Although this time is a slightly smaller grp. I felt it was just nice for the sharing and discussing and bonding.
THIS RETREAT cld be the TURNING point for GOD's CLAY for the year to come!
Started of at WEST COAST PARK... (1030am) (DAY 1)
(we started of the retreat by praying outside this hut...and it actually started to rain as we prayed...and during the prayer time... we just prayed in FAITH that the rain wld stop.. AND IMMEDIATELY the RAIN just stop as we stood at the open air! IT WAS REALLY AMAZING I tell you! Its STOP so suddenly! and right after that we had a really nice time of worship with feli and mel leading. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER from our last 2 retreats we are fortunate to have a keyboard with us this time! So it really did helped in the atmosphere for worship!)
ACTIVITIES by the park!
(thats feli........................................vyan and Aj)
(for the first time in my life i manage to climb to the top of such an obstacle! ALL my life i was afraid of climbing so high as i actually have a fear of heights....after that tried the mini obstacle course)
Ate lunch at macs.... rhwn headed to praisehaven!
In BUS to praisehaven!
ARRIVAL! abt 1 plus pm....
(back to the same place as combined-ministry retreat a couple weeks back)
(vyan took a snooze while waiting for our rooms to check in)
THE HORROR!!!!!
(we FOUND STRANGE PIECES OF MEAT in our refrigerator! till now we dunno if they are HUMAN parts! heh! =P)
THE LIVING ROOM!
We booked 2 very nice apartments..for abt 14 of us.... 12 stayed over....
See what we did to change this area........
(from this........................we added all the mattresses from both apartments and pile them up here)
(And soon enuff we got a decent common comfy area we added all the blankets and pillows!..
This was our HANG OUT area for this retreat!)
HAPPENINGS in the afternoon...(3-6pm)
(mel taking a photo of feli..... cherie and her DUCK!)
THE START OF BETTER THINGS TO COMEEEE..... (5 pm onwards)
The planning comm and rising leaders of God's clay, ellen,mel,justin,moonie,englee and me then headed to a room and we decided to have a time of prayer,worship, and discussion before we go ahead with the sessions at night. AND WOW... i tell you... GOD PRESENCE WAS SO REAL TO ALL OF US IN THAT COLD AIR-CON ROOM! As mel played the keyboard in the back ground... the ATMOSPHERE was ALL THERE... and the prayer session we had in THAT ROOM WAS REALLY SPIRIT LED! AND GOD REVEALED TO US ALL as we prayed! and we all had the same common insights in the end... GOD told us all to just SURRENDER the whole retreat to his hand and we sldnt be so caught up cracking our brains on how to get a good proposal for our grp for the year to come. The presence of GOD was so strong i didnt want to leave that room!
(THE ROOM where GOD was leading the leaders of God's clay as we prayed and worship!)
AT NIGHT!....
Headed for dinnner at rail mall at this noodle place....
(the night view of Salvation Army PRAISEHAVEN)
Back to the apartments... 8 plus pm..
(moonie and soe just when crazy and HIGH!...and they started jumping on the mattresses!)
(the COSY hang out area.... MISS THIS PLACE NOW!)
(we pasted the worship lyrics at the wall.... WORSHIP at night was awesome! Mel led really well and the presence of GOD was here in the room again!)
After worship...we broke into grps of 2-3 and prayed in different parts of the apartment...
vyan,josh and me prayed in the kitchen...and WOW...AGAIN... it was a very sprit led prayer session..as we prayed for our small grp... WE ALL BELIEVED by FAITH that TODAY... was the time of REVIVAL for our small grp... and we all knew 2007 was the hardest year for us yet and many of us fell away from God and got caught up with many worldly issues...but we know that God is always faithful and this time of trials is meant to build our grp! And a verse hit me as we prayed...
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
12 years has passed........
Thats what happen...as we decided to change plans of discussion to sharing instead to catch up what we have missed out from each other for the past year in 2007...and with 12 of us here...we manage find out many deep details of one another, the good times and hard times from each of us. It was a very heartfelt sharing session that our grp has never done ever since the last retreat...and after abt 2 hrs 12 years has passed....
we also surprised Eng lee with an appreciation acard and gift to thank him for the many things he done for us the past yr.
BIRTHDAY BASH for the july to december babies...
(had this really cool cake!)
We decided to sleep early after some games as we postponed the discussion to the next day... after some games of polar bear,bridge and some other grp games... by 2pm i actually knocked out unknowingly... and SUDDENLY woke up at 5.30am to see vyan,rachel and soe still awake having someee deep interesting talk! DANG i miss everything! Anyway stayed up with them till abt 6 tish when justin woke up too... and we slept soon after...
BREAKFAST time!!!!! 8.45am (Day 2)
(Some of the girls made breakfast for us! It was pretty good!)
SERIOUS DISCUSSION TIME!
SOMEHOW... i was quite surprise this time morning..we were ALL WIDE AWAKE still.. its the FIRST Retreat out of the last 3 that we were wide awake in the morning... as this time the discussion abt our grp future became really OPENED and we shared many personal issues right from our hearts. And we really hope for the best of everyone of God's Clay as many wont here to have a say. But i believed that God led us in this time, and it was a very FRUITFUL and PURPOSEFUL time as we shared and came out with proposals and plans for 2008! IT WAS GOOD!... and we hope that for the year to come... LOVE will pour among each and everyone in God's Clay and that we will all COMMIT and PRIORITIZE small grp meetings.
Through the discussion... i kinda felt i was more into staying on to help my very own small grp instead of taking a sec 1 grp the next yr..... will still continue to pray abt it....
(we were doing this complicated accountability list...so that everyone is accountable to one another)
(vyan and my feet!)
CRAZY HAPPENINGS before we check out.... abt 12 noon...
(The girls TAO-POK each other lor!)
(everyoneeee was HIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
IM IN LOVE WITH GOD'S CLAY!!!!!
(back row- Jem,cherie,mel,moonie,soe,rachel..front row-ellen,ben,vyan and englee)
(feli,Aj,justin,josh and steph who came for this retreat but left the day before or earlier)
-Ben Lau
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