Shalom Youth Fellowship

YF CAMP ECHO 23TH JAN :D

2010-01-19T19:58:00.002+08:00

breakout-colours by the sea!

2009-06-24T01:36:00.000+08:00

23/5/09

2009-05-23T00:59:00.004+08:00

Missions for the Nation

by Mr Hsun Tao

030509

2009-05-03T01:16:00.001+08:00

BREAKOUT- AMAZING RACE

25th April: worshipping God in our lives

2009-04-26T14:54:00.006+08:00

We had Pastor Ravi from Bethlehem BP church down to speak to us on the topic of "worshipping God in our lives". Sounds simple right? Not really.
The word exalt comes from the Greek word "hypselos", but in English, it is derived from the word "ex" and "alt", which means "up" and "high" respectively. Therefore, exalting God means to bring Him higher through our worship. how often do we do that?
worshipping God, exalting God needs to be done throughout our lives as well. in our singing on Sunday, in our fellowship in church, in our service for God, even in the offering we put in the bag as well.
Exalting God should not be only restricted to Sundays. All of us are called to be full time Christians, part time students (or substitute whatever it is you do)

boy-girl retreat

2009-03-14T02:09:00.001+08:00

(the celebration of zhi han's birthday during break time)

BGR Retreat- 14 March 2009

During the first part of the session, we had a sister from grace bp church speak to us about unequally yoked relationships. She made a few comparisons to contrast unequally yoked relationships:

What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness

What fellowship has light with darkness

What accord has Christ with Belial

What portion/ part does a believer share with an unbeliever.

What agreement has the temple of God with idols.

She reiterated that two people of different faith will not “walk” in the same direction. Thus there will be lots of conflict in that relationship as our basis, behaviour and loyalties will differ. She also reminded us that in every relationship, we should have the end in mind and not just see it on a short term basis. She concluded by saying that unequally yoked relationships will not have security, satisfaction and significance in God.

“Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers” – 2 Cor 6:14.

Next, we were divided into boys and girls grouping for further discussion. Debbie led the girls while Yuan took charge of the guys.

During discussion, the girls agreed that we do not actually take time to ponder on such issues. Hence, Debbie encouraged us to be open and transparent during this time & to share our experiences, first hand or not.

We shared about the practical, emotional and spiritual aspects of readiness that we thought were required before a friendship progressed into something more serious. Practical aspects included LONG-TERM CONSIDERATION and KNOWING HIM, HIS FRIENDS & FAMILY. More importantly was the spiritual aspect, having a CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!

She added that we know when we’re ready when…

We can love properly

We can make a total commitment

We can take the responsibility of our own emotions

We can sense God’s perfect peace

We listed down our individual boundaries for what is acceptable and unacceptable in terms of physical intimacy. We’re to remember God’s Word that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit ( 1 Cor 6:19) and we’re to obey His Word in 1 Thess 4:3-5.

How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word. ( Psalms 119:9)

And most of all if we’ve already crossed the line/ God’s boundaries, we HAVE to CONFESS, ASK FOR FORGIVENESS & REPENT!!!

written by cherie & elisabeth

the clean up mission :)

2009-02-21T02:07:00.000+08:00

The clean up mission

of our new yf room.

We cleaned up the vastry so that it could be used as a yf room. Before that we had a little workshop by BEN about the lessons on Service. We were taught to imagine ourselves in the roles of Matthew 25: 31-46. It made us thought about the difference between the sheep & the goat & the lessons learnt from it.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Ephesians 2:8

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don't show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well"—but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, "Some people have faith; others have good deeds." But I say, "How can you show me your faith if you don't have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds."

James 2:12-18

How has your deeds demonstrated your faith in Jesus Christ?

What changes do you need to make in your life?

How does cleaning the church demonstrate faith?

outreach activity

2009-02-07T00:57:00.000+08:00

here are some photos on 7th feb outreach activity. :)

we used our creativity to make little gospel cards to convey the good news.

Announcement: Combined YF '08

2008-08-14T21:26:00.002+08:00

Hello youths!

COMBINED BP CHURCHES YF 2008 is in 9 days time!

For those of you who are unsure what this event is about, Combined YF is an annual event where youths groups from some of the BP churches in Singapore come together for a day of worship, learning, fellowship, fun and food (:

IF you havent signed up on the list up on the noticeboard, please call/email me so that I can register for you (: Let me know if you want dinner ($5) too

Details are in the poster attached!

Agape,

Cheryl

BreakOut: Touch Rugby 030808

2008-08-04T09:12:00.002+08:00

Now who said Rugby has to be rough and dirty? We surely showed them that we, as shalom youths, could play strategic, organized, clean [kinda] and fun rugby. Ok fine, so maybe we cheated coz it's Touch Rugby but nonetheless, it was a great time of fellowship while we baked in the sun. The YF had our very first BreakOut of the new YF year yesterday. Braving the sun, we got our sporting attire on and our perspiration pores ready to work harder than we were.

We met in the Chapel at 1.45pm [mind you, this was a first Sunday of the month] and after having a briefing of the game by our dear Lynn, we made our way to Pasir Ris park after gearing up. The sun beat us to the spot but that didn't dishearten any of the youths. After having a simple, yet confusingly humorous, warm up conducted by Gabriel, we hit the field anticipating much fun.

The first game was utter confusion. Why can I say this? well coz i was IN the first game. It was messy, frustrating and downright disorganized. I'd say chaos ruled the first game. However, we then had the gallant knights and princesses take charge and slay the dragon of mess in the likes of Clement, Sherwin and Regina [Aaron's GF]. Finally, we had people who REALLY knew the game because they played it many times before... in their school teams! Eeps! We were in the presence of professionals. :) But once more solid rules were set in place and referees were more... well, EQUIPPED to lead the game, Touch Rugby got much more, mind my english while i try to find a word, Fun-ner. :)

The second game saw Team 1 holding the fort as they battled against Team 3. [yes i was Team 2, the team ousted on the first try... mind u, in confusion and disarray ok!] Trys were made and distance was covered till some lucky soul managed to find an opening and fly through the defence to score a touch down. My my, the game rotated a few more times and everyone was just rearing to get back into the field.

We ended the game at 5.15 and Adrian shared a short sharing. He spoke about how a big boss of his company gave a surprise visit to his company. Some people were slacking, some were playing but yet some were working. He brought across the point that if we were in their shoes, what would we have done. What more if the Creator of the Universe came quietly, would we be prepared? Furthermore, he could go up to that boss and say hi but that boss would prob not have known him. Likewise, there will come a day when people will come up to the Lord and say that they knew Him but He would turn them away and tell them that He never knew them. Would we have to go through that? Or are we assured of our salvation. How can we be? Through Faith.
Like Peter, when Jesus walked on the water, Peter had the faith to first get out of the boat [amidst CRAZY stormy weather mind you] and take that first step ONTO [not into] the water. However, after a while, the distractions of his surroundings got the better of him and he started to sink. Peter shouted in desperation, "Save me Jesus" and Jesus reached out His hand to save him. Just to leave you with this thought, that Jesus will save, if you call on Him and you have to take that first step of faith and step out of the boat.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the next time we meet as a YF and there's going to be combined YF coming up too! Whoo!

youth fellowship 19th July 2008: glory to God

2008-07-26T14:39:00.000+08:00

On the 19^th July, we had our very first youth worship. Uncle Leonard spoke to us on the topic of “glory to God”. He taught us on the importance of glorifying God with our lives and gave us practical ways to apply these principles to our lives. Instead of basking in the limelight, we should give God the glory by ascribing all our successes to Him in all circumstances. It was a good timely reminder about our priorities in life and let’s look forward to the next series of sermons on “cat and dog theology”.

BreakOut: CornerStone 280608

2008-06-30T18:59:00.003+08:00

Whoever said sharing the gospel isn't fun obviously never came for CornerStone. This YF was jam packed with fun filled games and activities that brought home the message, 'that Jesus is our cornerstone and others need to know Him in order to get their life straight'.

The day proceeded with a huge icebreaker game where we all got to introduce ourselves over M&Ms, some took more than they could chew [or should we say took more than they could talk] coz we all had to introduce ourselves based on the colors of the M&Ms... we learnt some interesting facts such as finding out some people could easily draw anime or that they sleep in class. Fun facts about each other we never knew of. And of course, we also got to know 7 friends who were invited by our individual YFers. After that was done, we broke into our individual groups by calling out animal sounds and the MONKEYS, MICE, DOGS and CHICKENS were born.

The first game had us folding paper aeroplanes and trying to hit a target which was pretty impossible if you ask me. After going through many tries and chances given by the game masters, Huiting and Michelle, we learnt that just like this game, we can never reach the target. We can never hit the target of being Holy to God and that no matter how hard we try, we'll never make the cut. However, Jesus helped us bridge that eternal and immortal gap by dying on the cross. His act on Golgatha joined and reconciled us to God. He became our bridge and now we have communion with God. Well, to find out more of who Jesus is and what He did, we move on to our next game.

The torture station. Each group was asked for 2 volunteers who thought they were strong enough to endure anything. Each were given a pail of water to carry and the other was made to be in push up position or hold their legs up in the air [leg raiser style] the whole way. The rest of the group had to go through a maze of an already pre-defined route. Any wrong step would cause them to go to the start and to attempt it again. This lesson taught us that though suffering isn't fun, easy or done willingly, Christ suffered for our sins by Choice. This is an important message because it shows how much He loves us and how much He went through just so that we could be with God again. As for the other half of the group, they went through a path that has only 1 right way. To parallel that to us, Jesus is the only right way and through life, we often try to get to the end through trial and error but constantly fail because we don't trust the only way. Well, then you ask yourself, the only way to what?

The only way to Heaven of course. The third game pitted each group against each other by seeing who could open the 'door to heaven' the first. Each group was given a combination at the ground lobby which they had to try to open a lock at the roof. The catch is, the whole group has to be present when drawing a new combination or when trying the lock. Furthermore, all groups were banned from using the elevator. So it encouraged teamwork, fitness and patience. Each group finally managed to find the right key combination that would open the lock and were given entry into our make shift 'heaven'.

Heaven was the place where we had dinner and table games. We truly enjoyed ourselves and Ben shared with the new comers about Christ and explained to them what Jesus as our Cornerstone meant. Overall, the evening was a great blast of fun and meaning and we pray that not only did we enjoy ourselves playing the games but we also saw the real need for breakouts, to spread the gospel to the friends we invite down.

Praise and Glory to God.
p.s. pictures are found below. Enjoy!

BreakOut: Facing the Giants

2008-04-27T10:42:00.002+08:00

This week for YF, we had BreakOut: Facing the Giants. This breakout was an interesting difference from our normal games session. This time around, we all got comfy on the wonderfully comfortable carpet flooring of the chapel as we were captivated and moved by the movie screening. The show Facing the Giants basically told the story of an American Football [or rugby as we more commonly know it as in Singapore] team that slowly changed after it understood that its purpose was to give God glory instead of winning medals. We saw how the coach of the team slowly changed their team philosophy towards Glory to God rather than glory to themselves.

The show was moving and reflective as it made us all think on why we do the things we do. Do we just do them so we can succeed and do well? or do we look at the things we do with eternity's values in view? Do the things i do today matter and count for Christ? We asked ourselves such questions as thoughts like these were cast onto the wall in a video form.

