Saturday 27th February 2007

The scene was set – lights were dimmed, sleeping bags strewn on the floor, the sound system booming from the intimidating huge speaker, and the projector was up and running, playing trailers for upcoming movies. The youths came in chattering and set themselves comfortably on the floor, preparing themselves for the movie screening of “Big Fish”. I personally was really looking forward to this movie, (okay, I admit, partially because of Ewan McGregor) because it was one of those good movies that I missed while it was in the theatres, and also because of the promised intriguing discussion questions and interesting themes present in the show.

It opened up with Tricia giving us a brief synopsis…the thing about Tim Burton’s movies is that the synopsis rarely tells you anything about the essence of the movie, as it’s a mere interpretation of what the reviewer thinks the movie is about. What is so enjoyable is in the wonderful child-like imaginative quality of his movies, layered with stark themes of reality – and the true essence being what you interpret the movie is really about, for yourself. (That was one of the challenges we faced during our group discussion!) After splitting us into 4 groups and handing each group a slip of paper containing themes and discussion questions, Tricia proceeded to give warnings of inappropriate content, with some giggling in the background.



I loved it. =) Actor-biasness aside, it was a wonderful display of fantasy, raw emotions and tender relationships.

The 4 themes that the groups were asked to ponder on were:
1. The Power of Story
2. Embellishing the Truth
3. The Power of Symbolism
4. Fearlessness

The result of our discussion is proudly pinned up on the YF notice board – take a look!

My group tackled theme no. 2, which proved to be challenging as I already had difficulty comprehending the show in its entirety as the distinction between fiction and reality in the show were blurred (although that was probably Tim Burton’s intention). Some insights that we gained and other questions that came up as we tackled the theme of the importance/significance of telling the truth:
• People sometimes stretch stories to draw people to them, or to make them a memory worth remembering.
• Some dangers of storytelling (in the context of stretching the truth) are that you mislead people and hurt them in the process.
• We might be tempted to create a false story out of fear – Genesis 12:10-20, Exodus 20:16 and 1 Sam 21:1-15
• But what about the story of Rahab - is that considered deception? Does this mean that Scripture ‘allowed’ it? [Maybe we can make this into a discussion question in the forums =)]

Thank God for the 15-20 youths who came down for this movie screening, willing to share their thoughts and encourage each other through mutual learning.

A personal take-away: To be careful with the kinds of movie I watch, and to look out for themes I can learn from.

Next week’s activity – PRAYER & PRAISE!

posted by egghead @ 10:52 AM
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What is our vision for worship to be like in future yf sessions? How am I able to have a bigger sense of ownership of the yf? All these and more, answered in our Mints(short for ministry training) session last saturday, 20th of Jan 2007, the 1st of its kind this year.

This yf is jointly organised by Rachel, who lead the session, and also the worship ministry sub-committee in the yf-executive committee(yf exco). Basically, what we did for this yf after our usual time of worship(led by Lynn and Joella Lam), is to discuss within each of our 4 separate groups, 4 questions.
They are namely:
1) What does worship mean?
2) Why are there different styles of worship at different churches?
3) Why youth worship?
4) Possible Suggestions And Improvements we could implement into our yf's worship.

While doing so, every yfers present had to choose their preference in which they would like to serve the yf.
We had 3 choices:
1) Help out in worship(i.e. worship leader, musicians, do planning for worship, do the powerpoint slides for worship etc.)
2) Help out on more artistic hands-on stuff(i.e. decorations for the chapel where we have our regular yfs, design the yf board etc.)
3) Help out by welcoming yfers as well as newcomers, just like an usher. Also to speak to newcomers to make them feel more welcomed.

After the discussion time, we split up into 3 groups according to our most favoured choice(at least for most of us :-p). The worship group came out with a mock worship session on some of the possible changes that could be implemented to our worship sessions. The "artistic" group came out with a possible(or actually an ideal even towards unrealistic) vision of how the chapel could look like. The "ushers" group had a mock session of the start of a yf and what they would do, including welcoming people, giving out welcoming cards as well as a "form" for newcomers to fill so that we could contact them again.

Here are some photos that we have taken during the yf.









It was once again a wonderful day of yf, and hopefully yfers who came for this session would feel a stronger sense of ownership to the yf, as they now have an opportunity to serve in the yf in a ministry they would be more comfortable and more willing to serve. Another note is also to thank God for a great attendance of about 20-odd yfers. Thank God for these yfers who comes faithfully for yfs for yfs especially for the last week where the attendance had significantly shot up. We should pray that yfers would continue coming for yfs faithfully not only for this past few weeks but also for the rest of the year, and therefore through yfs to hopefully grow in knowledge and also in faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

One last important announcement, is that the commencement of the yf will officially kick of the new worship sessions from mid February- March onwards, and there is now a new sign up list for worship leaders and musicians. Rather than voluntaring people into this ministry, the yf exco would hope that yfers would step up voluntarily to take it up, and thus hopefully they would have a greater desire to serve rather than to feel obliged to. So please sign up asap at the yf notice board.

Have a great week ahead yfers. Looking forward to seeing you all at the next yf. =)

posted by nick @ 9:31 PM
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Many were asking about why we had to wear less-casual clothes for YF this time, you know, because its just normal to come in tees and shorts most of the time! but to mark the beginning the 1st youth worship of 2007, it would be good to introduce a change in attitude when we come down to church to worship GOD...

worship was led by Zhi Yuan and we had both the guitar(rui) and the piano(adrian) to accompany our worship session! it was such a refreshing change from the previous worship sessions...we had a special item by rui and jodi: they sang a song with beautiful lyrics quoted from the bible in chinese (next time, you all want to present a special item, feel free do it anyway you want.maybe we might hear a song presented in japanese/french/foreign language! ) Most of us learnt 1 or 2 new songs that day too.

