I just got back from my very first mission trip at Nilai Springs Resort from the 4th to the 7th of June, 2012 and the memories are already fading away. I thought I should place them here where they will stay forever and hopefully be used to encourage others on similar trips.
I'll have to admit that when the church retreat of the year was suddenly changed to a mission camp where more lost sheep than camp committee members were going to attend the camp, I was not impressed. Having had no earlier experience doing evangelism by means of an evangelistic mission camp, and having had no prior contact whatsoever with the Gula friends, I had certain preconceived notions about mission trips. Very high on the list was the notion that mission camps should be done in the unbelieving friends' hometown, close to where they are, instead of in some posh hotel. Also high on the list: A mission camp that only really started to get into planning gear one and a half months earlier was in no way a camp that was going to be good enough for mission. And lastly: A church retreat should not be hastily turned into a mission camp just because the unbelieving friends had been invited and could not be turned down without some form of utter embarrassment (or so I thought).
Many things worried me in the lead-up to the camp. What if the people we were reaching out to would not react well to the activities we had planned? (And with it, the unspoken complaint that we were not given enough information about these people we were going to be reaching out to). What if, because I had already been for so many camps, my sensitivity to the excitement level of games had become wonky and the activities we were going to do at camp were seriously lousy? What if we planned so hard but all the things we had to say fell on deaf ears? If anything, uncertainty was probably the root cause of my worry.
While most activities went smoothly during the camp, my worries were not unfounded. There were many kinks and down periods before and throughout the camp that did nothing for morale. Preparations were rushed right up to the last day before we left for Malaysia. We realised that all the Gula participants were going to be boys (that meant a gender imbalance of about 4:1). There were changes in the Gula participants turning up for camp, right up to the last moment. We couldn't make it for the opening ceremony on day one because we were too busy sorting out the change in groupings. The missions pairing was changed from one based on age group to one based on camp groupings, at the last minute timing of Day One of camp. Group recreation time on the second day was severely affected by the scorching afternoon heat, and frustration was written all over many of the participants' faces. The screening of Kelvin Soh's testimony about Jesus turning him away from drugs failed to have much visible impact as group members clamped up when asked to share. When some group leaders took the opportunity to share about the 4 secrets to a shining life for Christ, it upset the schedule and caused confusion.
The biggest cause for concern probably came on Day 3, right before dinner, when the schedule for round three of Compass of Life was messed up. Algorithm March was supposed to be completed in the third round so that when the campers came back from dinner, they could continue with the third round games for another 10 minutes, before the lights, video and sharing would start abruptly. Instead of this ideal scenario, we ended up with:
1. An Algorithm March that had to be delayed and done partially before dinner and partially after.
2. A group of campers who were starting to lose it and get frustrated by the length of the day, the tiring activities and the abstract usefulness of the "money" they were earning.
3. A speaker who would be delayed and could only come in 30 minutes after dinner ended (not 10)
I remember sitting in the function room with 3 of my committee mates for 40 minutes into dinnertime and really not knowing what to do. To top it off, a Gula friend popped his head around the door and said that he had hurt his ankle and might not be able to join us for the (important) night activities. I started to feel dizzy in a way I had never felt before soon after, and even at dinner, JYLS had a sudden headache.
Call these difficulties what you may, but I believe these were little ways in which the devil was working to stop us from doing our best in reaching out with the gospel of truth. Yet, in any post with a title like this one, there always comes a turning point. A facebook post I recently saw on my notifications feed encapsulates what I'm going to share below well: 'We do not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future'.
In all of these trying circumstances, God prevailed. Aside from helping us with the administrative details of matters, God also let me see near miracles and his work in breaking down barriers and stone-hardened hearts in the face of His message of love and mercy.
1-to-1 missions turned out generally better than many of us expected. Some of the Gula participants were still not too forthcoming when we shared more about the gospel with them, but some were identified to have a strong interest in Christianity and others who were less interested did not express strong resentment to the message we were sharing. One of my dear churchmates who shared that he is not particularly adept at evangelism was blessed with the privilege of gaining the trust of the Gula participants, and had the opportunity to talk with them about his faith until the wee hours of the morning just before the last day of camp came around.
The ad-hoc arrangements made with regard to the final segment of the Compass of Life game fell into place with unexpected ease. While we still had to practice for the Algorithm March in our groups, God helped to lighten the atmosphere when we were able to enjoy watching each other perform very hilarious versions of the march that was already hilarious to start with. When it came time to continue with the Compass of Life activities, I simply announced the new format of the game- for participants to approach any of the station masters clothed in black and bet any amount of money that they could do the task assigned by the station masters. The station masters were literally coming up with games spontaneously, yet everyone was really getting into the mood and when it came time to turn off the lights and screen the video, it was truly impactful.
Through the camp, a few of our Gula friends came to know the Lord, including one whom one of my churchmates did not get to know previously, but who followed in the Sinner's Prayer over dinner one day. Many of the Gula friends were also deeply moved by the message we had shared, and some even told us that they had thought about issues such as why the earth must exist, questions we did not expect them to ask at this point in their lives given their cultural context. The sharing session after Compass of Life ended on Day 3 gave a highly respected member of the Gula entourage of youths a chance to share that his aunt, a previous 'tiao tong' under Taoism traditions, had converted to Christianity, and she was now transformed both physically and emotionally. JYLS was able to add on a very convincing point: If someone like that could convert to Christianity, it must mean that she had
experienced something greater than all the spiritual forces she had previously experienced.
Even after returning to our respective homes, we were able to keep in contact with the Gula friends via Facebook, and some daringly posted Christianity-related messages. Others even asked for sources from which to obtain Christian songs they could listen to, and we could also share some online resources with them for learning more about the faith. Their openness was very encouraging, a far cry from the hardened hearts and empty harvest I was expecting at the back of my mind before we went on the trip. All I can say is that when God is sovereign, things that seem wrong will always turn out right. For God's ways are simply higher than ours.
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