When the show ended, we broke up into discussion groups which were led by Michelle and Jamie. Each of our groups had an enlightening and very engaging discussion about our purpose on this earth. Why were we created and what are we doing now that contridicts this planned purpose for our lives. Moreover, how can we then change what we are doing now to fit to God's team philosophy. We discussed about whether putting studies ahead of God and church was the right thing to do when Singapore demands so much. We talked about what is success to us and what do we mean when we 'rate' ourselves according to the world's standards rather than God's standards. It was surely a tough time of reflecting and finger pointing [at ourselves of course] and we were able to come away with some interesting points of information such as a few good quotes from the movie.

All in all, it was a good learning lesson time for all of us as we pondered some issues that are normally out-of-sight-out-of-mind. I'm confident to say that we all enjoyed the movie and gleaned good topics of interest from the discussion. My only hope and prayer is that we don't stop talking bout such issues. that we keep the topics alive and burning in our minds so that we don't forget what's really important. It's not about getting 100 marks for an exam, not about whether we one day have a comfortable life with all the 5Cs nor is it about how we look in people's eyes of fame. It's about whether we please God and whether He derives and obtains Glory from our thoughts, actions and words.

I shall leave you with a few quotes from the movie that we all felt were good lessons learnt.

'If we win, we praise Him. If we lose, we praise Him.'
'There were two farmers who prayed for rain. One prepared his field to receive the rain. Which of these farmers, do you think, trusted God to send the rain? Which farmer are you? God will send the rain, you just go prepare your field to receive it.'

Youth Sunday Preparation

2008-04-06T00:07:00.005+08:00

Have you asked yourself what 'Worship' means? Like, really what it meant in the original text and how come so many people around us have so many different views? "Worship is a lifestyle" says one, "No! Worship is an attitude" screams another. "Are you crazy? Worship is an action!" retorts another. Now, how are we supposed to agree with any of them if they are all saying different things? Well, it's funny but they're actually all correct. Worship is all of the above and more. Just like many other words in the bible, the meaning of certain words are lost in translation [no, i'm not talking bout that bill murray show]. In the original text, the word WORSHIP can actually be translated into 6 different hebrew/greek words. 3 from the OT and 3 from the NT. What are they? well...

1. SACHAH & PROSKUNEO
Meaning: To bow down, pay honor.
The word prostrate came from the root word 'proskuneo' and this action was done by mostly OT people when they bowed down their faces to the ground, prostrate themselves and submitted to God's Will. Bowing is significant because it leaves you not only vulnerable to whoever you are bowing to but also a sign of how you are submitting to their rule. It is an outward expression of your willingness to let the person you are bowing to, lead your life.
Why don't we do that nowadays then? Maybe it's coz we don't really know who God is. We don't really understand the glory or awesomeness of the God we worship and thus, we don't see a need to bow or even think of submitting ourselves to Him.

2. ABAD & LATERIA
Meaning: Service, in sacrifice.
We're all familiar with the Romans 12:1 verse which says

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Rom 12:1"

But how often do we take it apart and analyse what each calling means?
a) By the mercies of God: Jesus died for us on the cross and it is because of that, that we can serve God directly. The price for this opportunity and chance to serve the God of all creation was Jesus' blood shed on the cross.

b) Present your bodies: Often we don't give everything to God. When the OT people sacrificed a lamb or an offering, it was complete sacrifice. They didn't chop off a leg from the sheep/lamb and burn it. They killed and burned the whole animal. Likewise, we should also present our bodies for God.

c) A Living Sacrifice: In OT times, the sacrifice was killed and burned at the altar. However, Jesus isn't asking us to jump into a pit of fire or jump off a building to offer ourselves in service to Him. He speaks of a LIVING sacrifice. One that is CONSTANTLY being sacrificed and choosing to die for Christ. What we do every day reflects on whether we are trying to give God honor and glory.

d) Holy: Holy means to be santified, to be set apart for glory. Are we, as Christians living in this generation, setting ourselves aside for God's glory. When we club, smoke, drink excessively, are we setting ourselves aside for God to be glorified? Or does that only happen on weekends when it is convenient?

e) Accceptable unto God: When Jesus died on the cross for us, we became acceptable to God. Our sacifice turned into something God desires rather than a burnt offering from a sinful dirty person. Because of Jesus, we no longer have this barrier between us and God and our offerings to Him [though not in the form of a burnt lamp] is acceptable to Him.

f) Which is your reasonable service: Ben gave us an illustration here which I personally felt was GREAT. He said that if he were to give his handphone to someone and asked how much they would pay him for it, it would reflect how much they valued the handphone. If he asked another person, it might be a totally different amount since it might not be very valuable or desired as compared to the first person.
Likewise, when Jesus died for us, it was a gift given to us free. Jesus isn't asking you to die on a cross in repayment. He askes us so little and yet we can't give it. Is that a reflection of how much we value Salvation? Salvation may be free, but it's not cheap and we should make it look or sound cheap.

3. YARE & SEBOMAI
Meaning: Revere
This is the common understanding of Worship. To revere the person we are worshipping [in this case, God] What is reverance? Well, to glimpse, we recall Moses and the burning bush. When he approached the bush, God's voice told him to take off his sandals as the place he was standing on was Holy Ground. When Moses came before the bush, he hid his face as it was glorious, bright and awesome. That God is the same God we say our daily grace to, the same God who we ask for more strength and more patience. Do we really believe He is God of all or is He just a powerful being that's all? Proper worship entails reverence and God looks at the heart, not the outward appearance of a man.

After we had gone thru what worship means to us, we broke up into our individual ministries to prepare ourselves for youth sunday.

All in all, it was a great YF and the meaning behind many things we do or say was brought up and pondered over.

BreakOut: Ultimate Frisbee

2008-03-30T17:12:00.005+08:00

Sweaty bodies, big open fields, flying discs... it can be nothing other than Ultimate Frisbee. This week the YF conducted another Frisbee activity. From the overwhelming response from the last time, we were all dying to get onto the field again. The YF was well attended with 19 people which split into 2 teams. We started out warming up and stretching to ensure that we were all ready to have a proper workout without serious injuries. The YF practiced throwing, catching and team strategy before the actual game started and managed to figure out individual strengths and weaknesses.

Once the game kicked off, it was an amazingly fast paced game that challenged us physically and mentally.
Once the Frisbee was tossed in the air, the Yfers went blazing towards the center of the pitch. With ambition as their scout, each team sought to fling AND catch their Frisbee within the scoring zone. It's pretty simple actually. Just keep tossing and catching the Frisbee from player to player till u reach the end point. Touch it to floor and the team scores a point. However, not only are you not able to move when you obtain the Frisbee but also, if a Frisbee is dropped/knocked out or lost, the possession automatically gets flipped to the other team with the players dashing to the other side of the field. The game was immensely fun and tiring but everyone put in their little effort and it's safe to say that everyone had a lot of fun.

Sometimes it's like that in our Christian life too. We often feel that we can do well on our own but, just like the game, it requires team work and proper communication. There is no way that an individual can win by himself. Likewise, in Christian life, sometimes we don't see the team players around us and the ultimate help that we have, Jesus Christ. Furthermore, it is very easy to throw the Frisbee to your intended recipient but when the game starts proper, it gets much tougher when people are blocking and marking you. In our life, we learn a lot of Christian principles and truths but when the crunch time comes and we have to defend our faith, it gets hard when we realize it's not as how we practiced.

All in all, the YF activity was smashingly fun and a great thrill for everyone. The photos have been uploaded and we hope to conduct more ultimate Frisbees because we're sure everyone had fun. Please drop a short comment on how you felt the Ultimate Frisbee went so we can continue to make changes and work on improving. Have a blessed week and God bless.

Photos from BreakOut: Ultimate Frisbee

Prayer Meeting: Rebellion

2008-03-25T22:35:00.002+08:00

Rebellion

the definition: Open resistance to authority

How much do we know about King Saul?

A man who started well but ended badly…

Israel wanted a king to rule over them.

God answered them, “If you get a king, these are the things that will happen to Israel; Your men will work for the king, your king will take your vineyards, your daughters to be cooks and finally and ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye have chosen, the Lord will not hear you.” - Curse

They finally elected king Saul - Humble guy, Good looking, Brave… (Good start)

Mistake No.1: Saul and his men battled the Philistines but were greatly outnumbered. Prophet Samuel told him to wait for him to return after 7 days to offer the peace offering to God. King Saul waited till the 7^th day and so Saul offered the offering by himself. Because of that, God cursed and rebuked Saul saying that his kingdom would not stand. His little impatience caused him grave sin and his rebellion to the laws had grave consequences.

Do we get impatient and do things that displeases God?

Impatient Rebellion

Mistake No.2: He said, “Cursed is the man who eats before evening or until i have avenged myself on my enemies”

His soldiers were very hungry and because of what Saul said, they couldn't eat. However, the nation sinned against God because they could not resist the temptation to eat. Jonathan, his son, had also ate of the honey that they found. Saul wanted to kill Jonathan, even though Jonathan didn't personally hear the declaration from Saul, because of that but the nation stopped him.

Do we think carefully before we make decision?

Even unknowingly, we can rebel.

Unknowing Rebellion

Mistake No.3:

There was this group of people called the Ameleks which Israel had won over. Saul, kept the king alive and kept some spoils of war, despite instructions from God to kill everything and everyone. Because of this, and many other things, it destroyed his communion and fellowship with God.

Partial Rebellion

His rebellion to God caused many consequences, both to himself and even the nation of Israel.

The remedy?

SUBMISSION!

Read this poem: IF JESUS CAME TO YOUR HOUSE

http://heaintthroughwithmeyet.wordpress.com/if-jesus-came-to-your-house/ (the link is here)

Jesus lives! He is risen! Let us live in submission then to our RISEN SAVIOUR!!!

‘It might be interesting to know the things that you would do
If Jesus Christ in person came to spend some time with you.’

(If Jesus came to your house)

Oh and we split into two groups for Prayer walk around the church J We went to different venues to pray for various groups of people (kindergarten, warden, church staff etc).

:):):)

Easter Reconciliation Skit

2008-03-25T22:13:00.002+08:00

As requested by Auntie Jenny. Here's the easter skit some of us did. It's not complete coz Auntie Rebecca didn't manage to get the front part of the skit. :)

Youth Worship: Creation Apologetics

2008-03-15T22:54:00.014+08:00

Pictures can be found here

Video of Captain's Ball can be found here careful ah, the sound is a bit loud and noisy so turn your speakers down a notch first.

Grace BP YF has put up a 3part outline of the sermon Uncle Chien Chong. You can view them here.

Part one
Part two
Part three

Street E for His Glory!!

2008-03-12T23:39:00.005+08:00

This week's street E session was kicked off with a short lesson on the purpose of mission. We were left to consider the what mission really means to us.

We finally came to the conclusion that the mission is truly to glorify God and that reaching the lost through street E is but one way to proclaim His name in all the earth!

To question our calling to mission is to question our calling to be a child of God!!

The Street Evangelism itself was an enriching experience. As a YF, we learnt to let God speak through us as we committed our thoughts and actions as well as the hearts of unbelievers, to the Holy Spirit.

