Written by Jern Ling
Edited by Charis Chen
DAY 2
After a long morning with
the hustle and bustle, we finally woke up, still feeling sleepy from all the
excitement and trauma. We were supposed to wake up at 7:00am, but with all the
commotion that had happened really early in the morning, we were all allowed to sleep
in later. When I woke up at around 8:00, Charis and Jemima were already
awake and Charis was shaking me, Jonique, and probably Eunice, too. We were groggy
with our eyes bulging and bags under our eyes from crying and the lack of
sleep. After washing up, Jonique, Eunice, and I headed towards the cafeteria, keeping a
safe distance from the hot, boiling pot. After awhile, Eliza, Charis, and Jemima joined our table. I
turned to Eliza and said, “You have a very interesting and exciting story to
tell your children!”
After breakfast, with our tummies filled, we made our way up the stairs to our meeting room. When everyone was in the room, we began with a devotional sharing from Coach Alfred. Actually, the Devos 1 Team, which consisted of Eliza, Ranen, Charis, Jemima, and me, were supposed to do the devotion, but because of the incident, we were not able to do it.
So instead, Coach Alfred shared an acronym of the word COMMIT. He shared with us about how to turn the traumatic experience into a life lesson, and that we should always listen to others, whether older or younger, when they caution us.
When Bad Things Happen To Good People
That was the topic. Coach Alfred then explained it in more detail.
Crisis
· It is part of
life’s journey
· Inevitable
· It happens to
anyone and everyone
·It is normal to
ask questions.
How Do We Deal With It?
What our normal response would be:
1. Freeze = Inability to deal with it; don’t know what to do
2. Flight = Running away, withdrawing, blaming others or self; bitterness.
3. Fight = Deal
with it, embrace crisis, accept with thankfulness.
~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 ~
"In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus for you."
What I learned from Coach Alfred is that I must be
thankful in all circumstances.
Next, we learned about thankfulness and why we have to
be thankful.
Thankfulness
i) God is in control of every situation – good or bad.
ii) For His grace and mercy.
iii) For the care and concern.
iv) For His will.
After the devotion by Coach Alfred, it was Coach
Joseph’s time to speak.
Photo by Nathanael Chong
Photo by Nathanael Chong
posing with my canggih look for the camera
He told all of us, especially the speakers, that this
year, we have really had our ‘teabag moments’. For a teabag, you will never know
what is inside the bag until you put it in hot water. Then only will
the color, smell and taste be released. Coach Joseph said that the teabag reflects
our character. He then shared about how we young people need to be humble and
accept correction. Those who do not learn from history will repeat it again.
Our parents may seem to be nagging and annoying us, but our parents want the
best for us and don’t want us to make avoidable mistakes. And, if we do not
listen to them or heed their teachings, there will be greater consequences.
After
the solemn part, it was time for .... STATION GAMES TIME!!!!!!! (sorry, no pics)
The first station game that we played was the ‘Plane
Making With Coin Weights’ game, which was led by Ian. We had to make a very
flyable plane for our plane challenge later. I am not very much of an expert in the making
of a plane so, my plane was pretty lame. :)
The next station game was the ‘Guard Your Treasure
Well' game of passing marbles and ping pong ball with toilet roll centres, led by Charis. We had to use the toilet rolls to guide the marble or ping pong balls to our goal,
which was the cup. :) There was a lot of screaming when the ball fell down from the toilet roll center, because then, we had to start again from the person who was holding the ball before it fell.
The third station game was ‘The Parachute Twister’ led
by my brother, Jern Yoong. With everyone around the parachute circle, Jern
Yoong would tell how many body parts have to be on which color. It is something
like Twister, only with parachutes.
Finally, the last game station was the airplane challenge! The paper planes
that we had made were for competing with other teams. It was an exciting and
extraordinarily fun time! Then, we all had an afternoon nap time during which most of us did not nap. Although I don't know what the boys did, we, the girls had quite a lot of fun. Since Debbie came over that morning, we all started talking, laughing, reading books, and just having fun. We also watched Coach Debra and Charis dress Eliza's wounds and then got on talking again. :P I was pretty nervous at that time, because right after the nap time, it was my song leading time. Fifteen minutes before the whole second half of the day began, the girls accompanied me to the meeting room to practice the songs that I had selected (bless them).
Several other speakers helped as well.
Photo by Nathanael Chong
Some with the LCD....
Photo credit: unknown
Some with musical instruments...
Finally, after some practices, everybody was gathered together.
Photo credit: unknown
Can you sense the nervousness in me?
Photo credit: unknown
Photo credit: unknown
Faithful worshippers...
Photo credit: unknown
Ranen's hands up in midair...
Photo by Nathanael Chong
Behold... the guitar...
Eliza and Eunice talked about their trip to the U.S., the ICON tournament, visiting Answers In Genesis, and their experiences in visiting different universities.
After that, we had tea break, after which some of the speakers and coaches changed into their sports attire and played Ultimate (Frisbee) in a big field behind the PD Methodist Center. It was a very fun time in the evening, laughing at how the coaches
throw. :) (oops, sorry!)
Photo by Nathanael Chong
Then, all sweaty, we went back to our dorms to bathe. It
was such a tiring time! After we finished showering, we headed to the cafeteria to eat our dinner. After we settled down with the dinner food in our stomachs, we went up stairs to the meeting room to listen to our first aid "doctor", Coach Choong Ming, teach us about first aid for burns. When the hot water incident occurred, we were panicking and did not know what to do, so now we know what to do when something hot comes our way.
DAY 3
The next day, we had to wake up early for our breakfast and devotions.
The devotions were about how to commit to God.
But somewhere, Eliza showed us a short video of the movie that the ICC was making: Mission Exterminator. She showed a scene where Ranen, Eunice and Jaeriel were acting as trapped kids. I was impressed by what we could do; the ICC speakers DO have a bright future ahead! :) Then, Eliza showed us the bloopers of a scene where Ranen, Eunice and I were trying to act serious, but failed. There were so many bloopers, as we couldn't remember our lines and were so tired that we HAD to yawn. :P Everybody laughed and giggled and 'wow'ed while watching the videos.
After that, we had a discussion about ways to promote ICC through the six core values.
Photo by Nathanael Chong
Eliza shared what MEDIA P.R.E.P. was all
about. P.R.E.P. stands for Pursuing Responsibility and Excellence Purposefully.
Then, Eunice shared about her experience at the iCon tournament.
A little while,
after the sharing, we went for our tea break down in the cafeteria. Then, we headed
back upstairs to see a video of some informative speeches and original adaptations presented at the ICCFS at iCon. They were very inspirational, and we also had a good laugh! After all that laughing and insightful learning, it was time to return to where we belong, Kuala Lumpur. We
packed our things and cleaned the meeting room (responsibility is very
important!). Then, all of us went to Seremban to eat our lunch. We ate delicious curry chicken nested inside a huge bun, rice, soup, veggies, fried sotong (cuttlefish) and many more mouth watering foods! We also had a time of feedback about how the ICC 2015 retreat was. It was extremely
enjoyable. Gulping down the last of the food in our plates, we headed back to our cars, and wished the Tans a safe trip to China and reminded them to be extraordinarily
careful with Eliza's and Eunice’s burns. Finally, we got into our cars and drove
separate ways to our own homes. What I learned from this ICC retreat is that I
must listen at the first word to my parents or older people when they caution me. I also
learned that I need to put others first before myself and take the initiative
to help. And this, dear readers, is the end of ICC Retreat 2015! Until our next retreat!
(only hopefully nothing crazy happens:) )
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