Latest report on previous CA...

Once again on a normal Thursday evening, Campus Alive kicked in with awesome joy and fun. As usual, many faithful CA attendees plus some new faces came and filled the sanctuary. It was evident that all were anxiously anticipating something wonderful to happen that night. Our dear MC’s for this CA were ALG’s Timothy and Korean Amy!

This time, the CA service was conducted mainly by our faithful juniors. Surely their efforts, hard work and most of all their willing hearts to serve God had brought back tremendous blessings to us. The theme of this CA is “to give or to receive?” and through this theme, the juniors came out with a creative ‘game’ that portrayed the action of giving, and the joy it brings (sort of…=P). Each was asked earlier this week to purchase a gift ranging from RM 2 to 10, wrap it up nicely and bring it on Thursday for CA’s first ever gift exchange session as ice breakers and games. Before the session started, almost everyone out of curiosity glanced through the packages on each person’s hand. Some were big, some were small, some were nicely wrapped and yet some looked like packed ‘murtabaks’ and ‘roti-johns’. Worse still, some did not bother to even wrap their presents! To start off the gift exchange session, the people were divided into two large groups by numbering. This however caused much confusion to the point that the division was not symmetrical i.e. not balanced. This then propelled our coordinator Yen Mee to declare us ‘failures in Mathematics’ (shame to all of us scholars!!). As things got noisy and confusing, Samuel stepped in to help control the crowd and things slowly got under control. To cut the story short, the members of the first group were given two pieces of paper each where on one piece they were asked to write down their full name. After collecting the papers with the names, Yen Mee and Samuel distributed them to the second group, and members of the second group with the papers were asked to find the person stated on their respective paper. After finding their respective partner, each group of two were supposed to draw the face of their partner on the piece on paper they have on their hands and then exchange gifts. It was a time of tremendous fun and laughter as we discover and admire the drawing skills of our respective partner, and how we really look like physically in the eyes of others! About the gifts, well, some were disappointing, but as many would say, ‘it is the thought that counts!”.

Next on the line was of course worship, lead by ALG junior Mr. Anderson *feigns ‘The Matrix’ style* (hehe…). Worship was fantastic, as one of the worship coordinators, I am truly proud that the team worshiped God with all their hearts although some were in their midst of examination. Always being in the worship team, it is a great joy this time to take a break and join the others in awesome worship. Usually in the worship team, I would be more aware to judge on how well the music went, spotting mistakes and inaccuracies here and there. But when I am down there, these things does not seem to matter anymore, but only the sincere hearts of the people longing for the presence of our God is of top most priority. Kudos worship team! You did great! In addition, the songs chosen really reflected the proceeding message about giving to God very well. Songs like ‘Till I see you’, ‘I Stand’ and ‘This is my desire’ impacted many of us to willingly surrender our lives wholly to the Lord, as a ‘gift’, service and devotion. Halleluljah!

“I will live to love you, I will live to bring you praise, I will live a child in awe of you…”

“What could I say? What could I do? But offer this heart of God, completely unto you…”

“Lord I give you my heart, I give you my soul, I live for you alone!”

As worship was about to end, we stayed in a prayerful attitude and continued to worship God. We searched our hearts, surrendering all areas of our lives of Him. Then came an emotional time where some of us who have friends and family in sickness knelt down before the Lord in prayer. We surrendered those people we love who are sick into the loving hands of Jesus and prayed for them. Some poured out their hearts in tears, some laid hands on one another and some hugged with comfort and love. It was truly a time of comfort and assurance that God is in control in all situations of our lives. We then stand up in faith and continued to worship and participate in offering.

For the word of God, Pastor Joshua Lee Chin Ban of NLRC shared to us a short yet powerful and straightforward message about ‘The Art of Giving to the Lord’. He based his sermon on 1 Chronicles 29, about how King David though very old still generously gave unto the Lord to build God’s temple. Referring to the wonderful generosity of King David, pastor revealed to us that there is always great joy in giving, both to the giver and the given. We give to others because we want to bless others, and we give cheerfully to God because we LOVE the Lord. In his sermon, pastor gave us 8 points on giving unto the Lord. (1) Give joyfully and freely (2) God fills time and space (3) Everything is God’s (4) God is the Real King (5) God is Rich (6) God is Generous (7) A million reason to thank God (8) God gives us ability [to give].

Finally, refreshments on the fifth floor were on as usual! We had delicious ‘pau’s with different types of filling (no ‘char siew’ though…*sad*) accompanied by delicious mango juice and guess what, ICE CREAM! *fuiyoh* Thanks to aunty Phoebe! (I did not realize one of the flavors was DURIAN! Not until I smelled my breath!). As always, the room was filled with the loud chit-chatting fellowship of scholars. It was a little hectic though at the sink where everyone was queuing up, not for more food but to wash their cups! Praise God! Truly all of us had a great time of fellowship and sharing. Then came the siren by Joash (as always…), “REFRESHMENT OVER IN 5 MINUTES!!”, or “ALL CENDANA GUYS DOWN NOW! NOW!!” (over and over again…).

Well, though tired, CA has and will always be something to look forward to. Thank you so much to everyone who came! All glory to God! AMEN!!

GOD BLESS!

Prepared by fellow CA dude,

CALVIN LIM FUNG CHYE