Of card castles and Twilight at 3 a.m.

Returned from Christian United Camp this Wednesday. I’m only posting this on Friday because it took me 2 days to organize my thoughts into a suitably coherent form. Basically, 4 things stuck out to me.

But first, an introduction to the CUC.
Christian United is a new student group (notice I’m not using the term CCA. Readers will see why later) focused on getting all the Christians in SAJC to unite and serve God in the school. Its pretty much an extension of what Life Concert is, a platform for us come together as one body to glorify God, except not just on one annual occasion (Life Con) but on a regular basis. SFC is, to put it bluntly, small, mostly because potential members usually sign up for other CCAs. CU aims to bring together all these Christians who are unable to take helping out in ministry up as a full time CCA. Makes sense?

The first thing about the camp that struck me,
It may seem really obvious, but the camp was by all intents and purposes, the formative period of what promises to be a strong and vibrant student organization which will accompany SAJC’s future. CU is the legacy of the 2009 SFC Exco (i.e. by seniors), their brainchild and their product. It awes and rather frightens me of just how big this thing can grow to be, and that I’ll be one of the many who helped nurture it during its infancy. The comparison with what the early Christians felt while establishing the Church is inescapable. Of course, compared to the obstacles and visions of what they experienced, CU is a meter to a parsec. Nonetheless, let that inspire the CU during times of tribulations, humble us during our moments of triumph and fuel us throughout the periods in between. (Hahaha, am I starting to sound like Benedict?)

Thing No.2...
…is that while Xiangan and I were milling about doing nothing for the camp, Jolene and Celine were busy settling the admin work and arranging the food respectively. I’ve resolved to be a gentleman (not because the ACS(I) vision says so), so I felt like a proper sod while watching Celine lug about those big bloody containers, tables, plastic bags of food and cutlery etc. Mr Matthew Tjow so candidly commented that she never looked more “Ah Soh” before. I tried to help, but I’m half convinced it hardly went a long way. And Jolene! Admin can be a nightmare, and if 2 missing forms can worry her, you know she takes this nightmare utterly seriously. I discussed it with Xa (more like whined about it), and he suggested that because the both of us behave weirdly during SFC, the Exco weren’t quite so sure whether or not we could handle such duties without doing something…funny. Like mixing the orange cordial and the rose one for dinner, or changing everybody’s names on the attendance list with anagrams. You know, “funny” stuff like that….

3)
Benedict can really talk. A lot of it sounds utterly confusing, but it pays to keep up. He really does have some interesting thoughts, though most of them center on the sensation and metaphors about worship. This does not only apply to religious matters. Even while engaging in utterly senseless banter (like the miscommunication “ah-hem” poses, or the benefits of secondary school History), he retains an enthusiasm regarding the topic. No subject is too small, stupid or commonplace to apply rigorous dissection, analysis and extrapolation. And because of that, throw any thing at him, and he will churn out a hundred thoughts about it, 95 of them confusing, 4 of them unexpected and 1 of them something to give you food for thought. He truly is one of a kind.

And of course, the Evangelism ministry workshop.
It really renewed my view of evangelism. The firefighter analogy was so…apt and right, but yet it totally eluded me before the workshop. I almost immediately thought of WPCW, about how hard he tries to reject Christianity, and my feeble efforts to show him the light. And TWF, and by extension Zoe as well. The former 2 are my closest friends, and yet I have so far failed to bring them back to God. I’ve always believed that WPCW would be a strong Christian, whenever he turns back to Christ. He will never do so until all his doubts are cleared, but once they are…imagine how strong his faith would be. Dear God, help him….

Interesting stuff
I can’t believe I watched Twilight.
Actually, I really wanted to see what the fuss was about. This movie has a polarizing effect on the viewers, those who watch it either diss it or love it. Personally, I felt there were really laughable parts (skin of a killer part was so FRIKKIN hilarious), but there were really cool ones as well (like the vampire family playing baseball in the thunderstorm). Still, if the rabid jealous teenage guys could just stop being jealous for a while, they would see that it is a pretty solid movie. Certainly better than most chick flicks. And the concepts of the vampires are pretty interesting. To me, sparkly skin = diamond encrusted = natural hard body armor = cool. And I really like Bella’s dad, he’s the most down-to-earth and easy to relate to character. Sure, he doesn’t have superhuman strength and stuff, but his love for his daughter is far more believable than Edward Cullen’s dangerously-close-to-blood-lust. The dad is just an average guy trying to keep his community safe from ravaging werewolves and vampires with nothing more than ordinary human abilities.

Discovered Jolene has a streak of sadism in her.
Hahahahaha! Okay, maybe sadism’s too strong a word and too large an exaggeration, but people who know what I’m talking about…that truly is an interesting stuff. (Damn, she really is a piece of work)