We must continue press on to be the salt and light that God has called us to be in this world of darkness!

Prayer Meeting: Envy/Compassion

2008-03-06T23:35:00.005+08:00

We are blessed to have Hsiao Yun to lead us in this session of prayer meeting together with Ken’s worship session.

So have you ever thought about the difference between the word envy and jealously? Or have you always thought they share the same meaning? Is jealousy a sin or is it always wrong? We’ll discover what God’s word says to reveal the answers to all the questions.

Envy: Is thoughts and jealousy is an action, a longing to possess something that is awarded to or achieved.

Jealousy: A resentment or Arousement about something that someone else has

Exodus 20:17 --> Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.

Envy comes from want of [Material possession, looks, popularity, talents]

We also looked into passages of the bible and understand why people got jealous of one another and the impact of it such as death in the case of Cain and Able. Also getting angry with the other party is like committing the sin of murder like Jacob and Esau. Other characters were Satan and God, Sarah and Hagaii, King Saul and David, Joseph and his brothers, Jesus and the Pharisees.

Next she shared about “envy in church or in Christianity”

Genesis 4:1-12 [Cain killing Abel over the offering that was offered to God]

We should be asking ourselves why is God unpleased with my offering or me rather than asking why He is pleasing someone else instead of me.

Acts 5:12,17, 18 [Sadducees were jealous of the people who were blessed by God]

Do we get jealous over others who have more gifts or more 'blessings' from God?

Matt 20:1-16 [Workers in the vineyard who worked differing hours but were all paid the same]

Are we also like the workers who question why we serve so much and yet we're all 'paid' the same?

God has the right to give what He wants to who He wants and the right to 'judge' is not ours.

Num 12:1-2 [Miriam and Aaron conversing about how they were jealous that God spoke to Moses]

We shouldn't compare and complain about how God blesses or uses others.

1 Sam 18:5-11 [Saul was fond of David but because of Pride, he hated David]

We have to check ourselves constantly to make sure we don't have pride in our lives.

2 Applications to deal with jealousy/envy

Contentment

Psalm 131 [Quiet trust in the Lord]

We have to trust in the Lord to not be concerned with great matters of things that don't concern us.

Psalm 23

We are then completely contented with God as our Shepherd, I SHALL NOT WANT

Phil 4:10-13

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

1 Cor 12:14-26 [Body of Christ]

To be content with whatever role we have to play as all of us ultimately work together.

Sometimes it's not that you wish you can take it from someone but to ALSO have it --> We should then pray for God to provide it ONLY if it's a basic need so that we won't have that envy anymore and if it's not a basic NEED, then we should pray that we be content.

Compassion

1 Sam 18:1-4, 1 Sam 19:1-5

Jonathan loved David and protected him from his father, Saul.

And for David, he didn't counter attacked. He befriended Saul and returned whenever he was asked to serve Saul again.

Rom 12:15 [Rejoice with those who rejoice]
Matt 5:43-44 [Love thy enemies]

This is what all of us brought home from today’s devotion- Jealousy is Good [When it's something we deserve] and Bad [When it's something we don't deserve]! 

-ju-

Youth Worship: Asian Religions Part 1

2008-02-24T00:24:00.003+08:00

Buddhism, Taoism, Hindu, Islam.

We're surrounded by many religions aren't we? Especially in Asia, with our culture, upbringing and influences, it's no wonder it's hard to share the gospel with people around us.

Or is it?

Today at YF we learnt what the word Animism is. It's basically the term given to any religion that has many gods or doesn't believe in a ONE true God. The belief that spirits are around us and embody things such as trees, kitchens or maybe even portable P.A. speakers! It's funny to think how we can easily separate them in our minds now and say we're Christians and not animistic in any sense. However, Elder Vincent Lee, our speaker for the day, showed us with examples how Animism has crept into our lives without us even knowing it. Take for example, he quoted an example of how when he picked up money from the floor, he had to bring the money symbolically under both his legs before he could keep it. It was meant to ward off curses or charms that someone might have put on the coin. Or how when we choose handphone numbers or car numbers, to always look out for the number '8' in it for auspicious value. Such is society now and it's hard for us Christians to be wary of such practices if we're not careful enough.

Animism isn't just a chinese or asian 'religion' but it is also apparent and evident in Western countries. The example of Nancy Reagan [Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's wife] was brought forward as she was an avid and die-hard chaser of the stars. She consulted Astrologers and Star-Gazers when an assassination attempt on her husband was 'predicted' by the soothsayers. Or the example of Shirlet MacLaine who firmly believed in re-incarnation and many other doctrines.

However, we were also treated to God's view on such issues by taking a small glance at Colossions and Ephesians which had many insightful quotes about how our battles are not against man but Principalities and Powers.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Eph 6:12

With such in mind, we were given a sneak peak of what's 'akan datang' [coming soon] in the next session. We'll be touching on topics such as Yoga, Meditation and non-confrontational and impersonal 'religions' that are around us. However, we'll have to wait for part 2 to learn more about such. This first session has not only given us a brief taste of what's around us but has also whetted our appetite for the next session.

BreakOut: Uniform Agape

2008-02-17T00:17:00.005+08:00

u·ni·form /ˈyunəˌfɔrm/ [yoo-nuh-fawrm]

identical or consistent, as from example to example, place to place, or moment to moment: uniform spelling; a uniform building code.

a·ga·pe /ɑˈgɑpeɪ, ˈɑgəˌpeɪ, ˈægə-/ [ah-gah-pey, ah-guh-pey, ag-uh-]
unselfish love of one person for another, brotherly love

BreakOut: Uniform Agape was what went on this week for YF. We learnt that we have ONE FORM of LOVE and that is to God and each other.

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
John 13:34-35

The night was filled with fun, laughter and love [in a good sense that is]. The genders each did something special for the other to show their love and appreciation. Practice lasted the whole day but at the end, the girls choreographed a whole dance item for the guys which can be viewed below...

and the guys cooked an extra special dinner for the girls which included appetizers, main course, dessert and drinks. The kitchen was a crazy mess and dinner was made with much much effort put in by the guys. So much slogging away in the kitchen produced a delicious tomato-based pasta which was heavenly. The meat was great and the sauce just enough to compliment the pasta and beef. Dessert was smashing as well, we had those dough-like 'ah-ball-ling' kinda dessert with red bean. A video of the guy's preparing the food can be seen below...

Overall, the night was well spent and although we ended super overtime due to some hitches and glitches in the kitchen... grinz... I'm sure everyone had a blast and enjoyed themselves. we took many many photos which will be uploaded into a picture server [coz there were so many good ones] here. The link to the pictures are at the bottom of this blog post.

Thank God for the wonderful weather and the turn up. We had almost 30 youths serving in one way or the other appreciating each other. It was a wonderful event and many, if not all, went away with happy hearts and fond memories of the evening. We thank the Lord for such a fruitful event and we pray that this won't be a one-time thing but that we remember to appreciate our brothers and sisters in Christ constantly and to remember also that we have ONE FORM of LOVE in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

The Shalom YF wishes one and all a happy friendship day and many blessings to everyone!

Pictures of the event can be found here. Enjoy!
p.s. i still haven't gotten ALL the photos yet so stay tuned, when i add pictures, i'll email you guys again.

R.E.A.L for Christ Outreach Workshop!!!

2008-02-11T00:11:00.000+08:00

Hey Guys!! It's too bad for those who missed the outreach workshop since it was a such great time of learning and sharing.

The event was kicked of with a little game I like to call the "Smoking Game" (think army lingo). Each group had an old copy of Time magazine and were instructed to select and cut any article or advertisement without being told what they had to do with it. Little did they know, that article had to be somehow linked to the gospel message through a question or otherwise. The creativity those present really shone through when they came up with gospel links to issues ranging from the london bus bombings and nuclear fallouts to Hello Kitty accessories. It was pretty impressive how they demonstrated that just about any conversation can be turned the way of the gospel!

The workshop proper included practical tips, some important DOs and DON'Ts and great testimonies from Cherie and Nick, who talked about their experiences with evangelism and their burden for the ministry.

A couple of very useful tools were introduced during the workshop. First of all, the One-Verse Evangelism method, which I personally find really useful because its both interactive and concise. Check out this weblink (http://www.navigators.org/us/resources/illustrations/items/One%20Verse%20Evangelism) to find out more or for those who attended, if I didn't explain it well enough... =p

The second tool was a Campus Crusade tract called What You See Is Not All You Get or WYS in short. This was another interactive tool which was much more detailed and easier to follow. Really useful if you're afraid of missing out anything because its a word for word presentation of the gospel, so not much 'smoking' required.

All in all, the workshop was an interesting experience but its not a one-off event! Hopefully you guys will be stirred to press on for the sake of the gospel and proclaim the message everywhere and anywhere. For those who couldn't make it don't fret! Any method of evangelism will work if God is in it!

For His Glory,
Han

BreakOut: PlayStation 260108

2008-01-30T00:12:00.000+08:00

Amazing fun we had didn't we? The YF had some fun games during the last saturday in church. we arranged to meet at 1441hours and we had what a wonderful turnout.
Didja know? We had a total of 33 people turn up for the breakout that day! woah. haha we managed to get 27 youths split into 3 teams by a great time of icebreakers led by Gabriel and Jamie.

After that, we went around the church compound playing some wet and lesson based Station Games. a brief summary of each station is listed below...

Jamie/Chelsea's Station about Communication:
One of the stations was named 'Broken tele-verses'. This game was led by Jamie and Chelsea and it was played at the playground. The game basically had teams standing in a single file facing one direction. The first person was then told to turn around and they were given a Bible verse. They then had to tap the next person and when they next person in line turned to face them, they had to act out the verse without noise. So on and so forth till it reached the last person. The last person would then be faced with the task of guessing what the first person's verse was. This taught us the aspect of Communication. It showed us how easily a message can be distorted and messed up. It also reminded us that in order to please God, we should always be in constant communication with him because communicating shows and builds intimacy with our Creator God.

Michelle's Station about Trust/Obedience:
This station tackled the aspect of trusting God and being obedient to His voice and Will. A Leader was chosen from each team and the rest of the team was subjected to a world of darkness through blindfolds. The leader would then have to lead the team through a series of obstacles that involved not only ducking under tables but climbing chairs and avoiding a spray of water. The game was engaging and it made the team trust and rely on the only one who could see the way. Much like our Christian life, we sometimes are blind to the future or the things and circumstances around us. All we need to do is trust in God and obey His voice, this in turn would please Him, seeing His children listen.

Rui's Station about Dealing with Temptation:
The team was split into teams of 2 which consisted of a devil and a pilgram. The objective of the game was for the Devils to tempt their pilgram into doing things that were wrong without the pilgrams getting suspicious or rebellious towards the devils. You should have seen what some people were doing just coz their devils suggested it. We had people skipping from one end of the room to the otherside... even some who went down on all fours and said "I ain't nothing but a hound dog!" haha. it was hilarious. But the main point of it was to learn how we should tackle, deal with and overcome temptation in our life. We should always frustrate the devil [Satan] by using the Word of God against him. If we know the Word, we won't be tempted so easily.

