Stretched

Many new faces at Faith Factor last Saturday. Partly due to the campers' briefing after the meeting. Mainly due to the persistence and enthusiasm of Pastor Kuo Yung and the group leaders (except me, because I kinda forgot to remind the group amidst all the POP preparations and rehearsals during the week. Oops lah.). Still, the large turnout was encouraging. Even more so, was the overwhelming response to Odysessy. Here's what happened.

Last Tuesday I was still trying to figure out how we were gonna meet our target number of campers, with only 43, out of which only 4 were friends of youths. With less than a week to go to the camp, we were really quite desperate. I prayed. Marianne Lee, Andrew and I did the calling up, SMS-ing and all the pushing we could give to our youths to invite or remind their friends about the camp. Then the unthinkable happened. The next day, and the next and the next, youths started calling or SMS-ing in, reporting the number of friends they were gonna be. And they just kept on coming! The numbers shot up and as of today (well, the supposed day when registration officially closes), we had 78 campers including committee, full and part-time campers. Simply amazing. Really thank God for answering our prayers - and in good time as well! Kinda guilty and ashamed for lacking the faith, even to the extent of skepticism. With God, there is always hope, and all things are possible. =) Looks like MI4 is well on track!

Now the challenge is for us to be able to adapt and expand our capacity to organise and to accomodate to such a large and sudden increase in number. Already as it is, some signs of strain are showing in the ability to keep track of the very volatile movement of campers to and from camp, especially for the part-timers. Consent forms, money and logistics all need to be accounted for. Since most of the commitee are first-timers, we really need all the help we can get to avoid any unecessary screw ups. Hmmm.

Today we reported back to Khatib as 3SGs for the first time. Still not used to it leh I must say. If you ask me, I still feel very much like a trainee. Spent part of the day returning stores, cleaning arms and most of the day slacking around and tau-poking people in bunk. Which reminds me, I got tau-poked about 3 times during the whole course. The only person who probably got more tau-pok sessions would be Tan Wei Chong. I wonder why. Haha. The trick to avoid getting such crushing treatment is not to put up a struggle, as that takes away most of the fun people get out of doing such things. Believe me it works. Haha.

Alright man, two days of well deserved off-in-lieu. Gonna spend one day shopping for Christmas and New Year clothes and buying new uniforms I think. Another day at Odyssey. All before reporting back to camp and posting to Amoy Quee. Heard we're route marching there. Wah lao. Since when do the Artillery route march. Nonsense.

Anyway, here's some photographs from last Saturday.

We've waited 13 weeks for this day. =)

Just look at Felix the Meanix's beret. HAHA.

Detachment 5 with Steve and his daughter. =)