We invited Rev. Goh Seng Fong to speak and he gave a talk on "Five Love Languages"..We learnt that different people express different kinds of love languages, which are mainly :
1. Words of affirmation
2. Quality Time
3. Receiving Gifts
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch

We got to know each others' love languages and its definitely good to know how we can further encourage and express our care/concern to one another,isnt it? Although Rev. Goh touched on love between spouses, he related his own personal experiences and gave examples that we could relate to..It was a great learning session and there were certainly many things that we could put into action.

another thing: Really encouraged and thankful for the 30-something number of youths/YAF-ers who came down :]

Quotes from Youths about the YF:
Lynn - "Message on 5 love languages was really cool :) yeah, i laughed .."
Cherie - "YF yesterday about the 5 Love languages was awesome. Learn't pretty lot of stuff and Rev. Goh is one good speaker :D"
Rui - "yup yup. everything went well and Rev Goh was really entertaining. still learnt quite a lot about the love languages even though i've read the book before [highly recommended. go pick it up... 5 Love Languages for Singles or Teenagers... either also can] the talk was GREAT... felt really encouraged after that too la.."

BLOGGED BY: cheryl

posted by cheryldancer @ 10:43 PM
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Things started pretty slow for the first youth fellowship meeting of the brand new year 2007. It had been scorching in the early afternoon, so by the time it ticked down to about 3-4pm, the atmosphere of Pasir Ris began to look a tad gloomy.

The 20-something YFers were introduced to Ultimate Frisbee as it is played, with very helpful diagrams courtesy Justin. Due to the drizzle, which weatherman Aaron predicted would stop, we had to practice (and be corrected on) forehand and backhand throwing skills as taught by Debbie. Warning: flying Frisbees can be dangerous. If you are thrown one without warning, duck! Unless you have quick reflexes like spiderman, shawn, Ben, or most of the Ultimate Frisbee-ers. Time passed really slow within those four till we finally (after a diplomatic vote) headed out to the highly-anticipated, muddy, big, wide... have I said muddy? playing field.

Kill me now! As the Ultimate Frisbee-ers announced gleefully, the end zones (or the scoring zones, where you have to leap into and catch the Frisbee in order to score a point) of the playing field were in-you guessed it-mud. I was starting to have second thoughts about learning Ultimate Frisbee under these sadistic people. Nevertheless, we were given more time to practice throwing (with added element: pussy-footing around mud) in the blissfully wide open area. Honestly, it wasn't too long before most of us got our foot mud masks-and some blessed ones practically had mud shin-guards.

When we were deemed good enough to get out there and play, we were split by light and dark colours into 'Brooke' and 'Burger Bob' (tip: need ideas for team names? just look at the t-shirts around you). Up till now, we had been on pretty safe land (literally!), being able to walk to pick up missed, fallen, and pitifully muddy discs. But again we faced the sadistic Ultimate Frisbee-ers as we were told: now you have to run in the mud! Have these guys no sense of cleanliness??

As you can tell, they had a pretty hard time getting most of us (girls) to really run, spread out, come forward, don't crowd, stop looking at where you're running and look at the person with the Frisbee, look at the Frisbee... plenty of squealing and expressions of disgustedness were heard on the playing field. And before you go 'qian jing xiao jie', you should have seen the CHUNKS of mud that FLEW to about a METRE high as the very enthusiastic (and therefore very muddy at the end) guys flew around grabbing discs.

The professionalism of our Ultimate Frisbee-ers combined with the lesser-experienced 'trainees' spirit of fun made the 3-turn game an extremely entertaining time of fellowship and good exercise. Despite the light, fine drizzles against heat of the late afternoon sun (we saw a very pretty rainbow!), everyone got more and more into the game as the turns progressed, with the help of patient coaching and encouragement from the Ultimate Frisbee-ers. Here I experienced first hand the benefits of running in mud: one, you experience less impact upon landing when you move. Two, you train your balance. The final score? I honestly cannot remember. But if you do, add it in here, yeah?

And the fun doesn't end on the playing field! If you weren't there, you missed the FABulous cheers that the teams came up with for their competitors. I can't put the words here, because that wouldn't do justice to the impressive and humorous cheers. You are highly encouraged to approach any of the YFers present today to experience the 5D magic!

But all good things had to come to an end, so after our post-game hydration (iced water!) Debbie closed us in prayer (we really had to thank God for the great weather and keeping everyone safe) and we trudged back to church to fellowship over washing up (disc-washing liquid!). In all, I really felt that God was binding us with bonds that cannot be broken through the tiring, rewarding YF today. Praise the Lord!

Also, much thanksgiving is needed for the provision of the very enthusiastic, sadistic, professional, patient, skillful... (It'll never end)…Ultimate Frisbee-ers. Thank you!





To the rest of you, thank you to those who came, and see all of you next week!
BLOGGED BY TRICIA

posted by Joel / Rui @ 11:21 PM
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Previously on sue per he rows

Not all of us were at the stayover, but it doesn't make a difference because everyone was in our hearts as we counted down and reflected the past few years together!

Scandals


Fellowship ofon the stairs


World without words


The more the merrier


Not just a trifle


Happy and gay


Just our job


Random


Videos to come, wait 7 days!

posted by ich @ 4:38 AM
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