Gabriel's Final Station about Caring for Others:
The last and final station was the bomb! literally! We had a crazy mesh of waterbombs flying everywhere and people willingly putting their bodies in the line of fire. Why? Well, each of the 3 teams were given 2 t-shirts to put on 2 people. Objective? To keep the people and t-shirts dry as best they could. As the bombs flew, many people were physically blocking their friends and ensuring they got wet instead of the free given t-shirts...

What resulted was a drenched group of teenagers who had a blast. It really was a great breakout and we had 6 new friends which was super encouraging! Thanks for all the fun and support shalom YF!

2008-01-12T20:19:00.000+08:00

The first youth worship of the month! It was a good session to start the semester on Apologetics; We had Pr. Leonard Chong speak to us on the topic ‘Introduction To Apologetics’ and learnt a new song during the worship session (:

The accompanying music was vibrant with 2 pianists (Joella& Adrian) and 1 guitarist (Abigail) - Praise God for our youth worship team who are willing to serve in this area of ministry. Before we sang our opening hymn “Jesus, We Enthrone You”, we read our Youth Worship theme verse in unision:

1 Peter 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. This verse reminds us of The Great Commission (Book of Matthew) and how we should always be ready and prepared to share the Good News with others as well as provide concrete answers for our Christian faith.

We learnt a new song “Testify To Love” and sang ‘His My Life’ and ‘Standing on the Promises’ before we closed the worship session with a poem entitled “The Real Reason”. I’ve attached the poem at the end of this post.

Mr. Leonard Chong went through the different categories of Christian Apologetics, namely:
(1) Textual apologetics – defending the trustworthiness of the Bible, and then sharing the content of what it says;
(2) Evidence-based apologetics – Presenting the many evidences in defense of the Christian faith (such as facts from history or science);
(3) Philosophical apologetics – exposing the flawed reasoning behind many of the popular arguments against Christianity.
(4) Practical apologetics

In addition, we learnt what the term 'Apologetics' means- Basically, Apologetics deals with rational defense of Christianity; giving a reason or justification of one’s beliefs; use of evidences and sound reasoning to reach individuals for Christ (:

In the 5months to come, I hope all of us will be encouraged to learn more about our faith and come down for the many more Youth Worship Sessions. Next Youth Worship coming up: 23rd February 2008. Speaker: Elder Vincent Lee. Topic: Asian Religons. See you there and have a blessed week ahead (:

In His love,
cheryl

POEM: The Real Reason

When I trust In Jesus my Savior and Friend,I remember that He is the Beginning and End.

He knows my sorrow my grieving and pain,and always helps me again and again.
What is your need and where will you turn,He loves you so much He wants you to learn,

that you can look to Him for your provision each day,You will find out that Christ is the Way.
Christ died for the world, to redeem us from sin,I remember the day that I let Him in.

It makes a difference now the way that I live,because I received what Jesus had to give.
He's coming again for the ones who are His,to dwell forever in a heaven of bliss.

The books will be opened, he'll call out our name,

If we are truly ready, we'll not be ashamed.

YF Camp: Mt Belumut

2007-12-17T22:52:00.000+08:00

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John 13:34-35)

The theme for this year's Youth Camp was all about testifying the presence of God in the community of faith by loving one another the way Christ loved us. Whilst that sounds simple enough, the addition of endless rain, buckets of mud and overwhelming fatigue was the perfect recipe for anger, frustration and hopelessness. Despite the odds against us and the dangers that seemed to stack up as the camp progressed, the example of Christ prevailed, and as the youths relied on Him and reflected on how our Lord would have reacted, they not only finished but also finished strong.

Even before the camp started, there were already a number of challenges facing us. The bulk of the group was young and inexperienced, some campers were physically unwell and the gloomy weather forecast showed that it was supposed to rain for the first two days of climbing. Given the problems at hand, the instructors tried to manage our expectations by emphasizing that the likelihood of all of us reaching the summit was not very high.

Needless to say, the start of the camp was anything but rosy. We were greeted at the mountain by cranky rain clouds that caused a delay in our hike to base camp. The river beside our original campsite was too dangerous to cross and we had to camp in a less comfortable and much smaller site due to the safety concerns. Finally, everyone would fondly remember the late night downpour we spent in leaky tents. However, by the grace of God, the rain dampened everything but the spirit of these feisty youth and the next morning they were all up bright and early, psyched up to reach the summit.

The 2nd day got off to a completely different start. The weather was absolutely glorious, defying all forecasts. Even so, the climb to the summit would still be very difficult. Scrambling on all fours was a necessity for long stretches of the climb but it was heart-warming to see how the youths were determined not just to make it to the top, but make it there together. Despite their own tiredness, they availed themselves and because they placed the needs of others before their own,a helping hand was never out of reach. In the midst of their fatigue the youth still took time to admire God's beautiful creation, which surrounded them all along the trek. It was especially so on the summit, where from the rock we stared in awe at the majestic view, feeling God's power and presence as we remembered the creator of all the glorious nature we were in.

After reaching base camp, a bombshell was dropped on the campers. We had to pack up everything and trek back down to the foot of the mountain. Apparently the mountain had been closed at the time and the park rangers required that we leave the mountain as soon as possible. The circumstances were trying but the response of the campers was no less encouraging. After 9 gruelling hours of climbing, they responded to the situation by packing up quickly without complaint, impressing the experienced instructors. The night trek was slow, tedious and tiring but the campers pulled through strong.

With a couple of days on Mount Belumut, we have learnt more about ourselves than we ever expected. Removed from the comforts of home we so often take for granted, our patience and love for one another and our faith and trust in God was put to the test. Through the trials we have overcome, we have emerged stronger both physically and mentally, more confident and more knowledgeable. However, above all, it was in our weakest moments when uncertainties abound, that we were reminded that our strength can only come from our reliance on God – lessons you just can't learn in a classroom.

by Yeo Zhi Han

14th Nov 07: Ubin Cycling

2007-11-26T02:21:00.000+08:00

Sore buttocks, Tired legs, Sweaty bodies. It had to be the result of 4 hours on bikes in Ubin. We finally hit back to mainland at 6.15pm after a gruelling and tiring day at Pulau Ubin. We may call it training for the upcoming YF Camp, but there was no denying that the cycling trip we just finished was gonna take it's toll on our bodies the next day.

12pm at Changi Jetty was the meeting point and time. Opening with a word of prayer, we entrusted the weather, bikes and people into God's hand before bumping off across the river. I must say that for a low price of $2, the boat ride was awfully comfortable. Or maybe I'm just saying that because I'm comparing it to the sore butts we incurred from the biking later on. Haha. Whatever it is, after we got our bikes, Adrian gave us a safety brief, water parade, numbering off and we were set to go. Our first check point, Murai.

All in all, the 16 [with 2 newcomer friends!] of us reached safely and we started playing get-to-know you games. We learnt a few interesting facts about each other. Like how Gabriel's afraid of dogs, especially the one that came to 'disturb' us during the icebreakers itself. Or like how Michelle's friend Jolyn lived in Pasir Ris all her life which sparked a discussion or sharing by some of the older ones that when they were kids, there was no such thing as a developed Pasir Ris. Or that Tricia's cousin Swenson felt the biggest problem facing the youth of his age was 'where to party'. It was an interactive time of learning and sharing that we could all laugh about after.

We then made our way to the next checkpoint which was also another beach for a rest point. The cycling to this part was more bumpy and 'treacherous' but we managed to get out of the forested area unscathed. However, just before we reached the checkpoint, there was a steep downhill which ended in a left turn. Applying our brakes was the best thing to do in a situation like that and most of us managed to negotiate the downhill turn. However, our dearest Michelle apparently lost control of the bike at the bottom of the slope and collided into the ledge. Nick immediately stopped, as he was right behind her, and ran to tend to his sister. It was quite a scary time seeing her wounds and I recall vividly, while helping her up and off her bike, that her lips were slowly losing its colour. I told Nick to hold her steady and scoop her back as she might faint any time. I'd have left her to rest at that point of time so she could get the blood back to her head but her wounds needed washing and so we had no other choice but to slowly walk her to the rest point which had a washing bay and toilet.

So we managed to slowly hobble her to wash her wounds and just before she reached the washing bay, she stopped dead in her tracks. I recall seeing her knees slowly buckling and inform ed Nick to hold her and bring her slowly down to a lying down position. SCARED CAN! She was totally not responding to our calls or prompting and apparently had already blanked out. After the whole incident, she even told us she slowly couldn't see anything as it was all white. Then she saw herself cycling with someone else. But till today, she still doesn't know who it was. Scary lahz! But seriously, thank God that everything's settled and she's fine as I blog this entry.

The day concluded with a nice dinner at Changi Village and we had a blast exercising and working out in the Lord. I suppose if we keep these outdoor activities up, Mt Belumut won't be an issue at all.

Blogged by Rui

Colours: A Splash of Life 17th Nov 07

2007-11-20T23:55:00.000+08:00

It was a colourful night indeed! Though, somehow, no matter how early preparations begin, it will always come down to the last half hour where I look up and go “Oh no! Only half an hour left!” pre-event went well and we were, more or less, ready to welcome all our friends and guests to our ~~humble~~ colourful abode!

I had a really good time, though I wonder how it would’ve been like if I wasn’t one of the drama-tists. My cousins came! That makes me really happy. I think all three of us had a good time, which makes me even happier! Throw in the possibility of one of them coming for the follow-up activity, Ubin Cycling this Saturday 24^th November 12pm meet at Changi Jetty (yes, blatant publicity here), and you have a really THANKFUL Tricia: thankful for this event which, in a sense, let me sit back while it did all the work.

For all those who weren’t around before the event, I’m going to let you in on a little secret: the emcee’s scripts? Nonexistent. Hansome and Ruidiant are so gifted in the art of spontaneity (a loose euphemism for “last minute”) and I’m glad we had them on stage to pull all the presentations together and make things pretty much seamless. Definitely a case of using-your-talents! Pre-dinner, games (led by Arthur) saw two people being hauled up to the stage based on their unfortunate luck of wearing certain non-generic colours. On the plus side, the lucky crowd was introduced to Shannon and *drumroll, please* yours truly! For those who were wondering, my “juicy childhood secret” was “something to do with Batman”-am I the only one who heard “ben-ben” or “bam-bam”?

Thank God that the drama went really well! It felt SO much shorter than all the run-throughs, and I was panicking a little more than usual, but the darkness of the off-stage area made it a lot easier to slip into character as best as I could. Hope people got the message God intended, or at the very least, enjoyed it! I know *I* enjoyed performing, together with the rest, and well-complemented by the backstage crew.

Mr Lim Chien Chong’s “message”-really just a series of pictures interspersed with the important verses-was a good approach towards presenting the gospel to our friends. Bits of it were remembered and applied immediately: how you shouldn’t waste food, for example. I dutifully finished all my (unfortunately) soggy and cold fries after a pointed “ahem” from one of my well-meaning cousins.

Although we ended WAY ahead of schedule (despite starting WAY behind), cleanup took us to 10.30pm. Special kudos to the kitchen crew, you deserve a Certificate of Domesticity and Perseverance for doing all the washing and drying! A little bird told me that a couple of trees were killed in the drying process, though, so be sure to be extra-environmentally friendly to compensate for your “wicked act”!

