Cord of 3 strands

CHORD OF THREE STRANDS

location: shah alam, KL

venue: concorde hotel

date: 10 - 13 june 08

view from room window

other side view

Concorde 1 hallroom

Day 1

Woke up at 7+ and drove to church to gather for boarding. was one of the earliest there. waited for about an hour more in church before the bus left for KL. on my bus there were half of them from GCCC and the rest from english con, but many i dont know. the only jymers on my bus were gab, addy and michael. it was a long boring ride in which was thankfully entertained with 2 movies screened on the small bus TV. (mr bean holiday and home alone 3. ) Joshua foo forced the whole bus to play a lame numbering game and his daughter gave us Q&A on the movie.

At 1.30 our bus reached Seramban where we stopped for lunch at some chinese restaurant and had a 10 course meal. (maybe less.) food was good, but easily found in singapore. after that it was just another short drive away from the concorde hotel. when we had all arrived we gathered at the hallroom called Concorde 1 for welcome, briefing and introductions. then we got our keys and checked into the rooms.

my room was 809, separated from most of the other jymers. only joycelyn+joyce+janelle and junting+kenneth were on level 8. the room was very ordinary. no special deco. 2 single beds, 1 extra pillow that i used for all 3 nights, a simple TV, and 2 dressing tables at the corners. standard toilet with a bath tub, toilet bowl and sink, and not much space to move around. view from the room is of a busy crossroad linking 4 main roads. landed houses nearby and tall buildings in the distance. not far away is a really huge mosque, constantly blasting islamic chants through some loudspeakers.

i went around to visit other ppls rooms, and rally a group of us to go explore the place. we looked at the ground level shops which were nothing of interest, and the 3rd level gym and swimming pool. then at 6+ we had our dinner at Concorde 2 which had round tables for meals and buffet outside. First night dinner was not so good, other than the mushroom soup which ran out quickly and was replaced with an inferior type. session 1 started at 7.30, had bilingual praise and worship followed by sermon by terry wong, talking about the camp theme.

after the session there was icebreakers (should have been done earlier). we had to go around finding a few facts of at least 2 ppl, from the 2 other congregations. (1 from GCCC, 1 from chinese.) many of us didnt get the instruction and had asked both ppl from one other congregation. then random ppl were picked to come onstage to introduce their 'new friends'.

all ended at 10+, then went to crash darren's room where we played cards and had instant noodles. after awhile they said were tired and wanna sleep so i went back.. but found out they actually stayed up to watch soccer instead. had a bath and went to sleep slightly past 12.

Day 2

intended to wake at 7.50 and go down early for breakfast. but joel set the alarm for 8.15 and then hogged the toilet so i could only go down at about 8.40. still had plenty of time for breakfast though. the 2nd session started at 9.30. speaker was Chris Kam from DUMC, spoke about the prodigal son very dramatically and related it to God's fatherly love for us.

after the sermon we were split into cell groups, for adults is by bus and for jymers into factions. Agape people present was almost as much as the other 2 factions combined. we didnt discuss about the sermon much as we were supposed to do but instead played games, first some in a circle and then sardines. just a few rounds before going for lunch at usual place.

after lunch we were split into our camp groups which is actually the first 4 buses as normal but with bus 5 distributed into them. must be flower related so we came out with names like morning glory, rafflesia, sunflower and my group orchid. after coming up with and doing our group cheer, then we had games like poison ball and dog & bone. which was probably the only times we could earn group points.

there was a break time so a large group of jymers went to the field to play. there was a group playing touch rugby and the rest played handball. we played for a short while then took a break. then some strangers took over the field to play soccer and so some jym boys challenged them. later the touch rugby ppl disbanded and we combined to play more handball in that space. i played barefoot and there was alot of small stones on the ground and also a rough cement patch which hurt my feet if i ran there. so tried not to move around too much. sun was scorching and blinding.

stopped playing at 6, went to wash up and then go for dinner. was quite late and managed to finish dinner just in time before the session 3 started. speaker also chris kam, talking about strongholds and spirit vs flesh. had a brief cell time then end the days programme. this time i went to janelle's room. a few others crashed the place too. talked crap, watched CSI, eat snacks and passed the time quite fast. i stayed a little longer until it was past 12, so its janelle's birthday alr. when she went toilet the rest of us hid and kept quiet. but there was not enough space behind the bed so joycelyn hid at the corner but didnt realise the mirror reflected on her so janelle saw her and spoilt the surprise. but we still wished her happy birthday. celebrations saved for later.

