i think u jst need to love urself more often and i BELIEVE in u....man ur're such a great person!!!..who cares wad u feel bout urself "I" feel tt u are a much greater the person u think u are...
CAMp JEREMIAH
An account whihc occured on the 7th of june:
Camp Jeremiah (7th - 10th June '06)
The slant of Camp Jeremiah is towards having Jesus in our hearts and giving Jesus to the people in our influence – family, school, group etc. To lead is to share in the mission of Jesus and to have His passion.
We reached the campsite, CAYC, at 8:30am (Me, Marcus & Mark), only to find that we were the only people who were early. By 10, everybody had settled down. 11boys and 5 girls. Participants were leaders from various chruches such as, St Bernadette, St Anne's, St stephens, Christ the King and Blessed Sacrament.
Ameliaone of the plannig heads than gave a talk about life maps. She showed her countless mindmaps and invited us to do one of our own and to share it with our groups. I felt that this really helped break the ice. After the sharing each one of us felt more comfortable with one another. Following that, a 30min clip of prophet Jeremiah. I persoanlly did not know what his life was like. But after the clip, i learnt that he was a Prophet called by God. The camp chief, Ivan, then gave us a talk about God's love that made me realise that GOd is madly in love with each one of us.
That night, we did prasie and worship, to prepare is for the visit to the Gift Of Love Home, which I was quite fearful of. I was a bit scared of visiting the old folks.
(day 2)
It was the day. We were on our way to the Gift Of Love Home and my mind was still uneasy about the what i was about to do. When we got there, we were spit into 2 groups, Fellowshipping and hard labour. I had gone this far and it was not time to back away. I chose to do fellowshipping. So it began. I started with an elderly lady who seemed rather happy. But when i got to her, i realized that we both shared no common language. I had no idea what she was saying, but something told me to just continue talking to her. (God's Love). I spent about 30mins untill i finally said goodbye. Thou i did not know what she said, i felt joyful, I acomplished something! I decided to talk to anoth elderly, only to learm about his sad life that his family had abandoned him there. But he told me, "whatever it is, Jesus still loves me." Tears jsut started filling my eyes and came pouring down. I then went to an old lady, and the the first thing she said to me was, " Why are you all wasting your time here? Old people and young people are differnt! Your shouldn't be here!" I got really put off by her and well, I walked away. After all that had finished, we shared. And I realized that tha told lady must have been really hurt to have had said such things. So I let my "put of" feeling go. Later, we learnt from Fr Fred, the importance and how to play out aloud.
That night, after a talk about obediance, all of us were prasising god an given the opportunity to go fo confession. My confessions went something like, .....................(for god to know). After that, many were in tears because we felt GOd's love. I felt joyful that my sins were taken away and i cried and laughed and sang with marcus and shelia by my side. God's spirit had touch the three of us and we were sharing packets of tissues!
The 3rd day was smilar to the 2nd. Acept that I did hard labour instead of fellowship and we did not have confession that night. Instead, we had sessions about "Radical Lifestyle and Christian Leadership". On the 3rd night, we had a grand dinner. Everyone stuffed themselves full and said their personal testimonials abotu the camp. Lights went out, and the Camp Jeremiahians continued playiing truth or dare which was rather boring. But made our bonds stronger.
The last day, was the day of the worshops. Jonathan & Joshua Pillai shared their experience of growing up and involvement in the media and music industry. Marion Neubronner shared working with at-risk youths. Bro. Collin Wee,well known in counseling circles and was working with Family Life Society for many years, gave a tlak about family crisis . And Fr . Terence Pereira gave a talk about building Youth groups. The Camp Jeremiahians were having a hard time trying to stay awake and some even gave up and went up to the dorms to nap during the workshops.
THat evening, it was just FUN FUN FUN! we had BBQ and MUSIC! our very Own YOUTH MUSIC MINISTRY played to the party people. Who jumped, danced, screamed and sang along. It was a night not to forget. We played, songs like Sweet child o mine, one way, trading my sorrows, just to name a few. They then screened the world cup. ENGLAND vs Paraguay.
All in all, it was a wonderful camp that I will not forget. Till this day, the Campers keep close contact with one another. We remain really good buddies and are really grateful to all the organizes. Each of us had taken home something from this camp. And we thank God for giving us this wonderful experience