Events like these encourage me, because it’s where the younger ones (fresh blood!) step in, and up, to opportunities to serve-something the décor team, particularly, witnessed. I should think the kitchen crew did, too? I feel that in coming together to work for one cause-to get the event up and going-we learn to appreciate each other for that added pair of hands/insight/opinion…but in the end, also recognize that we don’t have full control of things, if at all. That’s why we commit everything to God, trusting Him to take what we’ve done, what we’ve prepared for, and let His Holy Spirit work in the hearts of the people to convey His message-something I was reminded of through the pre-drama-presentation group prayer.

Sadly, people who brought friends had even fewer opportunities to meet/notice the other friends than the YFers who didn’t, because of the table-centric fellowship. However, that was done very well indeed, which meant that each friend had a worthwhile experience that night!

I’m really grateful for that ‘da4 ge1’s and ‘da4 jie3’s who came down/helped out, too, like Yong Jie, Kenneth, Sean Teng, Jia Min, Eunice…plus all the other YAFers whom we see quite often at YF. Also appreciated are the numerous vehicles (and their drivers) we’ve had to run errands and send people home after preparations and clean up. I’m amazed at how the uni people are able to cope with studies while planning for events like this! Especially Han, because being in exco, he’s quite involved in the YF. I must learn from him-bring your books everywhere so you can stop and study anytime! (A good idea too, since we should weight-train for Belumut) Anyway, good thing the ‘O’ levels are over, so the younger exco members can share the responsibilities! Looking forward to seeing all the ‘O’ levelers in full force at the upcoming YF activities, something like what we saw at the Bukit Timah Hill trek on the 18^th.

To all those who came and helped out in Colours, we can look forward to seeing the tons of pictures and videos from that night! And for those who didn’t…well I’m sure you had a valid reason. If not, you can look at the pictures and wish you had been there!

See you all at Ubin Cycling This Saturday!

blogged by Tricia

Rui says: Pictures are here [low resolution ones] [if the link is dead, inform Rui. thanks] and the Video of the skit is found below.

Prayer Meeting [8th Sept] Trust

2007-09-09T14:50:00.000+08:00

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

Youth Worship: Helping the Hurting [1st Sept]

2007-09-01T21:02:00.000+08:00

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.

"Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk."

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

BreakOut: Surging for Gold 18/08/07

2007-08-25T01:11:00.000+08:00

What an exciting time we had during our last BreakOut. Really getting out of our shells, we headed to Sentosa for a full packed day of planned games, fun and fellowship. We met at Harbour Front MRT at 12:15 [earlier so we could have more time to play] and took the Sentosa rail into the island.
Palawan beach was the location that we were going to create havok and basically let our hair down for that afternoon. It was really God's grace coz that day, the storm was brewing and the weather really looked threatening. We prayed and asked God to hold the rain and He did just that, it didn't rain for the whole YF activity! Praise the Lord!

Anyhows, the activity started off with Worship at the beach. Reflecting on the change of surroundings, it was great to be able to sing about His promises and praise while in the midsts of the wonderful environment. After a good time of singing, we carried on with Games that consisted of Castlemaking, Waterbombing, Charades in the water and Dog and Bone.

After all the games were completed, we had free time to do anything we wanted on the beach whether it be swimming or playing with the sand, it was a great time to just relax and enjoy the weather and beach.

On leaving the island, the majority of us then went to buy our own dinner, take away and meet at an open area at Vivo city. We had our packed dinners together and shared jokes and laughter over endless conversation. We ended up playing some games too which were not only entertaining but really fun and confusing. The day ended off on a real nice note as everyone [i'm sure] enjoyed themselves. Hope to see more and more people and fun at other BreakOuts and YF activities!

They say a picture paints a thousand words so here are the pics you've all been waiting for! Enjoy!

Water Games!
Filing Water Bombs for the Castle Game
Sandcastles
Saving our castles from bombs!
Julia Dashing to the shore with her soaked clothes
Girls posing for the camera man
Having fun in the sun, sand, sea!

Our dear Shawn being buried alive!
Thumbwars!
All Cleaned up and heading home
Playing some games at Vivo
Group Shot!

Prayer Meeting [11th Aug] Devotion to God

2007-08-14T19:35:00.000+08:00

May Psalm 63 and the lyrics of this song “Come Home Running” that we learnt on Saturday cause us to reflect on the challenge that was posed to us on the last Prayer Meeting:

Are YOU following hard after GOD TODAY?

Desiring God…

Oh heart of mine, why must you stray?
From One so fair, you run away,
And one more time, you have to pay
The heaviness of needless shame
Oh heart of mine, come back home
You’ve been to long, out on your own
And He’s been there all along
Watching for you down the road

We can acknowledge God as OUR God because we have a personal relationship with Him. By doing so, we recognize His authority in our lives and He will restore us. Yes! We CAN express our thirst for GOD, He Hears!

Exaltation of God (Praising God)…

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Psalm 63:3-6

We can only respond with praise for His goodness in our lives. We will come to bless God the way we live our lives – the same earnestness and praise that come from our lips must characterize our lives.

Joyful Dependence…

So come home running
His arms are open wide
His name is Jesus
He understands
He is the answer
That you are looking for
So come home running
Just as you are.

Jesus understands and He is the answer. We can just go back to Him “as we are”. He’ll accept us no matter where we are or what we are like.

Oh child of God so dearly loved
And ransomed by the Saviour’s blood
And called by name “daughter” and “son”
Wrapped in the robe of righteousness

“My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me”

Psalm 63:8

Just as a child to his/her parent, we are to follow “hard” after God: YOURS and MINE Heavenly Father which is a desire(want/longing)

-to continue communion with God-

a two way conversation,

-to walk in His precepts-

because He knows us better than anyone else (even ourselves) and He knows what is best for us.

Finally it all adds up to living a life praising and pleasing to God.

Blogged by Julia

Prayer Meeting [14th July] The Blessed Man

2007-07-14T23:23:00.000+08:00

“The Blessed Man”

We had a refreshing time of learning, sharing and PRAYING during YF today. It kicked start with Mastermind where Yfers had to say where each other came from and what he/she was doing there (eg: I came from home after sleeping) then guess the right tile to step in order to move on. The game brought out that we have a path to choose. An introduction to the prayer journal was given which helped Yfers to maximize the use of the journal. The prayer request section to make faith–sized request, the journal section to write out our thoughts or even write out prayers to our dear God and encouragement cards to encourage you to encourage others J

Ruth led the devotion on Psalms 1 where we sat in a circle and responded to the questions she posed to us. She shared with us the big difference between the GODLY and UNGODLY man which the bible has clearly differentiated. Something that was said during the devotion is that God isn’t so mindful about what we as His children DO (because no matter what we do it’s never enough) but more so about what our HEART is like. God doesn’t look on the outside but He looks straight into our hearts! This struck me that we should guard our hearts more carefully. As long as we have a willing heart everything else will fall into place and then our actions to please Him will then follow.

“For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish” Psalms 1:6.

The devotion was followed by a challenge given by Ruth to us: to reflect on our lives and set a personal goal in response to Psalms 1- to live a Godly life by having the right attitude in our hearts. The prayer meeting ended with a time of sharing and prayer. We got to know each other’s life better and had a chance to pray for one another!

TO BE SOMEONE LIKE PSALMS 1!!!

Blogged by Julia

Youth Worship: Sharing to the Lost 070707

2007-07-08T00:52:00.000+08:00

Wow! Today we really had fun at YF didn't we? Despite it being a Youth Worship session, the afternoon was still packed with great joy, activities and a learning experience like no other.
Worship kicked off the YF with meditative songs like 'His Eye is on the Sparrow' and 'Draw me close to You'. It was a time of reflective and inward looking worship as we raised our voices to the Lord. A Video was screened during the Worship too which helped us to recollect and think about the people we come across daily. Whether we are doing anything to help them or reach out to them. The video is "Does anybody hear her by Casting Crowns" and it will be available for viewing at the end of this blog post.

Anyways, Uncle Leonard took over after that and he immediately broke us up into a big huge circle. We played blow wind blow after that however, there was a twist. we had to say stuff that were personal. For example, we couldn't say 'those wearing blue!' we needed to say something like 'those who enjoy long bus rides alone'. It helped us to get to know everyone a bit more and it was really fun. Some highlights of the game was when Ben said 'Blow all those who think Zhi Han is proud' and everyone except han moved seats. it was made doubly hilarious when zhi han said 'blow all those who think i'm handsome' and no one, absolutely no one moved. Here's quite a lengthy video of the crazy mad fun. Let it load while you read the rest of this post la! :)

Yeh After that, Uncle Leonard broke us up into groups of 3-4 people and we discussed these 4 questions.
1. What do you think is Evangelism?
2. What do you share during Evangelism?
3. What are some fears when Evangelizing?
4. How to overcome those fears?

The groups discussing came up with good answers and sharing. Some points to take home from the whole discussion time was that Our responsibility isn't to save them but to share the gospel and to pray for them. He used a good analogy of a fruit/tree planting. Some people will plant the seed, some will water it, some will prune the plant but only one will pluck the fruit and it's a combined effort of everyone. However, when the fruit is plucked, all rejoice coz their efforts all paid off.
He also used the analogy of a plate of delicious char kway tiao. If we felt that it was the best char kway tiao ever, he would tell his friend that it's great and try to get the friend to try the char kway tiao. However, if the friend rejects it for whatever reasons, he shouldn't force it down his friend's throat, hold them at gunpoint or take it personally. After all, the friend isn't rejecting you but the char kway tiao.
He then shared with us how we, as Christians, sometimes are like the undead zombies walking around. They are spiritually almost dead inside and so we need to do CPR... Confess, Pray, Read the Bible. it will revive us and help us to have a motivation to share the gospel as well.

All in all, it was a very enriching time of discussing and learning from each other. :) Attached below is the video that was screened during the worship session. Enjoy!

Youth Worship: Sharing to the Lost [publicity]

2007-07-04T18:05:00.000+08:00

Hey guys/girls,

As announced during AGM, this week for YF, we're going to be having Youth Worship!

Uncle Leonard will be discussing with us about the topic on "Sharing to the Lost"... Come prepared.. what do i mean? well, first of all, come early coz we're going to be starting on time, 3pm! And, come with a heart that's ready to learn about not only evangelism but our Christian duty every day.To be in line with the SURGE principles, this YF Youth Worship targets the 'R'... REACH in SURGE.

So i'll see you guys... and girls... all down this Saturday, 7th july 07, at 3pm in the chapel.

as there is a wedding going on, dun be surprised if you come real early and there are many many people in church. :)

p.s. Also, if you have been catching the commercials on TV about live earth, you'd know that the public is highly encouraged to wear GREEN on 070707 and 080707 to support and make a stand for Saving the Earth. So if you are game enuf and dun mind looking like everyone else on the street, come dressed in Green! :) I will be so dun worry, you won't be alone! heh... MAKE A STAND, TAKE ACTION! but dun forget to dress appropriately coz it's Youth Worship. heh okok. see ya on Saturday! dun be late! please... heh.

Youth Worship -

2007-06-29T15:19:00.000+08:00

Moses Lim is Tan Ah Teck
Nicholas Lee is Ronnie
Andrew Lim is Paul and
Goh Chieng Mun is Dolly
Vernetta Lopez is Denise
The Singapore's funniest family!

