Girl sleepovers and rainbows

This week was half-term for students - they got a nice week-long holiday, which meant that we got a nice week-long holiday too, because lots of students went on vacation with their families. We still did a little bit of ministry, but it was mostly fun stuff.

For youth group we had a movie night where we watched the kids' movie Monster House, which was quite a scary horror animated movie for kids. Then the guys left and some of the girls stayed at the church, where we had a sleepover. We watched A Walk to Remember (half the girls cried) and A Boy Girl Thing - total girly movies. Then one team member shared her testimony about body image and beauty and the lies that the media tells us about beauty, and I think the girls were pretty open and receptive to it, so that was cool. Then we switched off the lights and tried to sleep, but to no avail. The girls were super hyper, so we stayed up late and talked, laughed, made funny noises, and did gymnastics. It was good and we got to bond with the girls. The guys were so funny - we jokingly invited them to stay over with us, and they said no, because apparently all we do in sleepovers is paint nails, do makeup, and talk about ponies, rainbows, and unicorns.

The next day we did the ultimate girl bonding experience - SHOPPING :) I was proud of myself for practicing self-control and only buying a bag and a Lush face mask. I love fun ministry, although I feel a little bit guilty for enjoying myself because I feel like I should be doing something more... productive. But hey, bonding with the girls is important so then we can invest in their lives.


Later in the week, we had tea and fellowship with the elderly, and three of us shared our testimony, me included. It went pretty well; people were interested in asking me more questions about my life, so that was cool.

Other than that, it was a relaxing week, not much different from any other week, actually. I'm beginning to feel rather purposeless and useless here, because we really don't do much. I think it's affecting the team too, because we only do ministry on mondays and thursdays, and the rest of the week is free time - we watch movies, go to the city, go shopping, laze around... I feel like I'm still in college or something. It's fun because I love hanging out with new friends and learning more about their culture and watching movies and shopping, but I could totally do that at home or in school.

I guess I'm a little disappointed in the program and the organization as a whole. I expected something more from this, and it really wasn't what I expected. I thought the ministry would be more... difficult? fulfilling? challenging? And it's really not. It's just... normal life. I guess I should've gone to Africa or something if I wanted something crazier. Not that I would ever be allowed to set foot in Africa if it were up to the parents.

Hopefully things get better and we feel more purposeful and have more to do.

Adven(tor)ture in Wales

Last week was Seminar Week, where all the teams come back to the base and reunite for classes. But this time, half of the week was Adventure Week, so we only had two days of classes, which was a nice change. It was so great to see everyone again, and our room was once again filled with loud, crazy girls - I had mixed emotions about that, because even though I loved the reunion, the base has become my home, and I was like, 'why are all these people invading my room and leaving a mess everywhere and not cleaning up???'

But it was cool. We finally got done with our Culture Project and presented it to everyone - we had a song about the town, a video (with me and another girl as the reporters) of us exploring the tiny town, and then a photo presentation. It was so interesting to see everyone's presentation about their towns, their ministries, and their prayer requests. And just as I was thanking God the huge assignment was over (I wrote the entire report 'cause the rest of my team was either non-native English speakers or just plain lazy), we got new huge assignments. Ugh. So much for graduating from college.

Although... if given a choice between homework and physical exertion, I'd take homework any day. We woke up at the unearthly hour of 5am and drove 4 hours to Wales on Wednesday in cramped vans and started our torturous mountain hike at Snowdon Mountain. They scared us by telling us the weather would be below zero celsius, and that we would need tons of energy and sugar to climb the mountain, so I was prepared. Boy, I was more than prepared. I had on 3 pairs of socks, waterproof hiking boots, 2 leggings and 1 sweatpants, 1 t-shirt, 1 long-sleeved shirt, 1 woolen long-sleeved shirt, 1 thick hoodie, 1 huge jacket (borrowed from the base), and 1 waterproof jacket over everything. By the time I got everything on, I looked like an enormous dumpling, especially since all the waterproof stuff was borrowed and hence, too big. So yeah, I was totally overprepared.

