Pirates of the Curry Bun 15th July 2006

I regret to inform you that i have no pictures taken of Pirates of the Curry bun, so for those who were looking out for snapshots, i have to apologize as there was no camera present at the event today. now.. on to more important things.

Today was the pirates of the curry bun yf activity. the one that i have been busy planning over the past 2-3 weeks... really glad it's finally over and that today was SUCH a huge success. Let me go choronologically la...
met up with Thambi early to get the last minute supplies like snacks for the ends, tape to stick clues and all that jazz... Was a bit afraid that we might not have enough time to plant clues and all because we left Parkway quite late. stupid queue in bread talk was like uber long and slow... finally go to ECP and planted the first clue and to cut story short, went to macs to wait. there i was chucked with quite a lot of bad news.

First of all, nick said he'll be late and that we might have to start without him while qiang was also no where to be seen though it was still early.
Second, Celia called and told me that there were only like 3 people at bedok. so i had to make a decision on the spot and asked them to wait longer while we pushed back the starting time to accommodate the late comers. In the end, they left like super late... 2.30 but thankfully there were more with them.
Third, the sky started to darken and reports from Abigail said that it was already raining at bedok. the rain finally came but lasted for barely 10 minutes. thank the Lord. was praying so so hard can. and the rain really dampened my spirits. you plan so long for sumthing and natural weather hinders it and threatens to totally cancel it. wahhh. So yeh, i was quite down for a 10 minute period at macs... just waiting for people to come and watching the rain pelt down my activity.

But then the rain stopped, the bedok people left for ecp and the people starting coming by themselves to ecp like Joash, Tricia, Yuan, Nick, Joella. :) it was really great to see people coming although you know that some will turn up la. but still... sumthing struck me then... in the moment that everything came together again.. this came to my mind.
There has to be a storm for there to be a rainbow. There cannot be a rainbow if it never rained.

Speaks volumes if you ask me... and i had my little rainbow when everyone had finally gathered and the activity slowly kicked off. :) it went really well and the only regret i had was that i didn't have a digicam. SUPER sian ok. but yeh, the games were done real well and the last game was the super funniest of all of them la... really great ending game if you asked me.
Credit goes to my CF friend Lydia for giving me the idea. it was SMASHING girl. really. :)

But before i explain the last game, commercial break. Thambi and i were sitting down in those huts thing, catching our breath and waiting for nick to arrive so that he could prepare his station. then it was super funny coz from a distance we saw the other group coming so we were like super gan jiong la. we grabbed our stuff and had to chiong to the jetty coz we had to go put up a flag thing so that they could spot where the next station is. haha super funny we were like. OH CRAP GO GO GO! [in the end shawn fell on some sand chionging off. but it was so funny] i surely heard Tricia being a real nicey by asking me if I needed her to give me some time to set up the stuff. i just shouted back, "you never saw me"... HAHA.. but it all worked out fine in the end la. they didn't see the flag coz it was so small but they surely saw us, so we bacame the marker for the next station... which is a game.........

Picture this people. the group was gathered around a stuff toy in the center of the circle on the floor. a raffia string is tied to your waist and the other end is tied to a central rubber band... not touching the stuff toy in the center or the rope, you and your team have to stretch and manuever the rubber band so that it "KIAPs" the stuff toy lifting it off the ground. sounds easy? trust me, it isn't. coz that's not all. you have to move as a team to the cover a distance while your stuff toy dangles over the ground... so the group has to walk at the same pace while not stretching the rubber band to release the stuff toy. sigh it was so fun coz it was so hard.
We played this game at the jetty and the whole jetty slowly stopped their fishing activities and looked at us la. it was like the whole jetty was watching us play our game and you could see they all had a smile on their face lor... glad everyone, even specatators, were having such fun. :)

So finally when the game was completed, we crashed at the next stop which was big splash and had worship... nice grassy patch and Abigail led worship. wowz can! lead worship and play guitar at the same time. talented. real glad she was leading. yayz for her. haha... yeh, then we closed the event and fellowshipped at the beach area singing songs, laughing, telling jokes, just basically being youths. :) it was such an enjoyable time..

Then it struck me there and then. when i finally took off my blades and shared the time with them, it struck me. i had to take a break from my busy day before i could see what God wanted to show me today. i shared this with Adrian, Jodi and Qiang. my peers, my friends, my support. I saw the youths really, like REALLY enjoying themselves today. they were laughing, having fun... there was nuthing in their faces that told me they were forced to be here or made to come... every one of them looked like they were real glad they came and really wanted to come... it was SO internally uplifting. it's like God speaks to you in that small way when you've cried out to Him so much about that issue.

It may just be a change of environment or a fun activity.. but i saw the youths having fun today. having fun the way we used to have fun back in the old school times... i haven't really seen that in a long time and it just was so comforting and moving. it's tough to put to words and i dun expect you to know this... but it also boils down to one thot that hit me there and then.

A chairperson's greatest success is knowing that after his term in service, the people that God has called him to serve are enjoying themselves and God. Not dreading meeting up. And today, it just was so.. so... wonderful that i can't really describe it.

Thanks be to God for giving them a wonderful spirit of unity, bond and fun today. nothing can ever replace that sense of fellowship i felt today. walking back to parkway, i saw the different groups having fun talking, teasing or messing with each other and it was just.. like wow. i'm so glad they're just being youths. this is a youth group. this is Shalom. Thank You Father. you know my thots.

Yeh so it was a really great day. super tired now but i HAD to blog this down coz i didn't want to forget this. one thot i shared with jodi was that she agreed too that the youths today really spent time together the way the old yf had. and it was just cool to see it repeating in a whole new generation. and sumthing struck me as i walked on. something i'm gonna to hold on to till i'm back in 2 weeks time...

I'm ready to leave. to leave the yf for 2 weeks... but also, to leave the yf this year. I'm ready to leave.

Thank you all for coming. and for those who couldn't make it, thanks for praying. i know you did. thank you so much. so so much.