A random-just-for-pure-mindless-fun song that I'm SURE ran through people's heads at one point or another during youth worship! (Eh, admit it, don't bluff! :P)

It was a refreshing time of worship led by Trish & Celia, with Deb & Joella playing the guitar and manning the slides (respectively). I felt that the atmosphere was akin to Sunday Service, an air of reverence and quiet - I like. It makes late people (like me :P) guilty for being late, and allows people to quieten down their noisy hearts/minds for worship.

The first time I met Moses was on the Doulos ship, and he spoke only a few words to the small crowd then, but his charisma and charm was evident, and he got the mostly adult crowd laughing along with him, and at him for his candidness that most directors rarely possessed :)

As he spoke to us, his own family struggles were very real and pertinant, having 2 teenage children himself. His candidness about what all women would go through eventually and how we should handle them was unwittingly hilarious. I'm not going to post all that he said, (cos you might as well have gone to hear him yourself :P) but what I took away from it, is that 'freedom' is earned through trust. If you don't give reasons for your parents to trust you, it'll be hard for them to have a reason to give you (non-monetary) allowances.

Attitudes to Adopt to cope with Parents:
- Be understanding
- Be sympathetic
- Be less critical
- Be more open minded
- Be appreciative
- Be prayerful
- Be hopeful

YF AGM 2007

2007-06-28T18:23:00.001+08:00

Mark your calendars for this all important event!

ALL parents and youths

(including newcomers and busy youths!!),

YOU

are cordially invited to the

YF AGM 07/08

Date: 1 July 2007

Time: 11:00 AM - 12:45 PM

Place: Chapel

Come down to find out more about the

SURGING youth ministry.

its PROMISING vision and the

EXCITING forecast of events for the next six months.

Expect to be spiritually challenged and excited to be part of the Youth Fellowship at this event.

Do come early as we will be expecting a crowd!
I have a conviction that God wants to grow the ministry.

Let's do this together!

Agape, Benjamin

Youth Worship: Coping with Parents

2007-06-18T07:05:00.001+08:00

Hi Guys!

This coming Saturday, we'll be having a Youth Worship entitled 'Coping with ~~Teenagers~~ Parents'.

We'll be having a guest speaker, Moses Lim. And no, i know what you're thinking. He's NOT Tan Ah Teck from Under one Roof. :) That's a different Moses Lim. We'll be talking about how we can deal with parents and how we should also submit to them as children of theirs AND God. :)

Since it's a youth worship and we have an external speaker, come early, prepared and dressed appropriately. :) It's 3pm in the Chapel on the 23rd of June! Come come come. Don't be afraid to grab a friend along and if you know of a Shalom YFer who's free and not coming, grab them along too! :) See you guys there!!!

BASIC-Leaders' Retreat

2007-06-14T13:56:00.000+08:00

Get tangled up in me!

Children at heart

Minefields

Brotherly love

Flipping the switch

Chocolates and toys help keep you through meetings
Cuter than Puss in Boots

!!! <3!
href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_ma6YrLGcRs8/RnDmkLyF1RI/AAAAAAAABeo/fQyawzUEZX0/s1600-h/DSC01834.JPG"> Lessons

Impostor!

Keep...holding...on...
Ticket stubs for movie marathon!
Movie marathon-ers with the NEXT possible yf-movie-outing! Photo by Joash.
Shia Lebouf, whoo!

YF Executive Committee 0708

2007-06-14T10:13:00.000+08:00

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Your YF Exco of 2007/2008!

Benjamin Tsao [Staffworker]

Yeo Zhi Han
Joel Tan Rui Liang
Cheryl Loh
Julia Lim

May the Lord bless the coming Exco Year and be close to all of us as we strive towards a common goal and purpose.

30 Hour Famine

2007-06-01T01:14:00.001+08:00

The main purpose of the 30 hour famine was for youths like us to experience hunger, just like people who are starving are. At the same time, we are raising funds to support the kids there. We initially hoped to raise $100 for 1 specific kid throughout the 30hr famine. This amount of money could provide for 1 kid for 1 year!!! We hope also to seek donations from other church members to raise a kid for a year(which is to donate $100).

The setting that we are experiencing this famine is in India. Thus a few of the ground rules were:
1) No wearing of shoes are allowed.
2) Only drinking of tap water is allowed.
3) Water is to be rationed. Only a limited amount of water is given to use for washing of hands, bath etc except for drinking.
4) We had to sleep in/on cardboxes and out in the open(rooftop).
5) We cannot use the air-conditioner. Only fans.

We started our 30hr famine at 8am on Saturday morning, 26th May 2007. It lasted till 2pm on Sunday afternoon, 27th May 2007. We started off the day with worship. Next, we proceeded with a talk by Elder Vincent Lee, on Benash and the children living there, and also the profile of the kid that we are raising funds for.

After that, we had tribal games. The youths participating in the 30 hour famine had to be split into 2 major groups to play tribal groups. However, there was a catch. Most members would be randomly given a disability. Ben had to hop on 1 leg, Zhi Han had to drag his leg along, Seraphina, Rui and Joash could not talk, Tricia and Rachel had to carry a very heavy bag behind their back, Zhi Qiang had 1 arm disabled, and I am blind. We went down to Pasir Ris park to have our tribal games.

Side note: Tricia brought this unique old typewriter for us to comment on, bringing us more than 10 years back in time.

Finally, here comes the 1st meal time of the day. Obviously, food wasn't allowed to be consumed. However, we are given food supplements(drinks) during mealtime. Different meals we are provided with different drinks, like barley, milo and bandung.

During the afternoon, we played a game called guesstures to raise funds. Basically the yfers are further split into 4 groups, and then we play the game (this game is similar to charades, but its harder). After all the fun and games, we had to build our shelters using garbage bags and card boxes, and did some weeding for he grasses in church. To end of the day, all of us had to practice for service choir during service the following day.

After "dinner", we watched a very old Indian movie, reminding us on just how poor the people living in India are, and how bad is their poverty problem.

The following day after service, we changed back into our informal clothings, and weeded the grasses again. Again also, we played guesstures, this time with more yfers who couldn't join us, as well as with yafers. After that, it was almost time to break fast. We did some packing up and cleanup, and also took group photos. Soon, it was actually 3 and we lasted 31 hours actually without food!!! We then quickly rushed down to downtown east, to break fast. From our efforts in raising funds, and also from the adults that we garnered to support a child for a year, we managed to raise $1100! Thats 11 kids!!! Praise the Lord!!!!

TRIBE games disabled people:

Youth Sunday

2007-05-01T21:40:00.000+08:00

Just thoughts from a servant of our Almighty God.

Youth Sunday this year was a great success. I felt that it was amazing to see our youths once again step up and challenge themselves to areas of service they might not normally be comfortable with. Whether it was doing PA, LCD, Singing, Playing the instruments, Presenting Items, Ushering or preparing of food, the youths put in all they had into their jobs. Sitting there in the pew watching was a really encouraging and uplifting experience. I could see the ushers walk down with pride in their steps and probably also a tinge of fear in their hearts. But needless to say, they pulled it off flawlessly... much like everyone else that served this sunday whether out in the forefront of not. :)

The chairing of the service was done by Qiang who handled everything wonderfully. The prayers he made were filled with hope and truth as well as grounding them all in the Word of God. I personally felt that he chaired amazingly with confidence, boldness and joy.. pointing people to God should be exactly that.

So as Qiang has already mentioned in the email, thanks to everyone who made this year's Youth Sunday possible and great. Thanks for giving your time, effort and love to serve God in your small part. What you did that day has gone a long way to the presentation and edification of His Work and Kingdom. Thank you all for serving God with such enthusiasm and love for the church. Let us all not stop just this sunday, but to see a possibility of serving God permanently in different areas of service in church or with our daily lives in school, work and home.

Finally, let us be reminded by this verse that we should not wait for youth sunday to serve.. but to find an area in church that God can make the full use of us. :) Have a great week ahead.

Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12

p.s. just a reminder, there will be no youth fellowship saturday meetings for the next 3 weeks. It's time to study for the exams and tests... so if you want to, feel free to come and use the church premises to study together. All the best for the upcoming exams and remember to give all praise and glory to God.

Religious Worldviews: Jim Blumenstock

2007-04-28T01:06:00.000+08:00

How do we view the world? What are the glasses we look through to view the world?

Everyone has their own worldview. Thus, we see the same things but from a different perspective.

YF started with Celia and Joash leading us into a time of worship whereby two new songs were sung.

1. Religion/God
2. Family
3. Education
4. Nature
5. Money
6. Food
7. Spiritual Beings (angels)
8. Science

Everyone had to do their own ranking of what these 8 areas of their life meant to them. We also did a case study on Albert Einstein and the Dalai Lama. It’s amazing how our priorities are so different because of our worldviews.

There are 3 terms which sums up the worldviews of different religions.
Naturalism: Nature is ALL that exists.
Transcendentalism: Everything exists in harmony and unity.
Theism ( eg: Christianity) : - There’s only one God.
- All of life and reality comes from God
- Mortality is based on God’s standards
- God tells us what He is like and what He wants us to do.
- Life is meaningful when lived for God.

-Does God exist? If so what is He like?
-What happens when we die?
- What is the meaning of life? …

Our worldview determines our answers to these questions.
You have the answers!

Then, we concluded the YF session with a time of prayer. :)

Sharing by Joela on her recent trip to the USA.

Written by Julia

MinT- Service and Secrecy (Kenneth Tan)

2007-04-14T18:33:00.000+08:00

Yet another round of open sharing and discussion (YAY!) today was not so much of a talk/lecture but something that the youths could actively participate and contribute to..

To summarize what we did, we covered topics like:
1. Which ministry we are interested to be part of
2. Knowing about each other's characters/strengths/weaknesses/abilities
3. Our pet peeves in relation to group work
4. Ministry choices which could be further categorized by an acronym! -
Burden
Ability
Reality
Need
Spiritual Gifts
5. What qualities does an ideal servant have?

Not only was it interesting to hear out each other's 'complaints' [pet peeves section] and preferences, it was a great opportunity to know a little more about everyone's working style and personality..

Heres the catch: After listing our personal pet peeves, Kenneth posed a question, asking if we ourselves possessed the qualities that we listed down..Most of us smiled sheepishly, im sure :p We should expect the same standards of ourselves too- in this manner, it would definitely be easier to be more tolerant of others and come together and grow as ONE BODY IN CHRIST

Personally, through this session, i could imagine all the many various potential ministries that could realistically surface as part of our church ministry. Everyone has different interests and together we uphold one another with our spiritual gifts/talents and build the Shalom Youth Ministry up :)

Whatever ministry we might be serving in now, lets all each put up our attitudes of understanding and brotherly/sisterly love towards one another as well as our best effort in serving GOD

-blogged by cheryl

Service & Secrecy photos

2007-04-14T04:29:00.000+08:00

Previously on sue per he rows

'cher, don't lie/blaspheme/vandalise...
Pet peeve?
Why I'm in service
Maid agency

One busy chapel

Too many pet peeves.
Oh lovely lovely lovely

Do you like onions?

Just remember, kids: BARNey is a dinosaur...

Egg-citing Treasure Hunt

2007-04-07T22:50:00.000+08:00

Easter is not just about bunnies and eggs, but about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. A remembrance of His sacrifice on the cross for our sins.