My hideous, ginormous jacket is from the donation closet at the base. But hey, keeping warm is more important than looking nice - Tip #1 for mountain climbing.

As soon as we started climbing the never ending mountain, I started sweating and took off 2 layers. And then I had to carry my heavy bag stuffed with jackets and lots of water and sandwiches and chocolate (for energy) all the way up the mountain. It was awful. I've never eaten so much in my life. Seriously, climbing a mountain just sucks all the energy out of your body.

I was faking this exhausted face, but it wasn't too far from the truth - most of the time, I probably looked like that.

But not all of it was bad. We had fun times talking and laughing when I wasn't panting in exhaustion or busy concentrating on the rocks so I wouldn't fall off the edge. I was stuck at the back of the group with some other girls, and we took our time hiking. The tour guide showed us the railway track where they filmed a Harry Potter movie, and some pipeline where they filmed a scene from James Bond, so that was cool.

Heart-shaped lake at the bottom of the mountain

He also showed us a pole with coins stuck in it in memory of the people who died climbing the mountain! Naturally, we all freaked out and begged him to bring us down so we wouldn't face the same fate as these unfortunate (or foolish) souls. But he was one stubborn man. So we continued the climb with fear in our hearts. Okay, I wasn't that scared; I'm not afraid of heights. I was just annoyed at having to climb the mountain to 'challenge myself and push myself to the limit so I can discover new things about myself' - as said by our leaders. Um, news flash, I can 'discover new things about myself' in other situations, such as taking a quiz or a survey or something.

Anyway, after 4 hours, we finally got to the summit, where the view was breathtaking. There was a little bit of snow, but hardly enough to make snowballs or snow angels. So... it really wasn't worth the climb for me. I could've admired the view from a postcard and still be as happy. But whatever. I was just glad the climb was over. And then we spotted a train coming up the mountain with passengers. And we all just about fainted with anger, because why climb an entire mountain when you can simply take the train???

The pathetic white lumps are snow.

But no, we had to continue 'pushing ourselves' and so we climbed down the mountain, which was possibly worse than going up, because it started to hail (sort of like snow but harder and hence more dangerous). So all the rocks were slippery and it was steep, and our genius tour guide decided to lead us back the long way. I didn't fall, because my eyes were glued to the ground the entire time (I don't think I even looked at the view on the way down), but others slipped and fell many times and got bruises everywhere. Oh well. At least we saw sheep eating grass on steep slopes and laughed when my friend tried to pet one and it rolled down the hill because it was scared and lost its footing. So cute.

When we finally reached the bottom (I was not last, YES!), I sat down in the van and couldn't move. And the next day and the day after, my legs hurt like never before. My shoulders, too. Basically every part of my body, even my head, because I was probably dehydrated. I didn't drink much water for fear of having to pee on the mountain in clear view of all the people and the sheep.

But I did muster up what little energy I had left to shower, because my clothes were disgustingly damp from all the sweat. Gross. And then, after dinner, we still had to go out and 'rescue' people with a map and a compass in the dark and creepy jungle. It was the most pointless game in the world.

I thought I would go straight to sleep when my head finally hit the pillow after the longest day in the world, but I didn't sleep much. I always have trouble sleeping in a foreign place on the first day, don't know why. So the next day, they brought us to another national park/jungle place, where we split into teams and played team-building games. Oh how I hate those games. We had to 'cross the dangerous river filled with crocodiles and other man-eating creatures' (i.e. the road) with 2 tires and 2 planks of wood and 1 rope. We did it successfully so many times, but every time they would tell us, do it faster! It was really annoying.

