup I needa keep it up! What followed was another BGR talk that was held year after year, camp after camp, but Jon did freshen things up a little by adding in his very personal story about an incident that occurred in the Philippines :O Free time, shower and dinner followed. Then it was the first full band worship session by Cicak and team and I could really feel God’s presence in that hall. Then it was time for our camp speaker Pastor Andrew to kick start his first session with us Impactors. He at shared about his life and the troubles he faced and yet God still used him to be such a powerful speaker and great worship leader who led many to Christ. It serves as a reminder that we can all be used by God to do His great works
Day 3! YAY! It was another good time of group devo where we reflected on what was shared in the past 2 sessions the day before. And through sharing our thoughts with each other, I’m sure we learnt many more new stuff from each other’s opinions and perspectives. Then we had another great worship session before we heard Pastor Andrew’s 2nd message. He shared about passionate people and 5 things passionate people do. He challenged us to really be passionate for God and give him our ALL, not only 2 hours on Saturday. He also gave an altar call and prayed for everyone to be touched by the Holy Spirit, and there were people crying, some trembling and even some having a very high temperature as the Holy Spirit came and touched everyone. Then we had another good meal and went to the hall to do our journaling. Then we had our MAIN GAMES! WHEEE! It was a really smart theme of smartphone games played in real life and once again I really thank the committee and the youth leaders for helping to set up and coordinate the games! I’m sure everyone grew much much more closer to each other after the games. OH I DIDN’T MENTION, we had mini games during the briefings and before night worships and they were games taken from MINUTE TO WIN IT! They were pretty fun as all 6 teams went head to head against each other to complete the challenge first. Then we had dinner and then a huge random thing popped up. Apparently, Jon and Cicak wanted to bring Pastor Andrew to visit the strawberry farm but sadly it was closed, so they ended up going to a shop which sold all sort of toys and other random stuff. And they bought back an angry bird and a caterpillar and presented them to guess who?  Well it was Clement getting the angry bird and Ming Han getting the caterpillar and us Impactors were treated to our very first Impact Mania where Clement and Ming Han bashed each other up with their soft toys. HAHAHAHA IT WAS A TRM (Totally Random Moment). Well for the record, Clement won! But how in the world were we gonna worship after that! xD  Despite all of that craziness,  Cicak and friends led us into another good time of worship. And I felt God’s presence with us even during the session which was great! Pastor Andrew shared about the man with leprosy, it was about begging Jesus for help to come and take away our sins, and it was there and then that many of us Impactors cried out to God and repented of our sins which Jesus humbly sacrificed His life for. And this was the day, I felt that God really touched many Impactors’ hearts and changed lives.
Day 4! Awh… last night is tonight Group devo was good and meaningful on day 4 as we looked back at the previous days and shared our insights and thoughts. And there were many questions asked about whether the stuff we learnt at camp were gonna be put into practice and whether our fire for God will still remain after all the hype. I thought that was very important as the real challenge is back home where there are so many temptations and back in our schooling lives where peer pressure is so evident in our lives. Then we had worship and session 5 – LABELS. Pastor Andrew shared about labels that some people have stuck to our foreheads and they may have been hurtful or insulting names. He told us that all of these labels are not what defines us, but what defines us is our worth in God. Jon told us to write down a list of all sorts of names that people have given to us and just laugh at it and tear it up, “don’t let it weigh us down anymore”. And that was what everyone did during their journaling time. And I’m sure I saw plenty more happy faces, filled with the joy of the Lord I suppose, after they journaled. We all had a great time of Talentime prep after that and I’m certain every group bonded even more with each other. Then came the moment of truth – TALENTIME. With the panel of judges seated, the stage set and the groups ready, the teams came up confidently and presented their modern take on bible stories given to them, not to mention incorporating a certain song that was given to them as well. Each team had their strengths and only the judges’ results would be able to decide who wins. So in third place *drumrolls* LIKE A BAWSE! In second place *drumrolls* Extreme Evangers! And the winner is *drumrollsdownthefloorintothedustbin*DIRT! So there are your winners and a huge congrats to Dirt who really took advantage of the instruments available and showcased every single member’s talent! (Y) Then after everyone changed into their special night attire, we all ate our very last dinner at Chefoo, which made the dishes all the more tasty! We then went into the hall and this time Ming Han and Clement decided to turn the tables and present Jon and Chuan Zhong with some gifts but first… they had to battle it out with the angry bird and caterpillar, and they swatted each other like there was no tomorrow and everyone went crazy. Then it was Jon, Chuan Zhong, and Erwin’s turn to present gifts they won from ‘The Claw’ and some other gifts they bought as well and everyone thought that was it…But what followed blew not only our minds but every single cell in our body was exploding in craziness! Jon and Chuan Zhong invited Ming Han and Clement up and then gave them the honour of choosing their team mates to battle it out against each other, 3 on 3 using bolsters they bought! And on my left  was Clement ‘The Angry Bird’ Hon, Tian Xi and Ashley Chin, while on my right was Ming Han The Caterpillar, Yi Fen and Newton Lellang! Impact then took sides and cheered for who they think will win. AND THUS THE EPIC IMPACT MANIA 2.0 BEGAN! They had to spin around 25 times before whacking each other while they were squatting HAHAHAHA! Well from what I saw, everyone obeyed the rules except for Ming Han who just stood up and started whacking Clement with all of the fury he could summon from within! In the end, Ming Han got sweet revenge over Clement because his team had more damages on their soft toys. Well once again, how were we gonna worship after that?!! But we did and everyone cried their hearts out to God and just worshipped and praised Him. Then came the final session from Pastor Andrew, where he shared about how a little kindness can transform the world. It’s the little acts that can make a huge impact on people’s lives and transform them. And we had an altar call for those who weren’t Christians and wanted to be saved and praise the Lord that there were 3 people who accepted Christ in their lives that night! Hallelujah indeed! Then many people stayed up because it was the last night and it wasn’t long before everyone snoozed off and the prankers came out…
Final day :’( Well after 4 wonderful days of camp, we all shared about our plans when we were back in PJ during group devo. Would we still have that fire for God? Will we put the things we learnt into practice? And how? And then came our last breakfast, our last briefing, our last worship, our last session Jon shared about giving our ALL to God  whether in the form of energy, time or strength and about being a generation that gives. We then had a debriefing and packed up our stuff. We then boarded the bus and said goodbye to Chefoo. But the memories, friendships and experiences will be remembered forever. “LET’S GROW DEEPER IN FAITH AND TAKE GO THE EXTRA MILE FOR GOD!”





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