Thursday, June 09, 2005 - :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D : What a life-changing experience. Absolutely wonderful. I just returned from my church camp and I must say - WOW. No wonder God ka chiaoed me so much to let go of Rapture and to come for this camp. Now I understand. In going for this camp, my faith was really stretched, and I am so much closer to God then I ever have been. Let me give you a day by day description....

DAY 1
When i first arrived at the camp site, I was pretty...saddened by the whole place. It was held at Girl's Brigade Headquarters and it wasn't exactly the coolest place to sleep overnight. I wasn't remotely excited or happy. In fact, I had toyed with the idea of not going to the camp. But heck, I went anyway. The first day started off with games which I will admit was exceedingly fun...especially the game Geryl Tan was in-charge of where we had to be holding a cardboard box around us and try some way or another to use ur legs and head to get a huge yellow ball with a smilely face (the ball had to be 2 metres in diameter). I can still remember how incredibly retarded I feel trying to whack an oversized smilely ball without my hands. After the games, we washed up and headed for the worship hall for the night sessions and just went CRAZY for JESUS. After all that awesome worship, we settled down for the Word of God led by Pastor Ben, our much beloved crazy youth pastor. But what strike me most was not the worship that night, but what transpired during the prayer at the end of the session. Pastor Ben received a conviction from the Holy Spirit and called for us to go to those we had grudges and unforgiveness against and forgive them and pray for them. There were so many broken hearts and weeping that night and I could really feel that was God convicting us. But the most awesome thing was when Stanley, one of our youths, went up and took the mike as the prayer session was about to end and asked for forgiveness for hating his brother so much (his brother was also there at the camp - Leslie). And Leslie was praying that he might be able to forgive his brother for hating him RIGHT BEFORE Stanley took the mike. And what followed after that was a really beautiful scene of two brothers hugging and weeping in reconciliation, and this got me thinking about MY own family, what I could have done and what I should do. Indeed, the Holy Spirit lead me to make a resolution to be different in my family, to be more loving and tolerant and SHOW my forgiveness rather than just forgiving, for what difference is it to forgive someone yet treat them as though I haven't forgiven them?

DAY 2
The second day started with us stoning almost the whole morning through because of the late night. After my group prepared breakfast and ate with the rest, we proceeded to have morning devotion with my group which I must admit, wasn't too productive because of the heat. After which, we went on to have a teaching session. It was then I was convicted by God once again. I had always felt that i knew more than most about Christ and that I was much more matured than many other in spirit, so much so I felt that with a little more training I can become a leader at church. It was then during the teaching session about discipleship ( a lesson I had already learnt, ironically) that I realised why my spiritual walk could not progress recently, because I was too prideful. Ok now imagine this - an empty glass. The only way to fill this empty glass with water to its complete capacity that it can hold is when it is empty. But, the glass will never be truly filled if there are pebbles in it. And so these pebbles represent my pride and what I felt about myself, my position in God. It was only when I broke myself and reduced myself to nothing, that God can fill me to my fullest and in fact, till I overflow. And so this included submitting myself to the return to the basic teachings (the group I was placed in was for those who were considered more spiritually infant if I'm not mistaken) of Christ which is discipleship. It was also then iIrealised that a leader of God's people is not one who has preconceived notions about himself, but rather, one who believes he is nothing and that he is but a servant to those he leads. After the teaching sessions, we had a great time playing this game Douglas (games in-charge) created called Star Wars. It simply was just a wet game that turned out to be pretty fun! After dinner, we moved once more to the worship hall for another night session. This night, however, was to intercede and pray for Game ACCELERATE which i will elaborate later. I have never came before the Lord so easily before, and before I knew it I was on my knees worshipping the Lord. It was in this time that we interceded for the lost souls, so much so that not a single eye in that room was dry. There was much weeping and crying out in sheer desperation for those who did not have Jesus and God in their lives. In that time we prayed for the 700 souls that we had asked God for and we prayed and prayed even though at times our faith wavered. But prior to this camp, during my daily quiet time a week before the camp, I was led by God to read verses and parables that spoke of FAITH; every single day were verses that spoke about faith. And so, after the night session was over, we broke up into our groups and continued to pray for Game ACCELERATE. For some reason, I wanted to pray for it. I just felt this need and desire and want to pray for the lost souls and for ourselves. This was the burden that the Holy Spirit placed upon my heart that night, and we prayed till 11+. After that, we settled for supper and got back to bed in anticipation for the next day...