And then we had to build a stretcher and carry someone who had 'broken their back' to another location. Oh boy. This one took forever. We were only given a few minutes to plan and build, and each time we failed to build the stretcher by the time limit, we had to start over. I thought we would never complete the activity. But finally we got all the sticks and tied them together, and the lightest girl lay in it and we carried her up the muddy hill to the 'final location.' It was horrible. Our team was just weak physically, so I nearly died trying to carry her. One girl hurt her back, another hurt her arm... there were injuries everywhere. Everyone was exhausted except the 'injured' person happily lying in the stretcher. Actually, she was pale with fear because we nearly dropped her a couple of times. After that, we eased our pain by eating tons of chocolate. Seriously, they feed us chocolate like nobody's business.

Building our stretcher

The last activity my team did was to build a bridge with pointed planks of wood where the wood could only touch 2 sides of the 'river.' We sat around and thought about ideas until our heads hurt. We tried building different bridges but to no avail. I just wanted to stab the person who thought of this game with one of the planks. It was impossible. I'm a writer, not an architect or engineer. So finally we gave up, also because one girl hurt her head from another game and she had to go to the hospital. It was scary. But she turned out to be fine, thank God.

Then at night, we gathered in the lounge to play another game. The team-building games just keep on comin'. This was better though, because it required more mental effort as we sat comfortably on chairs in the warmth of the house. We had to rank different professions in terms of their importance to ourselves, and then we had to come together as a group and ALL AGREE on each ranking. It was like asking pigs to fly. The task was impossible from the start. People started getting very passionate about why priests are more important than doctors or whatever, and you could sense the tension in the room building. Some people cried, some people yelled, some people had steam coming out of their heads. It was intense, to say the least. Plus we all came from different countries, so the cultural and background differences gave us all different perspectives on each profession. We were stuck in the room for about 4 hours. I was like, whatever. It's just a ranking. It's really not life and death, people. No need to kill each other over this.

So finally, after all the drama, I came up with a solution and people listened to me because we were all tired of arguing. I defined each profession specifically, and purposely made some professions better than others, so everyone agreed, and we finally got to go to bed. Some people were hugging me with tears in their eyes, thanking me for putting a stop to this nonsense so we could all get some sleep. Some people didn't like the solution because they wanted to continue arguing. It was kind of funny and yet really annoying, the entire activity.

Our solution

The next day was filled with debriefs. Then we had SOLO time - they dropped us in the wilderness of the national park with nothing but tons of clothes, waterproof stuff, food, and water. No bible, no phone, no watch, nothing. We were supposed to spend solo time with God, to allow Him to speak to us. Good idea... in theory. Not so much in reality.

It was pouring rain, so not only was it freezing cold, it was wet, muddy, and completely miserable. AND they left us there for 3 whole hours. I was by a rushing stream, so I was in total agony the entire time, as the sound of water flowing kept making me want to go pee even worse. But I refused to pee in the jungle. Too uncivilized.

That's kind of what my spot looked like - beautiful but miserable.

At first I tried to approach the situation with a good attitude - I prayed and asked God to speak to me and tell me whatever He wanted to say, but after hearing nothing for a long time, and after losing feeling in both hands due to the cold, I gave up. I started praying for God to send someone to save me, to change the minds of the leaders and make them stop this insane activity, to do something at the very least. But nothing happened for a long time. It was awful. I don't even know how long it was because I didn't have a watch to stare at and count the seconds!

I tried standing up, but the sloshy mud got into my boots. I tried sitting down, but the water soaked through my lousy water proof pants. I tried lying down to sleep (so I could drift off to a happy warm place), but I was too concerned with getting bitten to death by insects and snakes. So for 3 entire hours I was stuck in my 3 metre perimeter circle, unable to move for fear that the leaders would not find me and I would be lost forever in the national park. I think I finally know what it feels like to be homeless. And I hope I never get that feeling ever again. When we all got back to the van, we joked about how we just successfully endured our 'persecution,' but none of us were really joking. I just think it was stupid, because God can totally speak to me in the comfort of my bed. He doesn't need me to go out into the middle of nowhere for Him to tell me something.

My face was pretty much like this angry puppy's, except not as cute.

