Church Camp

Malacca Water City. A pretty interesting name for a resort in one of the hottest state in the country. It was the site for Agape's Annual Church Camp. It was a year ago that I attended camp and I decided to attend it again this year. Initially, I was excited about signing up. However, upon actually wanting to sign up, I had some hesitation. Not sure why but I ended up listening to my heart and proceeded with the initial plan. Mum came along with me as well.

An Englishman bythe name of Mike Watson was our camp speaker. Many of us were familiar with his name as he had spoke for our previous camps back in 1993 at Genting Awana and another year in Genting View Resort. His message on "Rajawali Terbang Tinggi" was still fresh in many of us yet I could not recall. The only thing that I could remember of him was his ability to speak fluent Bahasa Indonesia. Hearing him speak may put to shame many of us who would be able to speak in Bahasa Melayu. His ability to do so was because of his missionary days in Madura, Indonesia. He shared to us many poignant stories of his life in ministry. One that brought us to attention was how his wife and himself went through an ordeal whereby their young daughter of 6 years was kidnapped and murdered by radical religious group.

One of the key messages during the camp was about the beattitudes. Matthew 5:3-12. However, not all of the beattitudes were discuss during the four days of camp, mainly from verse 3 to 8.

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

A more interesting version of this passage can be found in The Message, a version that I have always been looking out mainly because of its layman term interpretation of the Bible.

There were a couple of verses from the passage that brought get interest to me namely verses 5 and 8. The definition of meek as mention by Pastor Mike is "great power under control". It does not mean that one is a coward, a scaredy cat, a "chicken" or a weakling. It is simply human to react to situations. One such example can be seen on the road when we would horn the car in front of us if he or she were to cut in front of us or break suddenly. It would human to retaliate either verbally or physically when someone have spoken bad about us or our family member. It is simply understandable that such actions be made and I too carry out such actions at times. It is a very hard thing not to. Mainly because of pure instinctive reaction and the energy that comes with it, meekness is indeed a hard to accomplish. A promise of earthly inheritance follows the act of meekness. An example of a man that displayed meekness was Abraham. I totally am not in the position to display meekness as I would normally respond when face a situation as such. Its mainly a cause and reaction scenario. However, I notice that in my dad at times and understand why at times he just does not respond when face with a situation at home. Many times I thought that Dad just didn't bother but now I reliased that he maybe trying to display meekness in such situation. Many times things can be resolved without any respond or resolution. Arguments can be easily resolved by not responding back.

Purity. A subject that I have always wanted to achieve yet always fail to accomplish. The mind is always challenged in many ways. Various modes of distraction may at times sway us away from purity. That could be a reason why at times we fail to see God in situations that seems uncomprehendable. God is always there but many times we failed to see him standing by, watchning us by the sideline and trying to help us in our adversity. How would God look like? A question that many of us asked yet can only get an answer when we reached heaven. Its not about us seeing him visually with our naked eyes but seeing him from within with a heart that is pure.

Camp was indeed good yet I did not sense much of God this time. I believe the approach this year to be different in certain aspect. There were times when I was struggling to bring worship into a higher level yet saw it fizzle out many times. It just didn't feel special. This could be due to various reason whereby I could be a reason as well. I ask myself if I had fallen away. The passion that used to be within me at times feel like a void. A void that always remain a question for me. I believe this could be a transition period between study and work which I am still trying to acclamatise despite a year of working.