Monday, November 28, 2016

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

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