Finally, finally, finally, after that, we made our way home. But then, would you know it, one of the vans broke down, so we were stuck for another 2 hours (and I had to continue holding my pee in). Later, we had dinner from a fish & chips place (they're everywhere in England - but they don't just have fish; they have kebab & chips, sausage & chips, burger & chips... and it's all pretty bland, just like every other British food). 

Funny moment - one girl hopped into a pub to use the restroom with a sleeping bag wrapped around her as a substitute for pants because hers was wet from the rain. How often do you see that in a pub??

When we got home at midnight, I was exhausted and so ready for bed. Oh home, sweet home.

Visit to Warwick

Last Saturday the girls on my team + two others drove to Warwick to visit friends there, and it was so nice to get away from the base. The town is such a quaint little historic place, I love it!

We went canoeing/kayaking first, which was our main excuse to visit the team there - for their canoeing 'ministry,' which seemed more like having fun canoeing and talking to random people there. Lucky!

It was a little bit scary at first, pushing the canoe into the lake and then jumping into it and hoping to God I didn't fall into the icy cold water. But after a while I got used to the waves hitting the canoe and I even stood up and paddled with my partner.

Apart from going past the 'danger' sign and almost going down the waterfall, I'd say it was a good time. The lake was so peaceful and beautiful, there were swans and ducks swimming everywhere, and we rowed to the Warwick castle, which was magnificent. At the end of the two hours, I was immensely grateful I chose the canoe and not the kayak, because everyone who kayaked got soaked, thanks to the (non-waterproof) waterproof stuff. It was a little bit sad we have no pictures of the lake, because we were all terrified of losing our cameras to the water.

After that we went to have, what else, fish and chips - britain's national food.

And then we saw the church where C.S. Lewis got married in. I think. I know someone famous got married here, I'm not sure who.

Then we went to a local carnival and sat on one of those spinning rides that lift you high into the air and spin you around in all directions. Bad idea. My lunch nearly came back up.

But other than that, the carnival was cool. Lots of bright lights and techno music.

Then it started drizzling but we still made our way to the park, which was beautiful with all the leaves of the trees changing colors. I love fall. Everything's just so crisp and pretty and colorful.

Can you spot the different camera person?

We saw rabbits and squirrels running around all carefree and joyful, and then we spotted a rabbit hole! Coolness. I've never seen one. So I took a picture of it and one guy insisted on having his hand in my photo. It was so funny - we were all crowded around the hole, eagerly taking pictures of it, and someone commented, 'it's just a hole, there aren't even any rabbits here, why are you taking pictures??' And then I realized he was right. But still. I like to think there were little rabbits inside sipping tea (because they're British rabbits) and eating biscuits to keep warm from the cold.

After that we spent the rest of the day talking, playing games, singing karaoke, and laughing. All this while sipping hot tea and munching on ginger biscuits (because we're in Britain).

We heard horror stories about what goes on behind the doors in the guys' room. Apparently one guy shaves his beard every day in front of the mirror and doesn't realize the hairs actually drop to the floor, so there's a pile of beard hair on the carpet right in front of the mirror. Gross. But hilarious. Because this guy is 20 but he acts like a little kid (in a really adorable, endearing way) and he's always smiling and laughing. It's so cute - he's like a little boy.
This same guy didn't know he had to actually scrub the toilets when on cleaning duty, and he's been here almost 2 months! He'd been simply flushing the toilets as a form of cleaning. So. Funny. How does flushing a toilet count as cleaning? I have no idea.

You never let go of me

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

Your perfect love is casting out fear 

And even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life

I won't turn back
I know you are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We'll live to know You here on the earth

We sang this song on Prayer Emphasis Day (Thursday - a monthly event where the entire organization gathers to pray the entire day and fast from lunch), and I thought it was really meaningful. Also, when I was singing it, I closed my eyes partly because I was tired and partly because I was singing it from the heart. Then later, one of my German friends came up to me and said, 'I think you're really beautiful, I thought that when you were singing just now.' And I was like, awwww... uh, okay. I'm pretty sure my face was scrunched up when I was singing my heart out, I was really exhausted from praying all day and not sleeping much the night before, and pimples have been building homes on my chin since I've been here (don't know why - maybe it's the water or the air or the lack of sleep or the not-so-healthy food). 