DAY 3
The day started off with breakfast as usual, followed by morning devotion and teaching session. Teaching session today was really enriching, about demonization and bondage to sin. We also learnt much about deliverance. It was also today that God made a deeper impression on me that I did not know as much as I thought I did, because truly, much of the lesson that was taught I really didn't know. After which, came a deliverance session. I tell you, the air was tense. Everyone was obviously twitchy about confessing their sins and bondages and being prayed for. I took the leap of faith and penned down the things that held me in bondage that I would not have confessed. Then, deliverance came and it was a life-changing experience. As Alvin(my group leader) was praying for me and commanding the spirit of sin in me to leave, I began to feel the spirit moving about in my body, especially my torso, as if it were trying to hide and escape. Then, the praying intensified and I began to shake and shiver and I couldn't control it. I could then feel it moving up my throat, and stayed there like a lump lodged there, stubborn to let go. After that, I could feel it slowly oozing out of my mouth as in breathed out slowly. The air that came out was unusally warm if I might add. After the deliverance session, we had lunch and geared up for Game ACCELERATE. Game ACCELERATE is all about going out to the streets and asking complete strangers to come back to the campsite with us and have a FREE BBQ and free performance by us. The team that brings back the most people will get the most points! A simple game with simple rules, but for all off us, it was most probably the HARDEST thing we ever did. Imagine going up to a complete stranger and asking him/her to come to Girl's Brigade campsite to have a free meal on us and free performance, and risking rejection and ridicule. And now in retropect, this whole game is not so different from Jesus's death on the cross, where He died for the world- past, present and future- and gave the gift of free salvation for them, yet many rejected Him and even ridiculed Him. Yet He did not waver, He did not hate or bore grudges, but continued to save and rescue because His undying love for His people was too great to be shaken by rejection and ridicule. And so it was in the same way that outof desperation and love for this lost generation propelled us beyond the mocking whispers of those that rejected our offer. It was truly amazing to see how God used the young ones so powerfully. In the midst of Orchard Road, girls and boys from our church camp as young as 12 dared to invite complete strangers to come. Neither did God spare the timid and silent ones like Alethia, who went as far as to go on her knees in front of everyone in Orchard Road and begged for strangers to come, and continued to invite even after countless rejections. Amazing - simply amazing how powerfully the annoiting of God fell upon all of us. Nevertheless, after all the fake numbers and fake names, the no-shows who promised to turn up, about a hundred strangers came, of which most were from the streets and the rest were people whom we had invited. We started with games to warm up before proceeding to have dinner. After which, many people left and the number dwindled down to about 40-50. Some of us began to feel discouraged and I myself am not spared. But then I just left it all to God and allowed Him to take control of it all. After dinner we began the evangelistic service, where REVIVAL GENERATION just went CRAZY for the Lord. I could see on the faces of the non-believers that they were amused at our behaviour and our passion during the worship session. After that, we settled down for a time for testimonies by our youths. Douglas started off and it was a simple testimony, yet it showed God's awesomeness and promise to His people and His sovereignty. Then, Song Mei shared her testimony and it was indeed a POWERFUL testimony. It was so touching that even I couldn't hold back my tears. Her testimony spoke of God's eternal and undying love, and how much He wants us even though we are nothing in His sight, even though we are dipped in the darkness of sin and our brokeness and sin are all that we have to offer Him. It was then I received a vision of myself lying in a dark cave, alone and suffering the stench, then at the mouth of the cave came a brilliant light, and a man walked towards me and reached out to me, touching my arm and marring the perfectness of his skin with my dirt, and picked me up, leading me out of the cave with an expression that only bespoke of love. It was in this vision, I was reminded of how I was saved, and it was in this that an even deeper burden for my generation was placed upon my heart. Then, came Pastor Ben's testimony which was more light-hearted, but in no way was the weight of the message lightened. Altar call came and by then I had tears running down my face as I prayed and begged for God's Spirit to fall upon the non-believers and open their hearts and free their minds from that veil of lies created by the one of this world. It was then I heard Pastor Ben saying " yes, i see that hand, thank you....Yes! I see another!...." and it went on and on and i prayed harder and louder, then when it was time to pray the sinner's prayer, my mind just blew. 5/6 of the people present gave their lives over to the Lord. HALLEJULAH. It was indeed the harvesting of lost souls. In that moment, I realised that the 700 that God promised to give us was not to be NOW, but in His timing. But then and now, I don't want 700. I want a generation. What we have seen today was but a glimpse of God's glory and His power, and the Holy Spirit promises to give us more. That night was truly an awesome night, where people from the streets were just taken and they were saved. Indeed, a revival is about to take place, because what was acheived that night WILL create ripples in the Singapore community and the Christian community, and I know for sure that what has transpired will propel other youth ministries to get up and ACCELERATE for God, that it will spark a wave of revival in the area of evangelism, for I can feel that God is telling me that the Church in Singapore is growing lukewarm and that the blessings that He has given to us is not for us to enjoy for ourselves but instead, to be accountable for, for the more blessings we have, the greater our responisbility is. Therefore, a wave of evangelistic revival will sweep throught the nation and indeed this year WILL be a harvesting of lost souls and God's perfect glory will descend upon this nation in a manner such that it has never been or ever will be again. AMEN. That night, we wanted to worship the night through and praise God for the amazing thing that He had done in our sight, of how he used such imperfect vessels such as us to carry out His perfect will.

