This week's prayer meeting was a bit different from what we're normally used to. We had Kenneth and Hsiao Yun lead devotion and worship together. Instead of each being mutually exclusive, they were able to blend the two to drive home the main points of the passage, Psalm 27. It was cool because we sang 3 'new' songs that people of my generation have hardly come across but singing them made me feel that the passage held more applications for me. Great in keeping me attentive to the devotion too!

Then we had some time to respond to the devotion by writing out a prayer in a letter to God. It was quite difficult because writing my words out to God made them seem like they carried a lot more weight, no more of the usual glossing over of some parts and waxing lyrical to God because on paper stuff like that stood out painfully. I have yet to finish my letter-it was difficult to concentrate on writing a letter/prayer to my Creator when I was thinking of the next step in facilitating the rest of the prayer meeting. (Just doesn't seem like you're giving God your best, and that's what He deserves!)

So! We moved on to conversational prayer, which was like sharing our prayer requests and praying for ourselves simultaneously. I'm very grateful for my prayer group (we split into 2 groups of 7) and how they all responded so well to the way I proposed we pray. I mean, facilitator's dream! It definitely made me more at ease, praying. Meanwhile, I heard the other group prayed in a much more edifying way! They prayed, then the rest of the group prayed for that individual. My group just went one round. We were still encouraged and blessed by the sharing we had during (and after!) the prayer, but it left me feeling a bit insecure about having our prayer finish a whopping 40 minutes before they did! Glad that you all felt it was good though.

We had apples! Each of us got an apple to write down something tangible which we the prayer meeting encouraged us to do. Mine? Memorise Psalm 27:1 and 14 (the first and last verse of the psalm) because Hsiao Yun said that this would help in a more complete manner of tackling fear through spiritual trust. Verse one reminds me to focus on God, not the fear and verse 14 reminds me to wait on the Lord (because help doesn't come immediately. David waited 14 years to become king).

The hanson and ruidiant show this week was really interesting.

Well, the coming weeks will see me studying for my exams but before that there's street E next saturday before we break for study break. And hopefully, before the next yf (combined yf at zion bishan!) I'll have breezed through my exams (haha) and done my apple.

This nonsensical post done while hanging out at white sands macs on a sunday afternoon. Hurrah for early sundays! People, hang out with us. The group needs new blood because the cough older ones tend to drive off really quick. Come on, we're fun people. Really. Ask those who come for YF. (then, COME FOR YF!)

Blogged by Tricia

posted by Joel / Rui @ 2:50 PM
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Today, we were treated to a great time with uncle Augustine Tan as he came to speak to us about Helping the hurting. The YF kicked off with youth worship where we had Deb Tan and Abigail playing on the Guitar and Synthesizer. It was a refreshing time of song singing, praising God and lifting His name high. They put up an item too which was entitled 'Love them like Jesus' which reminded us that there are people all around us who go through hardship and how we should just love them like Jesus would, to be near them and comfort them during times of pain and hurt.

Uncle Augustine began the session by seperating us into 2 groups and each group were given a big piece of presentation paper and markers. The task, to write out words that we would associate with the word 'HURTING'. After we decorated the paper with words like 'in pain, divorce, alone, broken, cry', he asked us to convert those words into a pictorial version of a person. So the two groups came up with very interesting drawings. One group did a man with a sad expression holding a mask which had a smiling face on it. This was to illustrate that many times, we can be hurting inside but choose to wear a mask of 'happiness' to avoid questioning or people's attentions.
The other group drew a person who had scars everywhere and was crying out of one closed eye. His shoulders were decorated with an Angel and a devil on either side showing how he had to make decisions and his wrist was bleeding because he probably cut himself just to feel the pain.

After that, we were asked to come up to the board and write out initials of people we knew who we could connect those words with. For example, if i knew a fren who was in pain, i'd go to the word 'in pain' and put his initials down. This was a simple yet effective way of showing us we all knew people who were hurting. To further illustrate his point, he broke us into even smaller groups this time, into pairs.

Of the pairs, one was blindfolded and the other was restricted from talking. The one who could see but not talk was to guide their partner who was blind to a certain location. This showed us that the blind person could feel unsure, uneasy, hesitant, insecure, blind and scared while the guiding person was in control and yet felt helpless at times.
Uncle Augustine said that when people are hurting, they can be like the blind person... uneasy, hesitant and scared. We should therefore slowly earn the trust of that person by keeping these things in mind. However, even if you weren't hurting, we sometimes feel helpless about what we can do for that person hurting.

Finally, he reminded us of Peter and John's example in Acts 3 about how a begger was healed by them.
He told us that just like Peter and John, we should use the gifts and talents we were given to help others. But a side point he noted down was that Peter and John healed him... which was his real need; not giving him money.

Overall, it was a good time of learning and fun. On to next week's yf! Prayer Meeting: Trust led by Hsiao Yun

posted by Joel / Rui @ 9:02 PM
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