But who says we can't have fun with eggs at the same time?

So one lazy Saturday afternoon on 7 April 2007, YFers gathered together to have a treasure hunt!

Starting off the event, Nicholas and Cherie led us as we worshipped the Lord with three songs, including the 2006 Combined YF theme song - They will know we are Christians.

After worship, game masters Michelle and Cherie took over as we began the treasure hunt. YFers were split into 3 teams for the treasure hunt, each receiving a different clue leading to an egg hidden somewhere in the church. Each egg also came accompanied by a memory verse, which the entire team had to memorize in order to receive the next clue. Time was of the essence and the ones with better memory came up with creative ways to help the more forgetful ones remember. One team even came up with catchy tunes for their memory verses! Once all three teams had retrieved 3 eggs and memorized their verses, the egg decorating contest officially began!

With a wide variety of materials at their disposal from sequins to cotton wool, the teams got to work. Much laughter was heard and the game masters could only wonder what was going in within the tight circles of each group. After what seemed like an eternity, the teams were finally ready to exhibit their decorated eggs. One after another, they explained and showed off the creative masterpieces to a enthusiastic audience. Groups even came up with stories for their little (not always easily recognizable) eggy characters, not to mention the various corny phrases that popped up here and there like egg-salted(exalted) and unequally yolked(yoked). Plus of course the 1001 puns on "crack". Pun fully intended. The panel of judges(Jodi and yours truly) after much heart-wrenching deliberation finally decided to award the top prize for a very unique day/night egg design.

Prizes were given out, with a little surprise inside the prize for each team - another egg.

Adriel then concluded the event by reinforcing the significance of the memory verses in the context of Good Friday and Easter, whereupon we sang "They Will Know We are Christians" once again as our closing hymn.

Then, Captain's Ball!

Post-BGR Worship

2007-03-27T01:13:00.000+08:00

BGR Retreat 9th-10th Mar, Chien Chong

2007-03-17T09:40:00.000+08:00

This week for YF, we were able to have a 2 day retreat on my favourite topic… BGR! :) that was immensely fun because we had Chien Chong come to speak to us about two aspects on BGR; ‘Purity’ and ‘Faithfulness’. I tell you, the things he said aren’t really new to most of us, but the way he brought it across, wow… Let’s just say that he really knows how to connect with youth and get us laughing and engaging with him. :) The point was that, the truths he told us about how we should keep purity and be faithful, really hit home because of the way he brought it across and the techniques he used to make us remember the points. Even now, I still remember how he described Ruth as a big muscular woman instead of a ‘qian jing xiao jie’ because of the way she was described as having to carry heavy loads. It was such a uproar when he even joked with the fact that she could be some body builder and not some girl with ‘hello kitty’ face. When he spoke about how we might be afraid we won’t be picked up as a boyfriend or girlfriend, he also used the imagery of a book left on a bookshelf.
However, since we were of the Y generation, he said that we’re more like ‘a website that hasn’t been visited’ or ‘a file that hasn’t been downloaded’. Frankly, that comparison really cracked me up and you could just hear the whole crowd laughing in agreement.

The point of the matter was that the sessions with Chien Chong were fantastic and really meaningful because it gave us all thoughts to ponder upon for discussion the next day. Which brings me to the next day, after a good rest overnight, we woke early at head to the beach. To the beach can! It was so nice having QT with nature around you. We were given material that was gender specific which really helped us to focus our thoughts and commit certain stuff in prayer to Him. I really enjoyed the fact that we could just spend quiet moments with God and some annoying sandflies and seagulls. :)

Coming back to church, we were able to have gender specific discussions and touch on many interesting topics within our discussion groups. After we were able to share with our brothers/sisters, we came together as a whole group and shared our findings. The girls even had a whole list of questions for the guys that they came up with during their discussions. As a guy, I was thinking to myself how come they spent all their time coming up with questions for us?!?! They were supposed to be discussing the topics! Haha. But it was still fun hearing from them and trying to answer their questions as best we could.

To summarize it all, the retreat was a really fun time, though short, that helped us to reaffirm our stand on purity and faithfulness; to hear from an appealing speaker about the topic we all love [mind the pun]. Who knows? We might just have a follow up YF on BGR since most felt we didn’t have enough time but for now, I can’t wait for next week’s YF! Cycling to East Coast Park plus a picnic! See ya guys all there!

Youth Worship: Poverty - Jonathan Fuller

2007-03-11T22:59:00.000+08:00

Jonathan Fuller- Poverty

Have you ever come across a beggar?

Have you faced the dilemma on whether to give him some money or just walk away? Have you EVEN experience was it is like to be poor?

We were privileged to have Jon speak on this subject-POVERTY, which we often take for granted.

Personally, I was very inspired and encouraged by Jon’s ministry- the way God worked through his life in living with the poor Muslim community in The Philippines, and currently also coaching a group of missionaries back in Singapore.

I was really
fascinated that there were SO MANY verses of what the Bible has to say on poverty. Thank God that the verses were shared among a few groups! (We really had a whole long list of themJ).

Especially for my group, we tried to come up with catchy and interesting phrases so that it would help us remember the Bible verse application better.

Joela(s) (both zhang and lam), debbie , rach and a few girls were quite good at it! Here are some:

Do not be the cause of your poverty (Proverbs 10:4)
We stand the same under God and we stand under the same God. (Proverbs 22.2)

We also had more applications from the other groups J

Do not despise the unfortunate (Zech 7:10)
Do not let material possession get between you and God (Matt 26:6-13)
Be contented in any and every circumstances (Philippians 4:11-12)

-Here we can see our youths deep in thoughts.. hm… J-

Jon also used a movie to emphasize a point that we can lead a fulfilled and happy life even if we are poor. Just like the main character and his friend did- singing praises and thanksgiving to God along the streets etc.

Finally, the main thing which I took back from the session was the right way to deal with a beggar- asking God what He wants to do for the beggar. Pray! There is a perfect example in the Bible, illustrating what Peter and John did outside the temple for a man who was lame since birth. (Acts 3)

So I thank God once again for yet another great opportunity to learn more about His word and His people.

Blogged by Celia

Post-"Faithfulness and Purity"

2007-03-10T00:44:00.000+08:00

Previously on sue per he rows

I'm amused.

YF should always include AND end with food.

Today's special is this $2.20 'strawberry milk'. Which is really interesting because it's literally syrup-ped strawberries and milk-ed crushed ice.

Do you think it's worth it for all of us to get Kopitiam 'memberships', now?

MinTs, Study & Meditation by Kenneth Tan 24th Feb 07

2007-02-28T23:15:00.000+08:00

Many of us learn a lot through bible study and quiet time (affectionately known as BS and QT). But to learn about BS and QT? Well, that's exactly what the YFers did on Saturday in the MinT, Study & Meditation, led by Kenneth.

Arthur and Joella led us in worship with songs and verses to tune our hearts and minds to the day's theme. When Kenneth took over, we had to -get this- read TWENTY EIGHT verses, which took up approximately 4 powerpoint slides. Now, if you don't think that's a big deal at all, turn to 1 Samuel 17:31-58, read it aloud, then close your bible (or web browser) and write out all of it you can remember, down to the last detail. Or, you can get someone else to read it for you and see how much of it you can retain. I'm quite sure you tuned out halfway through verse 46!

Even though it was a familiar passage (David and Goliath, if you don't know), majority couldn't be 100% sure of all 4 answers to the 'test' questions: What was the reason Saul gave for not wanting David to fight Goliath? Which city or town did David hail from? What did Saul clothe David with and whose was it? How did Eliab feel after David prevailed?

We learnt that in bible reading, we tend to switch-off, assume we know the passage, simply browse through without fully absorbing and thus missing many facts-something definitely preventable by simply spending more (quality!) time on bible study.

Here are more things we learnt:
BS and QT must be done deliberately, and one thing I took home was that we should set aside time for it and guard it jealously (hold me to this please!). QT need not be a mundane/routine activity: YFers and YAFers also do QT through singing songs and journalling. Other suggested ways to make QT more interesting include writing poems, discussions, and preaching to yourself.

Want to improve your bible knowledge and have a not-so-quiet QT without doing stuff like singing or praying aloud? A useful way is to meditate on God's Word, memorising it by repeating a verse/phrase with emphasis on a different word each time:

WITH emphasis on a different word each time.
With EMPHASIS on a different word each time.
With emphasis ON a different word each time.
With emphasis on A different word each time.
With emphasis on a DIFFERENT word each time...

For the month of March, you'll be missing a whole load of good stuff if you plan on skipping YF. March's activities are based on being more involved with the community, caring about God's fellow creations-Other People! So stop being selfish, leave your wet market boots behind and dress nicely for the first activity of the month:

"Poverty" by Jonathan Fuller from OMF. He's really good (Rachel says so), so feel ~~compelled~~ free to invite your friends and yourself!

(...With emphasis on a different WORD each time.
With emphasis on a different word EACH time.
With emphasis on a different word each TIME.)

Blogged by Tricia

Valentine’s breakout -“Free (Hersheys) Kisses”

2007-02-13T22:37:00.000+08:00

YF activity on the 10th of Feb: Valentine’s breakout -“Free (Hersheys) Kisses”.

What should our motivation for sharing the gospel with others be? Am I a “lizard” or a “frog”? The breakout stressed on the importance of evangelism in our lives as a Christian and had the YFers go out to get youths to do surveys in relation to “Valentine’s”. Purpose: To find the suitable ground to sow the seed of the gospel by getting as many youth contacts as possible so that we can reach out to them in the near future.

The song “I Love to tell the story” was sung during worship - a song which encompasses the essence of the breakout session. “To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His Love”

Benjamin shared about the 4 motivation factors and a story about the “lizard” and “frog” which would encourage us to evangelize to the lost. That like the lizard, we should be the active in evangelizing and not the passive frog .We learnt that the 4 motivations in relation to God namely:

Compassion for the Lost
Love of the Father – God loves Jesus, Jesus loves us (believers), We love Non-believers/the lost
The Wrath of God
God’s Purpose in our lives

Each of the 4 groups that we were split into had to come up with two drawings in relation to the motivation factors, discuss the discussion questions and come up with a prayer to pray for the entire YF. We learnt the reality of what the lost would have to go through if we kept the good news to ourselves and that the harvest is ready, if only we are willing to harvest.

All 4 groups set out to get youths to do the “Free Kiss” survey at different locations, bus stops and the link way to the MRT. Even though many rejected, we had 40 surveys completed with contacts which we hope to reach out to by organizing a YF activity specially for them and eventually sow the gospel seed. Thank God for that.

Thank God for the 15-20 youths who came down for the breakout.

Application: May we be spurred on to share the good news with out families and friends. :]

Have a blessed week and Chinese New Year.

No YF this week. Next YF: 24^th Feb - Ministry Time. (Hope to see you all!)

Posted by Julia

Youth Worship: Prayer and Praise

2007-02-04T07:40:00.000+08:00

The YF came together on the 3rd of Feb for our second Youth Worship of the year. It was a time of sharing, prayer and lifting up our voices to Him in songs and testimony. The event started out with welcoming new comers who were in our midst. Michelle brought her friend Jia Hui and we went one round introducing ourselves to her.