DAY 4
Today, we woke up as usual at the same time and had breakfast before packing up things. We then proceeded to the worship hall once more for a final worhsip session. We sat down and began sharing our experiences throughout the camp. Then, the camp commitee confessed that thye themselves had not carried much hope in Game ACCELERATE, and that they too were frightened if it did not turn out the way we had expected. Also, on the 2nd day of the camp, we pledged sacrifially for the renting of the sound system and the food for the evangelistic service on day 3 and amazingly, we raised 3500+ dollars. AMAZING, given that we only had 70 odd campers. A 500 dollar cheque came in from somewhere and it went up to 4000+ dollars. Indeed, God was at work. And we made a desicion today, to cross the line and live for JESUS, to carry out His will through us, to live as He had lived, to follow Him wherever He leads us, to give up all that we dream of and desire and instead take up the desperation to follow in His spirit, to hand over our future to Him in exchange of the destiny He has ordained for us. I made the desicion to cross the line, as all of us did, and in doing so, I gave my life over to the King of Kings. After the session, we gather at the lobby for a photo taking session, and then an AMAZING THING HAPPEN!! Suddenly, Alexia saw some glittery thing on her arm and joked that it was glory dust (glory dust is a manifestation of God's glory, a physical manifestion of His miracle,because this very very fine, shining dust will just appear out of nowhere). And when she walked into the sunlight, she could see it ALL over her arm. After rubbing and rubbing, the glory dust never went away. Then, a group of us clustered together to see it then one of us laughed that maybe she had it too. And so she lifted her hand to look at it, and she too had glory dust on her hand!!! Then, i lifted mine and looked at it, and indeed, there was glory dust on my hand too. Then, i dragged Lillian (Pastor Ben's wife) and asked her to look at her own hand, and indeed she too had glory dust on her hand. Pastor Ben also had it, in fact, everyone had glory dust on their hands. This, obviously, was God's blessing upon us, and that we have been annoited by God to go forth and continue the work we have begun - the harvesting of lost souls for the Lord.

All in all, the camp was a life-changing experience. For those who are not Christians reading this, I pray that you will come to know the Lord. If you really are interested and is seeking for someone to ask, feel free to come down to Revival Centre Church in Novena at Moulmein Rise. AMEN... :D :D :D :D

C.K blogged at 12:29 AM