Famine Camp?

Last Saturday, a group of our youths participated in the World Vision 30 hour fast. One of the youth, called it a Famine Camp and I thought it was a pretty apt name. We had about 13 plus youths who joined the camp. They had a variety of activities throughout the day and one of those games, I shared in the fun by being one of the station master. I had one of them to go get me a fried chicken drumstick form a nearby shop and let me eat it in front of them. Cool, huh? You should really see their faces as I bite into the drumstick which helped me out by being juicy and crunchy.

Anyway, I was quite encouraged by the commitment that our youths had shown throughout the camp. I honestly did do my best to tempt and tease them even to the extent of taking them out for a drink (as they are allowed to do that) the very next day (they were required to fast until 4pm). And yet they stood firm. Good job!!!

Lately, I have been constantly encouraged by our group of youths in terms of their commitment and maturity. I do think that we so often give them so little credit for the things that they are able and are willing to do. From the visit to the orphanages, this camp and the caregroup, I have seen how they as a group have became closer and more united in their fellowship and partnership with one and another and with us (the advisors).

Truly, EY, how you all have grown. You all have been a great source of encouragement and joy in our ministry. So a big thank you to all of you. But lets not just stop here. Let us move ever more ahead for God and His glory. We will continue in this partnership to grow together and serve together in the upcoming BUGs, caregroups, EY programs, mission trip and carolling...

Some of the youths who went down to KL for the countdown. Picture courtesy of Sin Chew Newspaper.

Katan

Buat julung-julung kalinya...

Should you not understand simple malay, the title means "For the first time.."

So the Elim Youths said hello to their first ever EY care group...well, the first ever for all except for dinosaur aged sapiens amongst them (i.e. Mr Katan).

As an active observer, I noticed they had lots of good foods on the table. They also had some dirty time with their naughty fingers getting stuck in places it shouldn't (i.e. the mouth. Don't think of anywhere else.). I noticed something weird though. They had this really tough looking orange fish which could not be killed though it was whacked n-times by the youths while they were struggling in giving thanks.


Oh they had some really rowdy singing cum guitar playing session. I think they called it jamming? There was these bunch of rowdy guys saying "yeah yeah" in very constipation-inducing voice. One guy even had the passing motion pose! Twas' a pity I didn't catch that. Then they shouted "Amani amani..?" like it was time for armaggedon!



All said..I will give you proofs.



I think that's how he said Hello to CG.


OH DID I TELL YOU about the PREGNANT GUY??? THERE THERE THERE!!!



And there's the guy who started all those gruesome whackings. Me thinks he was praying for the fish to stay tough.


And she went and laugh at him pulak. Sigh teenagers are getting heartless these days.

Ahhh there, let me show you the yeah-yeah-constipation-inducing-voice gang. They looked every inch the yeah-yeah-constipation-inducing-voice boys.

For a period of time, a young lad and a young lass with the just-do-it spirit tried to kick down a goat-lookalike guy...for reasons only the goat know.

They must have thought, "This is a tough goat butt to crack!"


Lad: Well if I can't kick nor crack his butt, maybe I can climb over.

He seemed to be disapproving with everyone's treatment of the poor fish, what with that frown. Hrmphhh....

Someone needs to tell this young lady over here. Lady, take it slow! Even the prayer of a righteous won't be effective if you hit it like that! Any takers to be that someone, anyone?

I think the lady heard me screaming at her, because after that she tried to make peace by kissing the fish. Yucks, bad taste lady.

Sigh. My sympathy went all out for the orange fish (they call it Nemo?). It could only look dolefully to heaven, hoping to cross over.

As if its fate wasn't bad enough, this guy had to go and lean on him...

..and do his "yeah yeah"s.

Then the poor fish was forgotten and everyone went to pray. But wait, what's with the evil grin on that white face and face?

Righhhtt...it was time for fingers to get naughty.

And she had to scream out loud!

From naughty fingers, they moved on to crazy strummings, crazy songs and passing motion poses.





There you are guys..and girls. CG EY buat julung-julung kalinya, presented to you in photos.

You might have guessed it, "I" am the camera :)

*Sorry for the not-too-much-sense post, but it's 1 am now. I'm not supposed to be senseful.

Julung-julung kali CG was fun, in my humble opinion, and worth taking on. What say you?

A BIG BIG appreciation

First of all, I would like to express our greatest gratitude to Wan Li for opening her house for our very first EY caregroup meeting. As someone doesn't want to admit that's his house (so that he doesn't have to do the cleaning), I will still have to say a BIG thank you to him. To express my gratitude to this person, I(or rather we) have prepared this very special post for him. Thank you again KIAN AUN!!! He likes to quote this A LOT -pictures paint a thousand words... We'll see what they can paint then..

