in the meeting room only started after dinner. Everyone was full of energy!
As I was sitting at the back, the first night I did not know that John was the drum prayer. The next day while I was taking my food at the dining hall, I overheard Sis Lyn who was telling another sister that John had played the drum very well. I immediately passed the complement to him as soon as I returned to the table.
Paul and David looked much more relaxed than when they were singing in the church on Sunday mornings.
Even their symbolic father who usually sang with his serious face was jumping and clapping cheerfully, as if he had just learnt that the school holidays had been extended another two months.
David had opted not to follow Albert P's car so that he could have "more freedom". When I saw him at the reception counter, his face was dull. Though he had arrived much earlier with the church bus, he had to wait for us almost one hour in order to leave his luggage in the 6-pax unit which he was sharing with Albert who would be holding the room key. After a good dinner, he was happy again.
One of the memorable moments of the sessions was when our guest speakers Pastor Ronald, his wife Jasmine, Pastor James and his wife Maggie offered their arms to hug us like they did to their children, according to our gender. All the Calvary Care Home (CCH) boys, except Daniel who was in the children church, joined the male queue to experience love expressed in this tangible way.
Though in my memory Dad had never hugged me tightly, he used to speak my primary love languages which were quality time and words of affirmation. Thus, I did not crave for any hugs from him when he was around.
As I was approaching Sis Jasmine, I was thinking of Mum, neither from whom I had this kind of close physical touch. My geste was rather on Mum's behalf to understand Father God's heart since she had not yet received Christ as her Saviour.
The CCH boys were not the only ones
lack of their father and/or mother's love.
I noticed that the person who had embraced Ps James for the longest time was surprisingly one whose parents had been faithfully serving in the church...
The group devotion was like a cell meeting.
The first morning devotion, I was borrowed by the CCH group to lead. The second one, I returned to my original group and had some interesting sharing with other young adults.
Before the following teaching session, line dancing was introduced during the praise and worship time.
Albert was one of those who were being revived spiritually as well as physically. He had warmed himself up by shaking his body so much that he had to take off his jacket to continue to dance.
Standing just behind him, I thought I was the only person with my jaw dropped. I even wondered if he had absorbed the dancing spirit from Sis Christine since she was the one who looked rather reserved those three days. Later Ps James said to us, "You all should dance like Albert Peh..." That was the confirmation that his liveliness in movements was something so unusual that it even attracted Pastor's attention!
Our brother in Christ's unintentional high-profil performance did not finish there. He had been touched by the Holy Spirit to lead to sing "Jesus Loves Me", which was not in the original worship list.
He told me that he had sung during the Easter service in the past and the congregation cried. This time, recalling God's marvelous work in his life, he himself shed tears.
As he was getting more emotional, he took David in arms, who was standing nearest to him, to release his fatherly love. I knew my foster son would have felt loved being fed roti cheese rather than being hugged. Nevertheless, David kindly let this touching scene last until the end of the song.
After all the teaching sessions, I was encouraged to keep looking for God life instead of good life.
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