Church Camp VII: Fellowship Times

Before I had the sense of belonging to Calvary Life Assembly (CLA), I always wanted to run away as soon as the church service was over. Since 2008, I have still been running--everywhere in the church compound for various reasons--to arrange the return transport for Uncle Seelan, to make sure new visitors were attended to at the coffee lounge, to take pictures of guest speakers, etc. Early this year, I committed myself to sending Calvary Care Home (CCH) boys back. So I have even less time to sit in the canteen and chat with church members who are getting more and more familiar with my demeanour.

Having to rush nowhere in this church camp, I finally had several fellowship times with some Calvarites.

During my first afternoon stroll, I met Sis Fei Gin near the waterfall and joined her to walk to the club house. I had the great respect for this single lady who had sacrificed nine years without holidays bringing up destitute children, most of whom were not from her ethnic group. I remember when Pastor James announced to the congregation her resignation from her full-time job at CCH and advertised the vacancy, I was asking God in my heart, "Will it be me?". Two years later, as a mere part-time volunteer serving at my own pace and not willing to compromise my social life, I am still too far from taking over the position.

The next afternoon, I held another conversation with Sis Fei Gin while Luke, David and Daniel were having a tea break in her room. She shared with me her health problems despite her nursing knowledge, her vegetarian diet, her view about parenting the CCH boys, etc. Though I did not agree on all her points, I understood her better.

Sis Fei Gin's room was next to Sis Christine's. I began to develop friendship with this elderly sister in Christ after we had been put into the same Externally-Focused Small Group. During the free time on the first day, she telephoned me to find out my whereabouts. A short while after I entered her room, her room-mate and neighbours who were back from their walk came in to initiate a ladies' talk on the sofa. The most interesting topic was from Sis Christine who revealed to us her love stories which had taken place at least forty-five years ago! To me, she had been the most unlikely person to contribute that part of her autobiography. Yet I felt so related to her sharing.

The second evening after the revival time, she invited me alone to her room again to accompany her to a trip down memory lane and gave me advice regarding certain issues. Now, she became my mentor in relationships in addition to prayer.

This church camp also allowed me to befriend Calvarites whom I only knew by faces. While I was sitting near the swimming pool to keep an eye on my "sons" who were having fun in the water, more real parents joined in with their children. One of them was Michelle whom I had first seen in September 2008 during an outing to Tanjung Keling invited by my cell leader's family. Her eldest daughter had grown bigger but this trendy mother of two remained fit. As a pioneer of the newly founded ladies cell, she succeeded in grooming another member Adrienne who had been surprising us with her different hairstyles.

Later, Sis Abigail arrived with her lovely toddler daughter. As a befriender at CLA last year, I shook her hand when she entered the main sanctuary but never talked to her. This time, I had a closer interaction with her. Given a single room to be with her child, she had no adult room-mate to go out with during free time. As a result, she had not been enjoying the camp much.

I told her that I had read about her adoption of the little girl in one of the past issues of "Calvawrites" and that my late father and my mother's sister had also been blessed by similar kind acts. As we exchanged our family testimonies, her eyes brightened. I think she would have liked to stay longer at the swimming pool if not for Naomi who needed a nap. I was very glad that this encounter had been a blessing to both of us.

Around 120 people had turned up in this church camp.

Of course, the people with whom I spent most of the time were still my travelling companions. On the way back to Melaka, the junior ones who, after yelling "boring la!" for four consecutive days, said at last, "I wish we could stay longer."

The senior one, after multiple stops at the road side and moves back to the lane just to shift from the auto-gear to the manual gear, in spite of my reminder in a high pitch to use turn signals, finally listened to my advice that simply pressing a button was enough to change gear while driving.

Again, I felt like kicking them out of the car. This time, the driver included.