                                           

But anyway, that's not the point. The point is, I love this song because God never lets go. Not in the desert, not in the wilderness, not in the storm, not ever. And as we hold on to our faith, with every passing day, we grow closer to spending a wondrous eternity with God.

All in all, Prayer Emphasis Day was really good. It was wonderful to see all the teams again, to hear stories of their ministry, and to pray for their needs and the needs of other missionaries and countries. We heard from two missionaries serving in Turkey, of how 99.9% of the people there are Muslim, and how numerous girls have been physically and emotionally abused when they came to Christ. It's just amazing, seeing God's hand move through Muslim nations; I'm always fascinated, but I don't think I could work with them, because I think you need a special heart and a calling to do so. The girls in the team that works with Muslims are incredibly passionate about them; they're just the sweetest, most self-sacrificial girls I've ever met, and they have such a huge heart for Muslims. 

Sometimes I wish I could be passionate about a particular group of people, but I think I have a heart for youth and kids. We went for another church's youth group on Friday, and it was so good to hang out with non-Christian teenagers, talk to them, play games with them (we played Guitar Hero, table tennis, pool, and foosball), and just build relationships with them. It's funny how teenagers everywhere are pretty much the same; no matter where they come from, they still like the same kind of music and games, the boys still act cool and tease the girls they like, and everyone is still glued to texting on their phones.

I also love kids. I may not know how to act around them sometimes, because playing with kids involves being stupid and doing silly things I normally would not do, but whenever I hear of or see kids suffering or being treated unfairly by life, my heart just breaks, and I want to do everything I can to help them. But I don't know how or what to do. So I just pray and hope that somehow my little prayer does something for the kid.

Note: I don't know why blogger won't allow me to get rid of this black background, so just bear with this ugly-looking post.

Visit to Coventry

This week, on our day off (Wednesday), we drove to Coventry to meet up with friends and visit the place. It's bigger than our tiny sleepy suburban town here, and it's very multi-racial, full of ethnic people and shops. It also has an awesome mall with H&M and Primark, my two new favorite stores in the UK (mostly because they have great stuff and they're cheaper than ridiculously priced Topshop and Mango and Zara and all the other brands).

We explored Coventry University a little - it looks kind of rundown and old, but the Coventry Cathedral within the campus was awesome. They told us that Coventry was badly affected by the world war bombing, and so part of the cathedral was old, part of it was newly rebuilt. I liked the new part, it was cool; but I loved the ancient ruins, there's just something about majestic old buildings that make me stand and stare with amazement even though I've seen a ton of them and they kind of look the same.

This adorable squirrel was the bravest squirrel I've ever seen in my life. And I've seen plenty at Taylor on campus in the spring and fall. I was this close to it and it did not flinch. At all. It just carried on nibbling away. Either it was super brave or it was foolishly hungry.

After the tour, we had lunch at Subway (being around missionaries does upsetting things to my stomach - since we are poor, we always eat either McDonalds or cheap pizza or Subway; it's really sad. I think I've eaten more McDonalds these few weeks than I've ever eaten in the last few years. Sick.)

And then it was shopping time! We shopped till we dropped and then shopped some more. I had to resist extremely strong urges to answer the tempting call of beautiful boots and coats and sweaters, because... they're of no use in horribly hot and humid Singapore. It breaks my heart to leave those gorgeous boots and coats in the store. They need a home. With me. Maybe one day.

Since we were too busy ogling clothes and shoes and scarves and hats, we missed our ride home and had to take the bus back, which took like 3 whole hours. Ridiculous. England needs to get a better bus or transport system.

