Ideas < Consequences

Written by Charis Chen
Edited by Ranen Chan

Greetings! Welcome to our October 30th ICC chapter meeting! I am reminded of how quickly time flies- it is already November, and this is our final official chapter meeting for this year!

We began with "Kitty Wants a Corner," an exciting icebreaker led by Speaker Ranen. Everyone stood in a circle with a person in the middle, who was called the "kitty."

The kitty would pick someone in the circle and say, "Kitty wants a corner" to him/her, the person would point to their neighbour and say, "Go ask my neighbour," and the Kitty would have to repeat the question to the next person.

While this goes on, other people in the circle would catch each others' eyes to communicate with each other that they wanted to switch places. The goal of the kitty was to be observant and catch an empty "corner" in the circle while people were switching places.

The game had us all filled with suspense, and in addition to the lesson we learnt about eye contact and non-verbal communication, we saw many quieter personalities begin to open up as well!

Following the icebreaker, Speaker Eunice led us in the devotion. She reminded us that we need to have an accurate view of the God we serve. We learnt about how Jesus was both fully God and fully man. How is that possible? Well, it is beyond our comprehension. We are finite, but God is infinite. Speaker Eunice split us into four groups where we discussed about why Jesus had to be fully God and fully man.

Photo by Ranen Chan

We concluded that Jesus had to be both fully God and fully man for a few reasons. Jesus had to get down to the same level as us so that we would accept Him, and because He is our righteous judge, the fact that He has humbled Himself to be a man makes us realise that we cannot say His judgement is invalid or that He doesn't understand. Another reason was that Jesus had to be human to live and die for us, but as God, He was sinless, and thus able to bear our sins on His shoulders.

Coach Joseph then came to share with us about how ideas have consequences. When he was a schoolboy, he spent about an hour commuting by school buses each day. The drivers would have the radio on, and he would listen to the various songs that blared from the speakers, and wrong messages from the songs eventually began seeping into him. It was only later that he realied the magnitude of the songs' influence upon him, and so he had to consciously replace the ideas and lies he had believed with the truth from God's Word. "All men are created equal in God's sight," he said, "but not all ideas are equal. There are the good ideas, and the bad ideas."

Photo by Ranen Chan

He encouraged us, as Communicators for Christ, to communicate with meekness, respect, and fear- even if we disagree with someone. He concluded by leaving us some food for thought: "We can choose our ideas, but we cannot choose the consequences [of the ideas]." Very often, we feel pressured and stressed, but we need to replace wrong ideas with the truth. The closer our beliefs and actions are to the truth, the more peace we will experience.

Photo by Coach Choong Ming

We then broke up to our respective groups for the skills sessions.

Speaker Jern Yoong and I had a lot of fun working with the YCCers, who learnt about what blocking was and how they could incorporate it into their informative speeches. A simple way to plan blocking (stage movement) is to imagine walking in a shape on the floor, switching spots as naturally as possible when one moves on to the next point in a speech. Blocking helps the speaker to avoid looking too stiff, and allows the audience to feel more comfortable.

Photo by Coach Daniel Toh

During the YSG session, we discussed how choosing stronger, more specific words helps our audience picture what we're saying better. Speaker Jern Ling and Ranen then led a fun activity which helped us learn to make better word choices. It is important to choose our words wisely so that we don't leave our audiences guessing what we might be saying.*

Photo by Coach Choong Ming

Photo by Coach Michelle

We also had two chapter practices today! Speaker Jern Yoong shared his testimony about finding God. He spoke very honestly and genuinely. I felt that as a second-generation Christian, I could relate a lot to his message. Great job, Jern Yoong!

I also presented a Computer Aided Presentation on dating. The coaches provided lots of wonderful, helpful feedback! I'm so grateful that we have such a safe and supportive community to learn from!

Photo by Ranen Chan

Our chapter chair, Jern Yoong, then closed the meeting with a word of prayer, and the speakers proceeded to have their chapter presentation practice, led by Speaker Eunice and I.

But this time...

There was something new (and very exciting)!

We appointed our CPP Monitors, Speakers Jern Ling and Jern Yoong! CPP stands for Chapter Presentation Practice, and the role of the monitors was to help ensure the practice ran smoothly. They did a wonderful job, and we made a lot of progress with the presentation! Bravo!

That brings us to the end of yet another energy-filled meeting! Join us again soon as we bring you new updates on our upcoming mission to Singapore!

*YSG Skills Session Update, Ranen Chan

HAT DAY!!!!

