Superglue

The Youth Impact Camp 2007 was held somewhere in the jungles of Melaka. Although most of us dreaded climbing about 50 steps every time we had to get to our dorms, the clean and stylish facilities, the mouth watering food served daily and the many playful, tame and cute puppies and dogs that kept us company, more than made up for it.



The camp was titled Superglue and its objective was to teach us unity. When we finally got there after a long ride in a bus, we were given nifty booklets and then briefed on the camp rules, told who our team members would be and so on. One of the more "interesting" rules of this camp was that in order to retrieve a lost belonging from the camp commander, Rachel, you had to go through the sacred rite of holding the belonging in both your hands and solemnly promise that you would not lose it again.

This particular camp proved to be a physically active one. Most of the activities required a lot of running around here and there. We were blindfolded, put through heat and cold, forced to trek in the night, had water balloons thrown at us and the lot. Praise God, no one got injured, unlike last year.

Some of the more interesting games involved venturing into an eerie run down structure simply to find a letter. Another required us to build a human pyramid of at least 10 people just to reach a banana. We had nine people on the ground and one on top. In another station we were all blindfolded and one of us purposely got left behind by the facilitators while the ones who didn’t were told the parable of the lost sheep. One of our facilitators retrieved the lost member of course. Another station involved doing 19 mathematical equations and adding them all up together. My group’s first answer turned out to be more that three times bigger than the correct one. However, we were so determined to finish the equations that we had to be forced to proceed to the next station.



The worship sessions were also spiritually awakening. However, during the first part of the camp I could hardly hear God at all. It wasn't until I chose to give something up that I could hear him clearly. I then was able to worship freely and really connect with Him. I think God really spoke to us at this camp. The devotions were pretty eye opening as we talked about the body of Christ and how each one of us is special. The reason we have to be united is so each one of us can play a part with our talents and gifts with Jesus as the cornerstone.

During my term as one of the leaders of team Brue Corrour (No this isn't a typo error), I have learned a valuable lesson. I was active for the first day but on the second and third I completely left it all up to the other leader, Krystal. I felt useless and unable to do anything. Our team was far into the losing end. I simply gave up. Things seemed hopeless.

However…

In one session God told me that perhaps winning wasn't that important. The real prize was the lessons we would all learn from being in a team. When I looked back I saw that it was not so much my inability to lead that caused me to fall but the inability to persevere. So during the last devotion, I confessed that my inactivity had probably contributed to the reason we were losing and vowed to do more from then on. So on the fourth day I took charge and gave my best. Even if we did ultimately lose, I could take it graciously. We got to know each other, friendships were built, talents shone, and we appreciated one another. We were united and took back so much. And this was the light that shone through the darkness.

Of course, the camp finally had to end... ever heard of a camp that didn't? :D I learned a lot. In fact, I learned so much that words fail to express my sense of victory, a thing that does not happen often.

Thank you Lord.