An account by Alexander Tegjeu

As another year comes, another Outreach Team graduates and when a team graduates there is always the welcoming of a new Outreach Team. The camp started out with a blast on the 7th of May. Registration went smoothly and without a hitch as did the loading of equipment and luggage.

After a blessing from Father Anthony Heng, we were off. The bus ride took its normal 1 hour and 30 minutes plus duration and the next time we knew we were all unloading the bus at The Farm. It seemed God was in a joking mood as it started raining while we were carrying the equipment over to The Farm. After our refreshing walk in the rain and a quick shower we started setting up while the Outreach Team was getting settled – 27 new members have been chosen this year to represent the Youth Rally Outreach Team of 2010.

We kicked the camp of with our first session by Benedict Lo – “Why am I here?” It really opened some people up to the fact they were not there by accident. It was a real eye opener even for the graduates who learnt a lot.

After the session was a short explanation of what is praise and worship by Rachel Lai, followed by praise and worship led by Ben and Angelica. After that for dinner and went to sleep as we were tired from the trip over. Little did we know we would really need every ounce of sleep we could get for tomorrow.

The next day started early at around 7. After washing up and clearing our sleeping space we headed out for breakfast. After an interesting breakfast which we cooked ourselves, we got back for a session about “The Importance of the Bible” by Sarah (Ben’s wife). She changed our view of the bible from a text book we have to read to the living word of God. Through her session she made the bible come to live for us.

Our next session was with Novia Natania, a lay leader originating from Indonesia. As her specialty is creative arts, she helped the 2010 team express their creativeness. She showed them through a game that instructions are not always as they seem. Later they were asked to mold some play dough into whatever they envisioned. The results were a stunning array of colours, shapes, sizes and characters. There was even a Spongebob model spotted in the midst of it all. When that was done with and everybody snapped a picture with their very own creation, the 2010 team was divided into 4 groups. The group were then given several items and asked to think creatively to advertise the item and elaborate on its uses. After the presentation everyone was already looking forward to lunch.

Lunch was followed by a session of praise and worship. While we were all in a singing and dancing mood Novi stepped up and asked the musicians to play the song ‘God with Us.’ She gave us some actions and then pulled one of us out at a time to make our own unique actions for the song. It was great fun and a real good way to open us up and make us dance for the Lord. Once this was done she made everyone sit in a circle where she taught us another song. Next was Ben’s session – basically a game where certain people were “deprived” of certain senses and abilities such as talking, walking, seeing and so on. The objective was to get all of our teammates to the finish line. This really cultivated teamwork among everybody and brought us closer together. After such an expressive activity we were all drained and tired but we all was have enough energy for a group “picture”. We all gathered at the edge of the dock to pose and the next thing we know we are all enjoying a nice dip in the pond. Sadly it began to rain again and we all had to go inside.

After a quick shower we all got ready for Mass, celebrated by Father Philip Tan. Once mass was over we have a picture taken with Father and the Graduating Team of 2009. The Graduating Team did something special to show their appreciation to everybody for the entire journey. Once that was done, we were all famished and could smell the barbecue in the air. Everyone was happy and merry enjoying some delicious lamb chops and other types of food.

After dinner we had a prayer session for the new team and Ben led us into a very deep and prayerful mood. Tears of healing flowed freely and he asked us to write our very own personal letter to God. We wrote down our sins, victories, failures and whatever else we wanted to say to the Father and nailed it to a cross.

The night concluded very solemnly and we went for supper. After supper we said our various goodnights and went to bed.

The next day started around the same time. We had Ben’s final session and by the end of it we could all answer the question he asked us on the first day – “Why are you here?” We all learnt so much from Ben, Sarah, Novi,  and Edward. We had a nature walk where we all took our Bibles and tried to find a verse that meant something to us. After that the 2010 team broke into 3 groups – drama, dance and singing. They each explored their creativity and came up with their own items.

Once that was done we all had our lunch and began to pack. It was raining heavily while we were packing and some of us were very tempted to sleep but we pulled through in the end. After the usual loading we all just collapsed into our seats and took a much-deserved rest. The next thing we knew is that we reached SIC. After the loading and a quick briefing we all said our good byes and went home looking forward to the coming Friday for our first practice. We thank all the graduates, facilitators, our advisors and most of all God for letting us have a successful training camp.