Day 3

woke up at 9, still sleepy after a few sleep relapses. late for breakfast, so just ate as much as i could while they started clearing up the place. when they reached my table at the end i took some food along. session 4 was by pas daniel also from DUMC, talking about spreading the gospel. he boasted about all the small opportunities he took to share the gospel with strangers. was especially fond of indian men.

the next few hours were free and easy. a large number of jymers were taking the chartered bus to mid valley which was no included in the package so extra $15 to be paid. but i decided to go also. about 10 of us had lunch at sushi king while the rest went elsewhere. didnt order much stuff but my bill came to about 20 ringgit. not much difference from sg. checked out many clothes and fashion stores but didnt buy anything. not interested or too ex. waste a lot of time.

next we stopped by the arcade. i watched strangers play some lame shooting game and they spent a lot of tokens on it. then watch ivan own AI on marvel vs capcom. then we played the bashing buttons game and made a lot of noise. this was when junting's wallet got lost/stolen together with about 300 ringgit. lucky no IC or ez link or important cards.

combined with others and went to coffee bean for a nice blended coffee and blew more money on it. soon it was time to go back. gathered at the meeting point and waited for the rest to come. janele's bd cake had been bought and they were so cautious of not letting her know. so they hid it in ivan's converse shoe bag instead, and made me the cake bearer. then i went up the last bus and headed back to hotel. there was some time left so i explored the nearby area but found nothing much.

i washed up and got into my attire for the 'flora and fauna' theme dinner celebration for the night. had no flower shirts so i wore fish instead. surprisingly many ppl did not adhere to the theme, or simply put a plucked from the vase flower on their ear or shirt. since we were rather late, all the tables had been taken up. there should be exactly enough seats for everyone but the empty seats were all distributed among the tables and we didnt know which was empty since many ppl had gone up to get food. so a group of us went outside the hall to the reception table which was not used then, and brought chairs and occupied for ourselves. henry found out and got angry and accused us of being antisocial.

when the celebration started we went inside and were given a new table for ourselves, right in front. there was a lame cheering thing and then the worm or chains game whatever its called. then the winners for the flora and fauna pageant were nominated and voted for with our cheers. there were 4 categories but the 3 girls were so equally liked that the judges decided to let all 3 win. though i think SIA girl wins the other 2 hands down. then the prize for the best group was presented, and orchid was indeed no1. finally, we had some closing ceremony which involved everyone getting a small candle, light it and place it on the front table where 3 large candles signifying the 3 congregations stood. soon there was a table full of 200+ small flames encircling the 3 candles, 1 of which kept collapsing. bad sign.

then it was almost nearing the next day and we rushed to set up janelle's surprise. a group stayed behind to distract while another used the candles to form words along the swiming pool, and brought the cake, sparklers on standby. all meant to be a surprise but somehow janelle already knew, said it was abit too obvious. but she still came up and acted as if she was surprised anyway, and cut the cake by the pool, but brought it into the lounge to eat. after the whole thing the next hour or so was spent in david's room with many others to supposedly play poker but was too distracted by V4 vendetta. lasted until about 2.

Day 4

wake 8+, had breakfast which was almost the same as the previous day (sausage, bacon, soup, chocolate and jam pastries...) had the last session by terry wong about visions of the church and the rebuilding project. after that theres not much time for anything else, so just pack up all our stuff and brought it down to place in concorde 5. then went for lunch at usual place, lunch was somehow better than the past 2.

we waited in concorde 1 for the buses to arrive and boarded 1 bus at a time; bus 1 was last to board. but still, the first to arrive.during the ride we were called out to share our thoughts about the camp and anyhting that impacted us. almost everyone went up and said good things about the camp but i made mainly negative comments. almost everyone on the bus was called up, so it took up a lot of time. after that we watched home alone 1.

probably inspired by pas daniel, after sharing her thoughts, she proceeded to ask the tour guide of our bus in front of everyone if she would like to know more about God, and any qns she had about christianity. of course she was quite shy to say like that so my mom had a private talk with her. and within just about an hour of sharing, she actually accepted christ. she had christian siblings and went to church a few times but wasnt motivated to be serious yet. the harvest was ripe, just waiting for someone to harvest it, and it happened to be my mom.

halfway through, the bus took a stop at yong peng. bus 1 was first to arrive, so we were obviously faster. over there was a provision shop, a food court and a souvenir shop where i got a few things. did a brief round of shopping then went up the bus again to head to singapore. continued watching home alone. after we crossed into singapore, the girls gave us another Q&A. by then we were almost reaching alr. so there was a time of silence on the bus before finally arriving at church. once again, first to arrive. even after we left church on our separate ways, the other buses had not came yet. after that, we were all on our own, when it ends.