Last Saturday was a very good reminder. Was reading through the first chapter of 2 Peter. Firstly it reminded me of the recent NSt camp. The main highlight of the camp was in this 3 verses.
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
It reminded me of the many small things I learned indirectly whilst spending time with my team/room mates esp. since they are only 14 and 15 years of age. Being the team leader and the oldest of them all. They seemed more passionate than I was. I was hesitant in the beginning to go for it but i guess there's always a reason why I eventually went for it despite having to skip college for 3 days. Because by just missing one lesson, you would feel left behind when going back the next lesson. So imagine 4 subjects and 3 whole days. But the amazing thing was that i came to know the next day going back to college it was a breeze to catch up. Believe it or not i'm sure that it was because of Him I managed to do so easily. Cause everything is in His plan esp when putting Him first in everything, every other thing will go smoothly. I concentrated on Him there not worrying bout college.
Ok sorry for the sidetrack. Going back. Those 5 days changed my perspective on some things. One of the many things was on the very first day itself. It was the word perseverance. We were given 3 verses which by the were 2Peter 1:10, 2:20 and 3:14 to memorize by that day itself. One of my girls had difficulty memorizing them. And yes our oh so darling Keith was very keen on testing us. No la, he was obliged? ehe.. i'm putting words into his actions. ok ok, i dont know how he felt and what so ever. But i gotta say that he looked darned strict esp when he's got the face to pull it off. First test went ok for us except for her. So he gave us another 10 mins to memorize them word by word. Being "afraid" of that face, hehe we tried hard to help her. Alas, 10 mins was just not enough. To cut the long winding story short, after we prepared and cooked lunch, we or rather I being a lil evil, sent her to her room to memorize. After cleaning up, I went to check up on her. Truthfully, she kinda gave up. She kept saying she can't no matter how hard she tried. I pushed her to continue. Making her repeat it over and over again till even I got sick of hearing it from her. hehe. In 5 to 10 minutes, results were seen. She was able to memorize her very first verse word to word. I was proud of her. We all were. But most importantly she felt it herself. She kept on going. Persistent in doing the same for the other two. It was because she knew she could do it and that she wanted to add on to her knowledge as well. And i'm happy to say that she was able to recite every single word of two of the verses and half of the third by that evening. It was good, considering of all the activities and the very little time there was. And even happier that the next morning she didnt forget one single bit. Well, maybe a word or two but stillll. And after breakfast, she continued to remember the third. Soon after we knew our mission was accomplished. How? During jungle trekking later and when walking back to the resort, Weng Onn led us Tomatoes (which was the name of my group) to recite the verses.
By the way just thinking of Weng Onn and his little tomato antics makes me laugh. And even the way he says tomato. ishh, i sound like i'm addicted to him. LOL! Ah, our very beloved leader who is so lame. He's so perfect for the tomato role cause he looks like a tomato when he goes all red. Whether it's because of the sun or when he blushes.. hahah. Yes, Mr. king of tomato, if you ever stumble upon this blog reading this, we tomatoes still loveee you. Right Sharon, my oh so faithful fellow tomato-ian reader? hehe i'm so corny. There. A small dedication to him. ; )
Sorry ya. I'm very the cheong hei when I type. What's worst is that my "story" there is left hanging a lil. See la, my blogging skill is so lousy. So me-malu-fying.! teehee
Anywayyy.. My conclusion is that, the verse up there was so evident on the first day itself. It was because she had faith in herself, believing she could do it that the goodness of her achievement added to her knowledge of the Word and she was able to stop herself from giving up to be persistent to remember. And by knowing the verses by heart, she's able to be stand up more for her faith.
And secondly, on that Saturday, the chapter reminded myself to keep on having faith and to work on my relationship with Him and His word so that I can be more matured not only as a Christian but also in the sense of making decisions and such.
Oh btw, a lil sneak preview. I realized I never did mention anything bout camp. And this year, it was a good one.
Upon arriving we were given some "orders" since my group, group A started the camp off with the army style and the other group, had the "slumber" style which we only knew EARLY the next morning. Hehe, the one good thing bout starting with the army style was that we only suffered for a day, when we switched style, we enjoyed the slumber way for 2 days while the other group suffered worse off. Reason for this grouping to 2 diff styles taught us bout discipline and at the same time fun. One can never have too much or too little of both. You need a balance of both. Well, that was one of the purpose of camp.
*In the beginning I memorized the verses just cause I was supposed to. But it was when going through the activities I realized how true it was and I started to take it really seriously. So.. wellll, yea. hehe
p/s : SIB's youth camp has it very own style. It's very activity based unlike other camps. They want us to learn it the hard way. hehe and to make sure we have fun at the same time to learn something and remember it.
p/s/s : You know what's easier? I'll just link you to this blog where my fellow tomato-ian wrote down briefly what happened on those 5 days and instead I'll share on what I learned from it. heheh..
Shoot. It's 4.13 a.m and I cant sleep. In 4 hours time I have to "wake up". I'll be going to church early tomorrow at 9!!!!
Btw, I'm pretty sure that most of you who is reading this line didn't read the whole post. tsk tsk.
