Day 3: Singing, Acting, Sharing, Gaming and Star Gazing!

I woke up with a headache and a neckache because of yet another soft pillow and this one is actually worse. I had to use the top of my sleeping bag with it, else I'll be lying totally flat on the bed, but yet, it didn't help. Had to pray for the aches to go away, or it'll be one dreadful day...

In the Hall, the worship team was already starting the day off with a few Nepali songs. We fell in love with the songs, and prompted me to record it with my mobile phone. Although we have no idea what they were singing, we were sure "yesu" means Jesus, heh! Soon after, we were called onto stage and this time, we sang our English worship songs, a couple of 'em :D

It's our turn to perform!

Most of them don't understand English, so no doubt they don't understand the song. All the preaching and sharing were done with the help of a couple of interpreters, one of whom is Anil, who played a very important role in our trip, and I shall talk more about him as we go.

Anil, one of the best interpreters in Pokhara, and some say in Nepal!

Before Pastor Sam took over, we did a mime. That's acting with no speech. I teamed up with Becky to do Hearts. It goes like this; the boy hears God, and God asks for the boy's heart. Boy considers it for a while, and when he was about to give it to God, the girl comes into the picture, and asks for his heart. Boy reluctantly gives her, and when she has it, she plays with it, and purposely drops it, and stomps on it. Boy is sad, picks up the broken pieces of the heart, and God once again calls for the boy's heart, despite a broken one. Boy gives it to God, and he's transformed, to a new person! God then calls for girl's heart, and girl is persuaded by boy to give it to God. She is also transformed after giving her heart to God. Moral of the story, at least from my point of view... why give your heart to mere humans who might betray your trust, waste your time, and play with your heart like the girl in the story... when you can give it to your own Creator, the One who knows all of you, each and every thing about you, who does not care what you've done, who does not changes through time, who longs for you and who loves you so much unconditionally? We're transformed the moment we open our hearts to Him, and receives His ultimate love, which is everflowing, everlasting, and ever so wonderful. By the grace of God, I was blessed even before I knew Him. That actually made me want to know Him even more, which started my relationship with Him. I shall tell this story in future.

The girl persuading the boy to give the heart to her

Back to the Hall, today is all about BGR, that is Boy-Girl Relationship, which is a very common topic in a Youth Camp. Pastor Sam preached a little and we took turns to share... on my part, the main point is the differences between boys and girls when it comes to relationships. I shared on my recent relationship with this girl I met in college. Then, I had not known Christ, so I thought putting her on top of my list, giving her all of me, all my time, being nice and doing good would impress her easily, but I was wrong, cause I had to wait for a year before we were finally attached. Despite the 1yr+ of knowing her, I still didn't know all of her. I didn't know what she wanted, how she wanted it, etc. Mind you, despite being dumped after 2.5yrs and suffering a terrible 9 days after that, she's not a bad girl... in fact, she's a nice one. But I just didn't know the differences we had, and I always expected her to react like how I would want her to. I made a mistake in doing that.

Instead, I should've taken my time before diving in to go after her... I should've spent more time with her as friends, to learn more about her, and to just basically be a friend before making her a special someone. And so, I ended my sharing by telling the youth that they should put God first, and everything else will come from God's grace, for their faith will surely be seen by the Almighty One, who provides each and every need we'll require.

Lunch was served, and this time around, I've got pics to show you Nepali delicacies :D

That would be chicken, with rice (they call it bhat), and dhal. Or better known as dhalbhat with chicken

Green chilli and salt, to be eaten raw

Just before the session got started again, a few of us were asked to go onto the roof, to have photos taken with a bunch of youth who came from this big church. Check them out!

Nice backdrop with a great bunch of people

The 2nd half of the day started with yet another mime, and this one is entitled "Sin Chair". It's about this girl (could be a guy, but Becky was the actress then) who was flirting with sin and soon got hooked to it (Becky can't remove her hands as it is stuck to the chair). A muscle-man (Pragas) came to her rescue but despite the strength, it failed to unstuck her. I then came in with a cigarette on one hand and a bottle of alcohol on the other, and letting her have some of both didn't help either. The third person, Suba, came into the picture with lotsa money, and even money can't help remove Becky from sin. The last one is Susan, who played a person holding the Bible. Susan helped by asking Becky to go on her knees, and they both prayed together, and soon after, she was finally unstuck from the chair! Yes, that's how it works! It is God who set us free from sin, because He sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for us. When one sins, he is a slave to sin forever, and being a slave means having no permanent place in the family. Only a son can be in the family forever, and so if the Son sets one free from sin, he'll be free forever! Thank God for the cross!

That's Susan praying alongside Becky who's stuck to the "sin chair"

Then, the Pastor preached based on the mime we just acted out. The message was a good one, but maybe I'll write that another day, cause it can be quite lengthy. Tea was soon served, and we went around taking photos with the Nepali team. One of the amazing thing that happened was Pragas speaking in Malay. I was like, "Err, who is he speaking Malay to?!" There was this Nepali who actually worked in Penang before and he can speak very fluent Malay, even better than I do! Woahhh, he was working in one of the factories before, and he told us that there're lotsa Nepalis who work in Malaysia too. No wonder EPCC chose Nepal!

One of the greatest thing that happened in the camp was after tea. It was the worship! It was just amazing! A breakthrough, cause everyone in the Hall was so into it... both sides of the Hall, the guys, on the right and the girls, on the left just kept jumping, singing praises to Him and worshipping Him! In previous worships, the girls just stood there, clapping hands, but now, there were all fired up! We went to the front and worshipped like we've never done it before! It reminds me lots bout how EPCC does it every Saturday night on their SNL service! It was the greatest time of worship for me, really! Will definitely not forget that!

The best worship time!

*phew* All tired and literally drenched from our own sweat, we conducted the games, all of which had a story behind it that relates to Jesus, and His leadership. It was very fun, and seeing the crowd enjoy it so much really made me feel it's worth it all that I've spent; the time, the money, the lost of my own comfortable home... and again, it got me thinking, "Maybe I should do this more often" Hmm...

The Nepalis enjoying the heroes game

The night session saw one of the youth sharing his testimony, and how great God has been in his life. It relates so much to the message that Pastor Sam shared earlier, which I said that I'll share it some other day. Anil translated all of it to English for us.

We may think all this electricity around us is "free", always so abundantly available to us, but to the people in Nepal, it's a priviledge. Halfway through Pastor Sam's preaching, the lights went out, and I had to run to the front to supply light from my torch light. It was obviously pitch black then, since there aren't any streets for us to even have street lamps! It came back after a while, thank God for electricity!!! Every now and then, it seemed as though the lights would go off again... be thankful with all that you have, really!

Day ended with us climbing up to the roof, spent like 15 minutes up there star gazing while everyone else was fast asleep. Again, it was pitch black, only our torches shone the path. This event actually reminds me of 2 dreams I had long time ago. Both were alike, it was me, looking up into the skies, and seeing so many stars, so beautifully laid out, twinkling like it was calling for my attention. It was such a captivating sight, but none of our cameras were good enough to take photos of it. We just looked up in awe and thank God for His creation, for He made all these, and everything else for us to enjoy, for He loves us so much, He would give us anything... that, I'm very sure of :)

Heh, a pic with the help of the tripod