I recalled once attending a camp when I was still in secondary school. I believe that the camp was held after the Form 3 examinations. Being young and full of energy, the objective of the camps then didn't matter as it was an opportunity to be away from the house with my friends and also an avenue to meet new ones, especially girls (gasp... Yep, I was that far off the course intended back then....)
While I attended with twisted intentions that couldn't even be described as pure, I still do remember certain things from the 3 day live in camp though... So, not bad eh? I could remember that the food certainly sucked that weekend, but considering that the fee was something like RM20, I guess with hindsight, we shouldn't be complaining.
Besides the food, I remembered being introduced to 3 songs. The first is a tune that would be familiar to many, "Here I Am Lord". The second was the infectious "Victory Chant" where our sporting priest increased the speed of the verses with every turn. He finally stopped when his guitar string broke! And the third song which I remembered was "Hari Ini", a song in BM (Malay) which had catchy, feel good lyric .
Another thing I remembered was a short presentation on what were we worth in the eyes of God. The speaker started by showing us all a RM50 currency note. And he asked if those who wanted the money to raise their hands.
Virtually the whole floor raised their hands excitedly. Can't blame them kids. RM50 was big money to those of us who have never heard of Facebook, Flicker or Youtube then. For that matter, mobile phones then weren't exactly mobile as they were shaped and weighed like a brick with an antenna.
The speaker then crumpled the note before posing the same question again. The rush of raised hands did not falter as everyone was still hoping to get lucky.
He then dropped the note on the floor and stamped on it before grinding it with the sole of his footwear. He then picked up the crumpled, dirty and stained note before asking the question on who would like the note again. As expected, everyone had their hands up in the air, even before he finished the question.
He smiled, stretched and smoothed out the note and promptly folded it and placed it into his wallet to our disappointment. He said that he wanted it too.
He proceeded to tell us of the purpose of what he just did. He said that irregardless of what he did to the note, everyone still wanted it as the value remained the same irregardless of the abuse it underwent.
He said that at times, we are like the note. We are sometimes crumpled or stepped upon or have our noses pushed to the grindstone. All this happened as due to the combination of the decisions we make as well as what life threw up at us. We do feel worthless, unwanted and unloved at times.
Despite all that has happened, we will never lose our value in the eyes of God. We were priceless then and remain priceless still to Him...
Amazingly, I remembered that story and I thought that it would be good to share it with everyone out there especially when we are down in the dumps and feels that life isn't worth living anymore...
At the end of it all, you may want to know if I met any interesting girls back then? The simple answer is "Yes". We remained friends over the years and I attended her wedding two years back... :)
While I attended with twisted intentions that couldn't even be described as pure, I still do remember certain things from the 3 day live in camp though... So, not bad eh? I could remember that the food certainly sucked that weekend, but considering that the fee was something like RM20, I guess with hindsight, we shouldn't be complaining.
Besides the food, I remembered being introduced to 3 songs. The first is a tune that would be familiar to many, "Here I Am Lord". The second was the infectious "Victory Chant" where our sporting priest increased the speed of the verses with every turn. He finally stopped when his guitar string broke! And the third song which I remembered was "Hari Ini", a song in BM (Malay) which had catchy, feel good lyric .
Another thing I remembered was a short presentation on what were we worth in the eyes of God. The speaker started by showing us all a RM50 currency note. And he asked if those who wanted the money to raise their hands.
Virtually the whole floor raised their hands excitedly. Can't blame them kids. RM50 was big money to those of us who have never heard of Facebook, Flicker or Youtube then. For that matter, mobile phones then weren't exactly mobile as they were shaped and weighed like a brick with an antenna.
The speaker then crumpled the note before posing the same question again. The rush of raised hands did not falter as everyone was still hoping to get lucky.
He then dropped the note on the floor and stamped on it before grinding it with the sole of his footwear. He then picked up the crumpled, dirty and stained note before asking the question on who would like the note again. As expected, everyone had their hands up in the air, even before he finished the question.
He smiled, stretched and smoothed out the note and promptly folded it and placed it into his wallet to our disappointment. He said that he wanted it too.
He proceeded to tell us of the purpose of what he just did. He said that irregardless of what he did to the note, everyone still wanted it as the value remained the same irregardless of the abuse it underwent.
He said that at times, we are like the note. We are sometimes crumpled or stepped upon or have our noses pushed to the grindstone. All this happened as due to the combination of the decisions we make as well as what life threw up at us. We do feel worthless, unwanted and unloved at times.
Despite all that has happened, we will never lose our value in the eyes of God. We were priceless then and remain priceless still to Him...
Amazingly, I remembered that story and I thought that it would be good to share it with everyone out there especially when we are down in the dumps and feels that life isn't worth living anymore...
At the end of it all, you may want to know if I met any interesting girls back then? The simple answer is "Yes". We remained friends over the years and I attended her wedding two years back... :)
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