Written by Toh Jern Ling
Edited by Charis Chen and Ranen Chan
Photos by Ranen Chan and Coach Daniel Toh

Last Sunday was an exciting day because not only were we having another chapter meeting, we wore special hats to this Sunday's ICC meeting! Yes, it was Hat Day! Everyone came with funky but cool hats. All the hats were amazingly interesting!

                                                                                 

                                        
But why were we wearing hats? Speaker Ian soon told us why!
We were to share why we had chosen that hat. Our creative Student Leader Ian, who led us in this icebreaker, wore a hat with a violin tied on! ;)

                                      

                                            





After the ice-breaker, we moved on to devotions by Speaker Charis. 
Her devotion was based on a section of the Nicene Creed: "We believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of all things, visible and invisible". She shared about 'Community' and the common mission of ICC. We were then split to two groups to discuss two important questions, "How has being in ICC's Community transformed us? How can we reach out to others to help transform lives?"

Some of us shared about how shy we had been for the first few months of our ICC journey, and how after two years, we were more confident to speak in front of our church members, friends and classes. The second question was "How can we reach out to others to help transform lives?"

                                              

After the devotion, Coach Joseph shared about a YouTube video which he had been watching, "The Things That God Cannot Do," by David Pawson. At first, when I heard the title of the video, I was confused as I had grown up being taught that, "Through God, nothing is impossible". But after listening to Coach Joseph and learning about the things that 'God cannot do', I understood that God cannot sin, He cannot lie, cheat and have impure thoughts. He cannot break His promises, be unrighteous, and many more! However, notice this: 'We do all that God cannot do.'

                                                         

Coach Joseph continued by sharing about a talk show in Canada where David Pawson had been given 20 minutes to talk about whatever he wanted to talk about. Mr. Pawson took the opportunity to share about the Kingdom of God. How can we get into the Kingdom Of God? That left me thinking about how I can go into the Kingdom of God. We must repent of our own bad deeds. We need to get to know God deeper in order to get into the kingdom of God.

                                       

Coach Joseph concluded with a short but impactful story: A young man walked up on stage in church to recite Psalm 23. He recited it with such eloquence that at the end of his recitation, the audience gave him a standing ovation. Next, an elderly man walked up on stage to give the same recitation of Psalm 23. At the end of his speech, no one stood up and applauded, because each of them had tears in their eyes. One knew the Psalm; another knew the Shepherd. Coach Joseph posed a final question to us: 'Do we know the Shepherd?'

It was then time for our break-out session for YSG and YCC Skills Training. The YSGers learned about knowing what each of their learning style was. Knowing our learning style will help us learn how to memorise our speeches better, and thus communicate better. The YSG Session was led by Speaker Ian and Speaker Jern Yoong. We learnt about the different types of memorisation skills, and applied them as we memorised Romans 6: 1-5!

The first learning style was the 'visual style'. We had to draw pictures to help us remember the verses. Those who were audio learners learnt better when they listened to what they were learning. Finally, we learnt about kinaesthetic learning by creating actions for the verses we were memorizing.

Meanwhile, speakers Eunice and Ranen led the YCCers in their skills session. 

Here, Speaker Eunice shares with us about their time with the YCCers:

"Dark chocolate, euphemisms, and Chinese characters--what do all these have in common in our chapter? Yes! They were all in informative speeches! This chapter meeting, Ranen and I had the privilege of guiding the energetic YCCers through the do's and don't's of informative speeches! We went through what an informative speech is, how we are to present it, where to present it, why it is useful, and what visual aids are! We had a blast as I showed them my visual aids from my informative speech as an example! One meets many forgotten surprises when encountering a relic from one's history again! XD By playing expressive games, we reviewed important basic public speaking skills. I particularly enjoyed the wonderful discussions we experienced with them! I can't have enough of these young Speaker's inspiring and encouraging willingness to learn and joyful spirits!"

We then paused for a quick tea break :)

Right after tea break, we hustled in to listen to Speaker Jonique's Informative speech presentation on sun rays, their effects on us, and how we can protect ourselves from its undesirable effects. Wow! Now I understand why it is so important to beware of the sun and its rays! 

                                          

                     
Moving on, we had Danelle, who did her "Hello, My Name Is..." speech. It was very interesting, and we all got to know so much more about her! She dressed herself up in different types of gear- swimming goggles, roller-skating gloves, elbow guards, knee guards, and ballet slippers. She delivered a very interesting speech. Great job, Danelle!