The Youth Worship was split into 3 main categories; 'God's greatness and goodness, Self check on how our Spiritual life is and finally, Fellowship'

The event then kicked into full gear with a medley of songs followed by an activity whereby each of us were given a slip of post-it paper. We were asked to divide it into three sections and write down a prayer item or issue that was bugging us that we would like to surrender to God for example a friendship or maybe exam results. Anything that we were willing to surrender to God and leave Him to control was written down. We were encouraged to be as open as possible and were told that if we felt comfortable, to share with the YF later.

With that, the 2nd category was introduced with a round of 3 songs again. We sang songs that reflected how we should purify our hearts and look at ourselves and how we are walking with God. We were then split into 6 groups of about 4-5 people each. Each group was handed out a different bible verse to discuss. After discussion, each group presented what they felt the verse was saying and how it applies to us as youth. In this way, the whole YF was able to learn about 6 different bible verses in the time span of 15 minutes. This helped the YF learn from each other and to maximize the usage of each other's efforts. With that in mind, it led us on into the 3rd category, Fellowship.

Our praises were lifted up to Him once again in the last 3 songs and the Youth Worship came to a very meaningful close when we were asked to share within our groups things that we could pray for each other for. Thanksgiving, Prayer Requests and something interesting that happened throughout this week. It was a time of sharing, joy and sincere prayer as the chapel was filled with God's children lifting each other up in heartfelt concern and prayer. The groups then slowly concluded their own worship this Saturday with sweet fragrances rising to His ears.

Finally, to wrap it all up, a big blue cross was brought out and we were asked to stick our post-its on the cross if we felt that whatever we wrote down, we could surrender to God. If we still felt that that issue we wrote was still something we couldn't surrender, we were encouraged to take that slip home and pray about it. The ball started rolling when youth came up to the front to share about how they were willing to surrender a friendship to God or exam results. One by one, we came up to the front and placed our surrendered items onto the cross. As the cross started getting populated, you could tell that the Youth understood what this meant but to re-enforce the lesson, we were told that each post-it note that we placed on the cross was like each prayer request or sin that Jesus had died for. He had already taken to the cross what we were about to ask for and all the burdens of our lives, He already knows and took.

Ending off with prayer, the Youth Worship came to a close and the atmosphere was one of edified spirits and heart felt sharing. What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon if you ask me.

Video Screening - BiG FiSh

2007-01-28T10:52:00.000+08:00

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!

Our Worship, Youth Worship

2007-01-25T21:31:00.000+08:00

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. =)

1st youth worship of 2007!

2007-01-15T22:43:00.000+08:00

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

How many puns can you make with the word 'disc'?

2007-01-06T23:21:00.000+08:00

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

A very warm welcome to 2007

2007-01-02T04:38:00.000+08:00

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!

Superheroes camera photos and videos

2006-12-25T13:36:00.000+08:00

Previously on sue per he rows

1. concussion

2. workshops

3. on the job

4. cake table

5. arty farty

6. crazies

7. dorm devotions

8. games

9. incredible

Girls: dorm devotion
11th

Rachel: It's a star!
Abi: Yup. And we all said that just now.
*everyone laughs at rachel*
Joela: I have to be more open. Ya. And smile more too.
*passes to Joella*

12th

13th

starring ju

--

workshops:
language

Lorraine: why cannot? coz its the most powerful one is it
Royston: no because um...i just like the sound of it
Lorraine: oh ...that's important. Okay,
Royston: *through gritted teeth* Tricia!
Lorraine: Go ahead, say it!*
Royston grins at camera, sort of staring daggers at cameraman*

starring lynn

christian image

Keewen: shorten the skirt...
Nick: lengthen the legs
Yuan: shrink the top
Tricia: got some perverts here arh
Keewen: lets' also add some...what...
Yuan: some facial hair
Nick: the bellybutton got...the what
Keewen: got what?
Tricia: is that the bellybutton??
Keewen: got two rings...got olympic rings...make it wear...wear clown shoes

--

girls dorm randoms (safe for all to watch)

-Julia tells Joela that she has something for her, then goes to rummage in her bag. After quite a while...
-Joela: Julia,
Julia: *sniffs hands* Wait wait wait, I wash hands first
*everyone laughs*
Tricia: I think Julia is like...*loss for words*
-random conversation-
Cheryl: Eh, Tricia wants to take a picture
Julia: Wait, I'm doing my stuff first.
-more random-
Julia: Okay okay. I take picture with you.*cheryl obliges*
Tricia: Uh, Julia, it's a video
*everyone laughs*
Julia: What video? *realises* oh! Documented already. Kenna cheated already.
--

roof jellyfishes (rating to be advised)

Visit from Doulos Team

2006-12-02T01:42:00.000+08:00

"Doulos visits port cities throughout the world, supplying vital literature resources, encouraging inter-cultural understanding, training young people for more effective life and service, promoting greater global awareness, providing practical aid and sharing a message of hope in God wherever there is opportunity."

The ship Doulos came to Singapore recently and they docked here for a while allowing teams to go on shore to spread the gospel and reach out to the people of Singapore. And that's exactly what a 3 person team came to do on the 19th of Nov.

Simon, Merkka, Emma and Ee Ling [Singapore host from Pentacost Methodist; Volunteer] came to speak to us about their experience and life on the great mission ship Doulos. They shared with us testimony, videos, mimes and encouraged the youths through lively games that really got the crowd mingling together.

They showed us videos about their ship, what they do on deck and how life is like living in small spaces for long periods of time.

It was truly an enriching time and the youths were able to fellowship, bond and interact with our friends from Germany, South Africa and Finland. We look forward to entertaining them once more. This visit taught the youths that there are many other people from other countries in need of God and few people to do the work. However, we thank God for this bunch of faithful men and women who have given just a bit of their lives for God's mission work.

Halloween Breakout

2006-11-13T00:38:00.000+08:00

This week for yf, we had Halloween Breakout. It was a time to bust myths and misconceptions about the Halloween festival and explain to the youths why we don't celebrate it as Christians. The Exco planned hard to make this event an event to die for and i would safely say that the yfers who came would take this experience to their graves.

The main theme about the day was to reveal the truths behind myths and misconceptions regarding Heaven, Hell, Angels and Demons. The fellowship hall was darkened and dimly lit with tea lights [candles] and lightsticks. The storyline is a missing girl who mysteriously disappeared after entering the 'mansion'. The yfers were then split into groups of 3-4 and became detectives for that 'evening'. The mansion had 4 stations [rooms]... the Living Room, Bedroom, Study and Bathroom. Each room had its own task to accomplish, truth to learn and clue to obtain that would help them solve the mystery.

Living Room [Demons] - Cheryl manned this station as an expressionless zombie. In the centre of the room was a table with two plates filled with red liquid. the task at that station was to drink up as much liquid as possible with bubble tea straws. however, holes were cut into the straw to make the task difficult. The straw represents our lives and the holes, our sin. It hinders us from completing the task set before us and the only way is to repair the straws. likewise, these sin in our lives that affected our relationship with God are our own demons. we have to face them and get rid of them before we expect to commune with God.

Bedroom [Angels] - Debbie shone Angelic light in a darkened room. The huge bed in the centre of the room could have fooled anyone as the group was asked to climb on top and were given a part of a picture to draw. After completing it, the common decision was that they drew a monster or demon. however, after reading a passage in Ezekiel, they realized what they drew was actually a pictorial Angel. To show them that angels are not cute children with wings and a halo.

Study [Heaven] - Tricia made sure that they didn't forget this activity. The playing area was a large circle that is not allowed to be stepped into. In the middle of that circle there was an empty pail. Around the circle were items such as string, the ping pong ball pail, an empty tub and a pail of water. The game rules will only be telling them what they cannot do, and the objective will not be made known to them. At the end, gamemaster will ask them why think they are successful in the game. Probably get answers that they did not do such and such. Will explain that when you need to account for your time on earth it is not what you did not do that matters but what you did.

Bathroom [Hell] - Qiang chilled them with icy cold glares. The group were made to endure a period of time in ice water. Thereafter, they repeated it but this time, individually. In comparison to each case, the groups found the 'group effort' version was easier and better. This station was to show them that if you go to hell, not only will you be separated from your fellow men here but more importantly, it separates us from God.

Overall,the activity and lessons were surely brought across well and i thank everyone of you for coming and participating.

Pirates of the Curry Bun 15th July 2006

2006-07-15T23:29:00.000+08:00

Today we had our first BreakOut activity. Coined 'Pirates of the Curry Bun', this event really lived up to its name. Pirate themed throughout from the start all the way till the end, the youths had a smashing time sailing the seven seas and hunting for treasure.

The event kick started at 3.15pm with a splitting of groups followed by a flag making contest. Each pirate crew were tasked with coming up with a name for their crew and a flag to fly high while battling it out on the seven seas to be the first to find the treasure. The teams were given 10 minutes each to design their flag made out of cloth and a wooden pole. Once done, there was a very interesting contrast between the two teams and the flags looked really neat.

Setting off with their first clue, the team, SPD [Society of the Physically Disabled] conquered the first station and left the 2nd team, Rouge Hearts, in a bit of a whirlwind from their rudders. But Rouge hearts fought hard in the first station for the Scavenger hunt and closed the gap after they were asked to dig for buried treasure in the sand at station 2.
The teams were enthusiastic throughout being clearly noticable by their red or yellow flag flying high as they sailed from one station game to the next.

Searching for the next station from a high point, the teams easily located their last game station and headed to the jetty for a highly entertaining [the people at the jetty stopped their work and turned to watch this crazy bunch of youths on the floor]. Floor? why you may ask, well this game involved the crew members to work as a team and lift a stuff toy off the sea bed [jetty floor] with raffia string tied around a central rubber band. Easier said then done, these landlubbers were finding out that saving a member who's gone overboard might have been the hardest game of the day. After lifting the stuff toy off the ground, transporting it across a given distance was the next challenge. Needless to say, the lads found the game very challenging and were constantly seen wriggling on their bellys on the jetty floor.

The day ended with worship under the shades and flora of the wonderful and magnificient east coast park. Singing songs to God in this setting really set the mood right and all was lost in the worship to God and His awesome presence in our lives. The main point of today's activity was to not seek for treasures that be tangible or visible. Treasures that are earthly and worldly will not last but treasures in heaven, are the ones we should strive to seek. Treasures like a knowledge of God's Word and fellowship amongst brethren. The passage that was quoted was Matthew 6:19-21.

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also"

Fellowship time followed with snacks as we stayed back and continued to sing praises to Him and fellowshipping with each other. Seeing everyone enjoying themselves in an environment differing from our weekly 'chapel' meetings was quite refreshing. Praise the Lord for a envirograting, healthy time of fun at East Coast Park.

Shalom Youth Fellowship Blog purpose

2006-06-29T20:19:00.000+08:00

This Shalom Youth Fellowship Blog was set up to

Archive detailed accounts of the Youth Fellowship Meetings that we had.
Give an accurate and updated account of the happenings of the YF so that members who are overseas or unable to attend for whatever reason are also able to be in the know.
Giving youths an outlet to comment on a particular activity and give feedback.

This blog will be used for solely these few purposes. We welcome feedback and will gladly seek to take action with regards to your comments. Please feel free to comment on each entry if necessary but please leave your name otherwise your comment will be removed.

Thank you for your co-operation and Glory be to God!