Back From The 'Salt Shakers' '08 Camp

Just came back from the 'Salt Shakers' Youth Camp '08 this morning and I slumped to my bed after that. Slept till afternoon and went to Grandmother's house. Continued my sleep there till dinner time. Well, will share on some of my experience there then.

Day1: Met up at Dhoby Ghaut station, then travelled to the campsite by bus, the campsite is just opposite Great World City. Check in the rooms and mingled around. To be honest, the place did not look that good. Had an introduction by the camp committee members and we were soon splitted to our groups. Was the leader of Team 6! This time we had no team flags but used caps, ties, sleeveless T-shirts and bandannas instead. During our first group discussion, we took really long to decide on a group name. Finally someone randomly suggested sunshine and we decided to name our group 'SonShine'. Then we designed our cap, tie, sleeveless T-shirt and bandanna. Our group is really small, especially the start when we like have not all members present for the camp yet. We later had no cheer yet, so we just made use of the 'You are my sunshine...' song. Played the 'Squirrel and Tree' game, quite fun. Had a game of soccer with some boys before dinner and scored 2 goals. Dinner was quite good, and we proceeded to our Session 1. It is like a praise and worship plus prayer and a sermon by the guest speaker. We call him Pastor Ben, he's a great speaker. He shared many values on the book of Daniel, he can be quite humorous as well. The shower was cold, because the heater switch was like hidden and we discovered it after we showered... Slept quite late after my mp3ing and woke up like 4 plus to send some wishes to 'Tu Di de Shi Mu' cause she was leaving for Genting for a few days. Did not go back to sleep after that, barely 3 hours of sleep. Well it's ok, at least I was not feeling too tired.=)

Day2: Breakfast, followed by quiet time with my group. Thanks to Grace for complimenting my leading of the quiet time, was not aware that I did well. Had Session 2 and almost fell asleep due to my fatigue. Lucky Pastor Ben was a great speaker and he managed to kept me awake with his charisma of giving speeches. Quickly decided to cross that spiritual line and surrender all to God, could understand some of the struggles people faced to cross that line. Thankfully, I think everyone or at least almost everyone did it. Had our lunch after that, was Hokkien Prawn Mee with sausage. We did our skit preparation while waiting for the rain to clear. The weather was not good, still managed to play the telematches in the end. The water bomb game was quite fun, like the Dodge ball game as well. Actro and Wee Jin were the Dodge ball heroes! So many of us versus them they still can survive and hit one pair out. They still got like +10 points for the their team for that! Bathed, had dinner, followed by the 'Workshop'. Pastor Ben was leading the workshop for the boys group, discussed stuff that may be weird but true to many. Played 'Hide and Seek', felt sorry for Lorraine, being found by us before she could hide and she got like sabotaged by us. Had supper, slept late once again. The room is super cold, the blanket can't even cover my legs properly, how to sleep in comfort?

Day3: Breakfast and quiet time as usual. Some people went for the 'Standard Chartered Marathon'. Had the 'Amazing Race' after that. The race started at Dhoby Ghaut station. Headed to solve the first clue and reached the water wheel last. The other group doing the same station as us left for the station first, in the end we reached the station first. Since we completed the station first, we were told to left. However, when we were about to reach the City Hall MRT station, we were told to head back. Lucky we listened to instructions, we were supposed to stay at the station for a certain limit of time because the time was to shop for our props for the skit. We kept the money to add on to the money that we would get from the next station. We reached the next station first again, was so close. Was told to cheer as a team as usual, applies for all three stations. Won the first game in that station but lost the second. In the end they decided that we tied, the money we received were split to $7 each team. Given time to eat lunch and shop for props. Ate at MacDonalds, Actro should not have changed into another T-shirt, he was wearing the 'Murder King'(Burger King) T-shirt earlier in the morning. Shopped for props and we headed for the next station. The other team already arrived but they left for lunch, so we were given first to reach once again. But we lost the game in the last station. Well, heard that we did well for the race.=) Headed back to Dhoby Ghaut drenched, because of the game. Felt so retarded, a drenched person in Vivo when the weather was sunny. Could not shower when we reached the campsite because we had to play the 'Dog and Bone' game. Our team did well, won about 5 rounds. Some rounds were wasted, I missed the thing due to slip for few rounds. Marcus had one round with the bottle slipped out of his hand. Well at least that won us to choose 5 props which was enough. Ended up muddy all over after the game, waited very long to be able to bathe because of the long queue. Prepared for skit and had a small buffet dinner in the camp. Headed for the last session which was in a bigger room, got chairs to sit some more. Pastor Ben shared something out of the book of Daniel, quite a good sermon. After that, I've experience something which I'd never experienced in my whole entire life. It was the first time I felt so much power within the room and I actually cried from it. I've never cried for such a long time and this time was a real bad one. I felt being prayed for by a group of people and I like heard people casting evil spirits out. I think I was one of them getting spirits casted out or something. once the person said 'I believe it is out of your body', I immediately felt so calm and great. Heard God's call to pray for Mark, and help cast out the evil spirit in him. So I woke up and saw Mark being laid hands on by so many people. I immediately went and laid hands on him, he was like struggling and suddenly he spoke like someone possessed. What he said was so evil, I believe it wasn't really him and it was the spirit. Especially after what I just experienced, it was totally no joke and no exaggeration. I could see like a revival and I hope really many lives could change. Evil spirits will manifest in one's body most likely when they committed the repeated sin. Especially watching violent stuff and playing violent games! Many of the new age music, heavy metal or music containing sensual or vulgarity stuff is something to really watch out too! After the whole session, I got a sore throat, especially crying and screaming with a dry throat... Water isn't easy to find in this campsite, I hardly drink water there. Prepared for skit, I was like not so motivated because of my bad sore throat... Still prepared quite well in the end. The talent show was quite good, 'Imbaa's' cheer was really good. Our skit and cheer carried out quite well although some parts was not as planned. Haha, but was funny.=) Had individual sharing and some people left the camp for their own issues already. We also revealed our 'Secret Monkey'(smiliar to Angel-Mortal). My 'Secret Monkey' is honestly very childish and he left me pissed. Gave me retarded mails, I already roughly could guess who it was... Was guessing people like Darren and Matthew and it was Darren. As usual, did not sleep in the last night but this time did not play cards as much as the previous camps. This time a little more boring, maybe we needed the 'Bang' cards to get more people playing.

Day 4: Packed up to check out and we had a closing session to announce the team positions. 'SonShine' got THIRD! Yay! Considered very good already, we were never top 3 previously and we like never take initiative to do any task to help us earn some points. At least we did not get the tissue box to cry and we got the sparkling juice, haha. No offence to the bottom 3 teams. Everyone did well, competition was super tight. What I think is most important is not winning and losing but is bring back many valuable lessons back and doing your best in the camp. I totally love my team, they were managable and rather systematic. Could hardly hear arguements but we do hear many ideas. Looking forward to the next Youth Camp, hopefully it'll be more fun and more of God.=)

Pictures will be uploaded soon, so please wait for them. I shall end this post with the song of the camp, 'Shake It - Metro Station'.

Shake shake, shake shake, shake it! Tu Di de Shi Mu, please come back soon and enjoy yourself! Hope you had a great trip! Finished watching Forensic Heroes on Channel U, the last big case has started. Serial killer on the move, well I know who it is as I already watched it. So goodbye for now, stay tuned=)