                                                     

                                       

Following that, we jumped right into speech coaching, where we talked and discussed about our next speech presentation.

Chapter presentation practice was our last, but not least, highlight of the day. We had lots of laughter and fun.

Well.... That's all for this meeting. Tune in for the next exciting one!
But for now, see ya later!

Use the Pen!

Written by Ian Chan
Edited by Charis Chen

Welcome to our first meeting of October! Today's meeting was started by a warm welcome by our Chapter Chair, Speaker Jern Yoong.

The icebreaker was conducted by Eunice. Everyone had to find either a shelter to hide in, or a partner to form a shelter with. To form a shelter, two people would stand facing one another with their hands stretched upwards. A Person would then sit underneath the shelter to make it complete. When the caller called, "People!" all the People had to change Shelters, but the Shelters stayed where they were. When the caller called,"Shelters!" all the shelters split, switched partners, and found different People to shelter. Finally, when the caller called, "Storm!" everyone had to split up and find different partners. After any command, the person left out became the new caller.

photo by Ranen Chan

After everyone had settled down, we were led by Speaker Jern Yoong for the devotion. He shared with us about having a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Then he broke us into two groups to discuss these questions:

1) What do you do when you want something really, really badly?

2) Think about some of the things you really want and spend a lot of time thinking about and trying to attain.

3) Are they things that last forever?

4) How would thinking more about hungering and thirsting for righteousness change you?

After discussing those questions, a speaker from each group shared what they had discussed.

Following the devotions, Coach Joseph shared with us the power of impromptu speaking. He gave us a scenario. If he were to attempt to persuade a CEO to sign a contract, which would be the best tool to use: a PowerPoint presentation, his training curriculum, his portfolio, or a whiteboard marker?

Well, the whiteboard marker was the best tool. Why is it so? Well, the reason the whiteboard marker was the best solution was because the speaker can present his information based on his audience analysis and improvise on the spot, especially when the CEO comes in from a different perspective.

After Coach Joseph's sharing, the speakers headed to their respective breakout sessions.

Jern Ling and I did the YCC skill session with the energetic, yet attentive kids. They reviewed the basic public speaking skills that they had learned, and we recited the BPS Song. They wanted to recite the song by themselves and they did well! After the revision, we had an activity.This activity was called Whoosh, where everybody had to stand in a circle and say 'whoosh' to the next person. After a round, we started to add more sounds such as: whish, zap, groovelicious, and whoop. Through the activity, they learnt how to focus and act quickly.

Photo by Coach Choong Ming

Meanwhile, the YSGers led by Speakers Eunice and Charis learnt about P3+R3=C3. 
Here, Eunice shares with us about the skill session. 

"This YSG formula has definitely been imprinted in all the YSGers' minds like words engraved in stone! This chapter meeting, Charis and I led the other YSG speakers in a lesson about how P3+R3=C3 relates to our upcoming chapter presentation and how it can help the various stages in our presentation! For example, we discovered that "Purpose" in P3 helps us stay focused on the very reason why we are doing the Chapter presentation, to bless the community as living testimonies of Christ. It also reminds us to always keep in mind the message of our presentation, that God has a purpose for each and every one of our lives! :) It was such an incredible time of learning with the other YSGers! We certainly had a lot of fun and a meaningful experience together!" ~Eunice Tan

Photo by Coach Choong Ming

After the breakout sessions, we had tea break!

When tea break was over, it was time for Speech Coaching. The YSG 1 speakers practiced their Limited Preparation Speeches while the rest of the YSG speakers discussed their speech topics and practiced their speeches.

Photo by Ranen Chan

When Speech Coaching was over, we listened to Coach Joseph, who shared with us an experience he and his family had while on a trip to US. When the immigration officer checked their passports, Coach Joseph and Coach Debra were denied passage; only their daughters were allowed to go through the immigration. Despite Coach Joseph's desperate pleas, the immigration officer firmly replied, "No."

Coach Joseph then asked us why the officer had forbade them to pass. He explained that even though they had made an honest mistake, the Immigration Department had a standard that they had to maintain, and likewise, we should also maintain a high standard for ourselves in order to be successful. He also talked about how we need to "raise the bar," which means to raise the standard for ourselves. Furthermore, rules are rules, and when there are rules, we need to follow them.

Speaker Jern Yoong closed the meeting with some announcements, and the speakers proceeded to have their chapter presentation practice, led by Speakers Eunice and Charis! 

Till next time, goodbye! Hope you enjoyed reading the blog! :)