Knowing the Almighty...

Ok seriously. After that very night I got to meet Mark and his great gang of friends through Ezra at a sports game three Fridays ago, I had the urge to know more about the Almighty God. It was like a wave of questions about God suddenly flooded my mind. Flooding away all other thoughts... Who is God and his son Jesus Christ? All I know is just the lid to the many lids covering the cookie jar. I knew they had bible studies every Friday night because Ezra's been bugging me for weeks. He had the patience to face my excuses. And for weeks, I've been giving him excuses. So finally I gave in, I agreed to attend the sports game and meet some of his friends who are conducting the studies. To my surprise, they are one awesome hell of a gang. (I'm sorry Ezra that I gave you lame excuses.)

The next Friday, I attended the first session of bible studies with a group of university and high school students at a Gelato shop. Why the Gelato Shop? Because that night supposedly they had other plans to watch a classical music performance, but there were not enough tickets to go around for everybody to attend. So to Plan B. We conducted our studies at a Gelato Shop with free Ice-cream. Because somehow they had relations with the Gelato Shop. I must say, the number of people attending bible studies is enough to fill a 8 seater van. And so we conducted our studies on the bible, only chipping a microscopic piece of fine crystalline glass that God has given to us. After the studies, we chatted for awhile. Mark then asked us if we were interested in going to a Easter camp somewhere out of Melbourne. God willing, I immediately said Yes without considering other factors.


First of all, I'm not going to go into detail what I did during the three day camp. It is going to take a long time, and you guys are going to fall asleep reading it. So here is an overview.

Easter Camp
I was excited about the camp as it was my first time going into the Australian country side camping in a cold environment. Never have I tried that before. The camp site was breath taking and extraordinary, you were in nowhere, but somehow closer to God, green hills rolls around you, and a river streaming beside the camp site. Only if the river was warm, I would take a dip. Generally, we had 1 to 2 hour sessions talking and understading about God everyday. I must admit, I fell asleep during some of the sessions, I was beat because of cold nights that I almost froze in time. How could I possibly pay attention?

And normally after the sessions at night, there would be long 'silence' for at least an hour. You would be asked to stand up- but it's totally up to you, letting you feel God's presence and interacting with Him spiritually. That's if you could, but I believe everyone is capable of. Is just that our mind generates thoughts after thoughts and we can't stop it, therefore leading you wondering about other things and sometimes its so quiet you just fall asleep. What I feel and saw was phenomenal, God presence was strong. Seriously, this is one occurence science cannot prove. The weather was seriously really strange. It rained, sunshine, rained and sunshine for the whole three days. Making it hard to commence outdoor acitivities. The music was awesome, they carried all the instruments and equipment all the way and performed live music. Most of the time the music gets so melodic, you just get high and feel like jumping... which many people did.

The Encounter of God and The Holy Spirits.
When we were given 'silence' to pray, I stood up, freed my hands, palms facing up and lifted it to my waist line. I was trying to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and God. Trying... trying... trying... then, I felt my heart weighing a ton, as if something was pulling it down and trying to rip it of me. I was at a point bursting into tears. I don't know what hit me, I felt real sad. Like something was missing. But I kept it in, taking deep breathes. In, out, in, out. Trying my hardest not to let a tear roll down my cheek, but the Presence of God was strong, my eyes watered but no tear ran down my cheek at least.

Where else, for one of the girls standing in front of me, she was around 20 years old and she couldn't bear with it anymore. A fountain of God's grace flooded her eyes and started to roll down her cheeks. She cried as if someone dearest to her past away, and then she sat down head buried into her palms, crying hard. One of the aunties came to her and started praying for her, arms over her shoulders. The girl then squatted in a position as if she was going to be appointed Knight by a king. As the girl cried her tears away, the aunty continued praying for her...

An hour or so past after the commencing of the 'silence', everybody was tired and started sitting down, only one young adult stood. Palms facing up at wrist line, meditating. I couldn't make out what he was doing, because his back was facing me. But what I THINK was happening was, God was communicating with him. His spirit flown away from his body into another world. He stood so still like a statue. 20 minutes past, the young man still stood. One of his friends if I'm not mistaken, came to him, put his arm round his shoulders and started praying for him. In that very moment, he then emerged out of his statue-like-state. He started to move a bit. Signs of life. After the prayer, the young man still stood there for another 10 minutes... then he sat.

I asked my friend, what is the proper name for the 'silence'. He couldn't think of a term. So he told me one of his past stories during a Easter camp back in Malaysia, he said the same thing too happened during the 'silence'. People started crying, whimpering and falling. I believed him 100% as the same was happening right there. God is real people, and do not doubt the word of God. Believe Him deep inside you and thank Him for whatever that He has done and do not take things for granted. Things happen for a reason.

Some people even had visions with God. They shared their stories and encounteres with God at the end of the camp but there were too much to be told and explained. Time was limited back then, we had to leave the camp before a certain time. Some of you probably feel skeptical, thinking my stories are a bunch of gibberish. I understand. You need to see to believe 101%. So did I shamefully.

The Games and Activities
The games were pretty fun but a bit lame at times. During one of the activities, my team was required to find a 'relic' for a treasure hunt game around the camp site. And one of the relics was hidden in the forest, one big mistake I made- I wore shorts into the forest. As I mentioned before, the weather was really strange. 5 minutes, it could be raining... another 5, no rain at all. And before my team was assigned to search the forest, we had a kind of 'chasing' game, you had to do some moves.... then run... tag the other team... long story. As my team searched hopelessly for the 'relic' and to no avail. We decided to head back to headquarters to search for other relics, as I moved carefully shoving ferns and branches out of my way, just by luck, I looked down and saw two leeches on my calves. One on my left and one on my right.

Okay, maybe I should have just swept it away with my hands silently and say nothing. But, I swore, I swore and I swore aloud... Fark!. My team members were wondering what was going on and it was the eve of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I know I shouldn't have sworn, I do beg for forgiveness. But in a state of panic, I just couldn't help it. I swept away the leeches from my calves, triple checking there were none left on my calves. Scrutinizing my legs and socks carefully. One of the leeches were not swept away back to their habitats. It got stuck to my socks. I had to use my fingers to pick it up and throw it back! It was disgusting. Seriously, if I wasn't in a panic state, I would pick the leech up and bring it along with me and scare some of my team members.

And to keep it short, I learned how to play table tennis and got pretty hooked to it and I'm a newbie. Haha... Big deal. Yeah, this camp brought me closer to God and thought me more about God. And I had fun, heaps!. But the fun has to come to a halt, time to set my mind back to school work. Sigh.

The Dorms.

This is were we slept on the 2nd night. The warm conference room. Cuz there is a heater =)

Bob it, twist it, pull it. Just do what ever the toy tells you to do. A good dinning table game to pass the time. Mark playing with a kid's toy.. Hey! But it's fun.

Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!!

Rainy times...

Sunny times...