(Girl) team bonding

I really like the girls on my team - we're all so different, and yet we get along so well. One girl is really outgoing, talkative, loves photography and fashion, and girly, the other is crazy, full of energy, musical, and boyish, and I'm, well, me. We have lots in common - we love shopping, making music, watching movies... basically having fun - so I'm really glad we're in the same team. We're getting to know each other better, so it's been good; lots of crazy screaming and random dance parties and chocolate parties and girly gossip sessions about (what else?) boys.

Me, the girl from Switzerland, and our fearless team leader from Mauritius.
We went shopping in Birmingham's Chinatown for supplies for our fried rice/noodles. It was heaven on earth in the Chinatown grocery store, and it was hilarious explaining the different weird Chinese food and hell bank notes to the Swiss girl who found it all extremely fascinating and a little weird.

We've watched so many movies together (with other people at the base) - Vanilla Sky, Camp Rock 2, episodes of Glee and The Vampire Diaries, Shrek, Peter Pan, Dumb and Dumber, Wolverine, The Bourne Supremacy, The Blind Side, He's just not that into you, The Hangover... and others I can't remember.

I feel like I'm still in college or something. Watching movies all the time, hanging out with friends, eating a lot of junk food, doing crazy things, going shopping, having fun, avoiding study, staying up late... It doesn't really feel like I'm on a mission trip. I'm not complaining or anything, but... hopefully we'll soon get more ministry opportunities.

Harvest Sunday food

Last Sunday was Harvest Day or something, and so we had a potluck Harvest Lunch at church after service. Service was Harvest service, which was really cute because I have never seen anything like it before. We sang songs of thanksgiving to God for the harvest, which didn't really apply to me because I am not a farmer (or any one of us), but it was fun. And then the kids came up and handed canned and boxed food to two ladies in front of the church, and they decorated the front with flowers and cloths and donated food. It somewhat reminded me of Chinese New Year, maybe because of all the red cloths and flowers. But it was heartwarming to see the church so enthusiastic about giving to the poor.

On Saturday night, our team gathered at someone's house and cooked up a storm. Before that, I went to Birmingham to catch The Takers at the cinema (it costed 5 pounds, which is 10 SGD -- normal price for the weekend, I guess), and it was awful. Lots of fighting, explosions, and dead people - totally a manly movie, as one of the guys would say. And true enough, the guys came out of the theater carrying pretend guns and fake shooting people. Boys will be boys (no matter how old they are).

So anyway, we made fried rice with long beans, bean sprouts, corn, carrots, cabbage, chicken, and kimchi + sambal mee goreng paste. It was amazing. I totally miss asian food. Except the rice was a little mushy, but I am totally proud of myself for having made such wonderful fried rice ALL BY MYSELF (with my other clueless asian teammate) for the very first time unassisted. We also made fried noodles with the same ingredients, and it also turned out great except for a little mushy.

Okay, so it doesn't look very appetizing in the photos, but it tasted pretty good. One girl had 4 bowls of rice/noodles. Safe to say, my European friends loved it. Except for one guy on my team, who doesn't like asian food in general and eats only white rice by itself. But he did try the fried rice upon lots and lots of persuasion, and admitted it was good. Success!

Knowing You

All I once held dear, built my life upon

All this world reveres, and wars to own

All I once thought gain, I have counted loss

Spent and worthless now, compared to this

Knowing You, Jesus

Knowing You 

There is no greater thing

You're my all, You're the best

You're my joy, my righteousness

And I love You, Lord

Now my heart's desire is to know You more

To be found in You, and known as Yours

To possess by faith, what I could not earn

All surpassing gift of righteousness

Photo shoot goodbye

Over the past 2 weeks, I've grown pretty close to three other girls - 2 from my team, from Switzerland and Mauritius, and another crazy German. The German girl is a little older and she's married, and she was only here to volunteer for a month, so we put on face paint and had a goodbye photo shoot and a farewell party for her this week. She's ridiculously hilarious; I've never met anyone as crazy as her, so she will be missed.

Fun times :)