We somehow got these from his house (correction! "Wan Li's house"). More will be coming!!! We don't have anything to blog lately, so, these somehow got my attention(and definitely many people's attention). Something for you Kian Aun to express our gratitude and something to keep the EY BLOG alive!!! Haha.. Stay tune for more.. =)

Pictures paint millions of words... :P

~Some sights I got from Elim Family Camp~

~Another sight got from Ipoh BUG~

White and Black Lies...Have you lied?

Last Saturday, the EY had a very interesting topic, 'White and Black Lies'. Basically we dealt with the issue of lying and our interpretation of what lying was. We are basically challenged to view lying as well, lying irrespective of our intentions and circumstances. For example, in the midst of joking and teasing with one another, we sometimes 'lie'. One might argue that it was a harmless, joking fun that nobody takes it seriously and everybody knows that it is a lie. Like say, if I were to say that I can't sing when if fact I can, it was done for fun (or some people might say that I can't sing but say that I can). But if we were judge that joke, strictly speaking, jokingly or not, it was a lie and should be view as such.

By God's standards then we would have lie. We cannot based our values on human interpretation and judge those actions as acceptable in human terms. In God terms, well then we would have had sinned. Some of us would say why so serious or picky. Well if we don't draw the line then sooner or later we will find that we are no longer God's representative in this world, no longer the light and salt of the earth.

At the end of the session, we made a pact with one another to not lie and to mark down every lie that we had told, at least for this week. Well my own commitment to that promise saw myself incurring a lie on that very same day!!! We often joke and tease and unconciously lie. The next day, joking with Henry again saw me chalking up another two. Haiz... Then later in the week, I was asked a question by my mother and I evaded the question by pretending to not know the answer which I do know...another lie. I guess we are so used to lying that we didn't realised that we are doing it unconciously. Haiz...For me, I am taking this seriously and will must definitely curb and by God's grace cut out all the lying...white, black, grey lies... I am at four lies as of to date. How about you?

Katan

PS: Do leave comment or at the shout out on how many lies that you have told...let's check each other...

Caregroup....

First of all, thanks people for all your input...Appreciate all your insights and thoughts and after much pondering and 'yum cha'ing with many of you folks, have decided to kick off the caregroup again... So the details of the caregroup are as follows:

Meeting Date: 22 August 2008 (Friday)
Meeting Time: 8:00pm to 10:30pm
Meeting Venue: Wan Li's House (so that she will do the cleaning, not me)

For transportation, please contact Kar Wei (the one that knows how to drive)or Kian Aun (the one that hopefully don't have to clean the house)or post a comment or do a shout out

For the program, it will be a pretty light stuff, some singing, some sharing, some teasing, some joking and some eating...So people clear your schedules, come and have some fun on this coming Friday (22/08/08).

Katan

Care Groups, Anyone?

Once upon a time,....well during my youth time which does seemed like once a upon a time...haiz...I joined EY when I was in Form 4. It was something quite new and different for me, coming from a non-Christian family background. Enjoying the fellowship with my fellow EY-ers, doing crazy things. Back then, I am a pretty quiet guy (still am by the way) but was 'conditioned' to be loud and talkative by the taikos and taichehs then. So my atypical week goes something like this:

Mon to Thursday - going to school and looking forward to Friday

Friday - Ahhh weekend and the first of the many meetings in Elim begining with caregroups

Sat - EY, of course

Sun - Worship

The caregroup time was quite a unique time for me. It began with songs then followed by some pretty light studies and then makan time depending on the house we visit. And after I started to 'pak to' with Wan Li, the caregroup was also the time where I could see her after a week. (Back in those days we don't do the underground stuff) Caregroup brought a lot to me during that period of my life. It was were I gotten closer to some of the older ones, learned to care for the younger ones and along the way met new friends in that fellowship.

So lately, I am being 'bugged' to kick of the EY caregroup again. Here's thought...we will have a caregroup meeting, let's start it slow first, say once a month during the week that we have the night worship. We will have the caregroup on Friday night since the next day is not a school day and the possibility of the outstation folks could also join us on a Friday. We will follow the format I had, something light (songs, fellowship and supper) basically an environment to chill, catch up with one another, encourage one another, tease one another and all the other stuff we don't get to do on Saturday EY meeting. So what do you all think? Care Groups, Anyone?

Katan

PS: Do give me feedback on the shout out or comments ....Thanks

Problems Galore: Worry Warts

Today's session was handled by Tsuey Xin. My job now is to post up the photos related.

Pictionary time!!!




As for the answers and further detail, kindly contact Ho Tsuey Xin.

Hint: Worries in our lives