God's Clay Retreat 2007!!! (10-11 Dec 2007)

This year small grp retreat was awesome as before! Maybe the BEST YET in terms of spirit led sessions... I can say for sure that GOD REALLY WAS WITH US the last couple of days!

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

FLASHBACK! A post i written in the old blog (26 September 2006)

The God's clay we are today has change dramtically over the years ever since 4 yrs ago when it was first form when we were sec 2 in 2003 when YM first started. We undergo lots of changes each yrs... a change in YSGLs every yr! grp members leaving and new ones coming in... Our first ever YSGL was Ee Lin and joel the aysgl... it was the first time we all gathered together when the new system YM was form after the change from the old sunday school system. The grp members that were from the pioneer God's Clay that is still here today are Vyan, Reuben, Felicia, Ellen, Rachel and me. And i tink thats all! The rest change grp or left... and disappear never seen again... the grp was really "QUIET" at first... i was the most quiet one i tink!!! Felicia or Rachel then started to invite some mgs girls along to our grp, i tink thats when cherie came in.

Following yr... 2004... Ee lin change grp, and Joel joined with our new Ysgl Jerrod, and Mark the new aysgl... It was a big change for us... But i got to say... Jerrod done a good job taking us that year... Joel had to leave half way to study overseas in Australia, so Mark was the only Aysgl then... During this period even more mgs girls came... Stephanie, Huimin aka moonie, melanie, laura and soe-na den all started to join God's Clay, It was the MGS "revolution"!Haha! And the guys were just vyan,reuben and me with abt 10 other girls! Ellen then brought Jem in...and in the later part of the yr... a sec 3 grp merge with us...this was when the grp got very big! and started to get NOISY! to be honest we actually felt intruded by the sec 3 at first. Sorry justin,joshua! ... there were a huge number of guys and only one girl ... most of them left after awhile..only the 2 justin, joshua, Aj stayed on till today... charles also joined us that year.

2005! Its like the curse othe dark arts teacher in Harry potter!!! Our YSGL had to change AGAIN!!!! Every year we got a new leader just like in harry potter where the dark arts teacher somehow had to change every yr too... This time Jerrod left for overseas and Chin Ee took over us... during this year the change in God's clay developed further... i invited TW in... and somehow open up abit more thanks to tw... but still VERY QUIET!!!! Got to thank vyan for introducing the GC grp study during the o level period! Our grp somehow got closer a bit more..and thats when i actually first started talking to charles! We grew closer as a grp ever since we had our first God's Clay retreat introduced by chin ee!
From the retreat! We got even closer and i rmb the "POLAR BEAR" nite we played thru out the nite! We had discussions abt the problems in our grp and shared the vision for our grp for the following yr... we all open up in our grps during the discussion and shared openly... we tried to overcome those problems and somehow manage to solve it after the retreat... following the retreat was the YM CAMP 2005! Our grp met up during the camp in breaks and spend the finale nite together also! thats how much our grp has grown since 2003... we den started to have more grp outings in 2006... and our grp grew even larger with new members in 2006...benjamin tan, jia zhi, laura sisters, joshua lam joined us followed by some temporary members like sandra,ziyan and randy.... during one of the outings i remembered the "circle of trust" came abt from a pool day outing! hahha! had a fun time during those periods...
chin ee made ellen and me the new aysgl after mark had to go army and left us later.... to be honest i was very reluctant to be an aysgl at first... i wanted to tell chin ee that i didn't want to be one! but as time passes...i'm glad i took up this responsibility... well recently... the usual yearly curse to God's clay came again.. chin ee had to leave overseas for New York to further her studies in PHD... it was a sad period to see her leave after the many things she has done for us... well now Englee our new YSGL has taken over us... and we hope to see our grp grow closer and futher in the Lord with the guidance of Englee!

My dream is to see wesley YM see REVIVAL and every youth to have the PASSION and FIRE for God! And i can see that in our grp!!!
I will like to end of with a BIG thanks to God's Clay! for being my fellow small grp mates! U are the best grp i cld have!!! God Bless u all!!!:D

your.. Aysgl Benjamin Lau aka bendy, father ben signing out!

(:

Dear God's Clay,

I'm glad that many issues that have been festering and becoming more putrid over the past year have finally been brought out into the open and discussed. (: Thank God for our retreat.

Anyway, I just thought i'll get the ball rolling on this hitero abandoned (once again) blog and start by sharing my experience during YM Camp. (:
I was very blessed to have Moonie as my fellow group leader during camp because we were able to complement each other very well.

Personally, after being for 2 previous YM camps, i didnt really know what to expect this time round. Plus, as a group leader, in a sense i was attending camp in a different capacity. God really showed Himself to me in this camp, in a different way from the previous camps. I think that He was preparing me for this camp even from my first camp in 2005.

I don't see the need to bore everyone with a detailed account of the entire camp, so i'll just cut to the chase. I'm 18 this year, and i'm pretty much among the older youths in YM. During the sermon, what one of the pastors said really spoke to me. I feel that God is calling me to take one a greater role in YM. This will probably come as a surprise to some of you guys but i've prayed about it and come sunday, i'll probably be talking to matthew lai about it. originally, i was apprehensive and i personally felt that i wasn't ready, but during one of the leader's prayer mettings, when matthew appealed to us for aysgl's, what sandy said really made sense to me. she said that if you keep thinking that you're not ready, but the time you think you're ready, it will be too late. just let God mould you and use you for His purpose. (:

i'm too tired and i can't really articulate my thoughts properly. i just hope this sort of makes sense to you guys. (:

see you all on sunday!

God Bless.
Soe-na

The HAPPENINGS of God's Clay in 2006/2007

2007-06-01 - 3:53 p.m.

God's Clay bible study grps!!!

Finally updating again!!!!!
Well...after the last entry..God' Clay have gone thru a lot and has just move to a new stage, we have now split into 2 biblestudy grps so that we can have more sharing and better discussion and easier to grow spiritually and gain support from one another...with Ellen taking one grp,and me the other and Englee overseeing both our grps. And so far our sessions out of sundays on a weekday nite have been very productive and fruitful!Ellen's grp doing the book of Ephesians and my grp currently doing 1 Thessalonians! Its like the very first time where we really have a real biblestudy session with a smaller grp and peer leading. And our grps has been bonding more week by week and Sundays is like where God's Clay comes together again!It is a good way to end the week! =)

2007-02-20 - 11:13 p.m.
God's Clay CNY visiting day!!!!!!

Our small grp decided to meet up for breakfast at some open air macs in orchard in the morning first...and we didnt expect to go visiting at first until the last minute when ben tan and cherie open their hse... vyan,justin,josh,soe,moonie and me met up for breakfast first...had a good fellowship time...before our first destination to ben tan hse in bishan... with tw joining us too... after that...we rush to cherie hse at holland V... watch the movie Se7en there, its abt the seven deadly sins...... quite a good and interesting movie. ...

(Played BANG! at Ben Tan's hse)

(Moonie and soe was so scared when seeing vyan playing the game FEAR...u can see the pillows they use to cover their face...and this moonie was like screaming at every small scence lor, moonie was like more of the entertainment rather then the game)

(Ben Tan's dog.....and cherie's dog...i tink thats moonie foot on the dog)

(Thats cherie piglet and tiger... u can see the piglet nose is deflated in the first pic...haha... bcoz i press it in!)

(Cherie was like trying to teach moonie and soe how to memorise the Sine,consine rule using their hands...while vyan looking on)

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2007-01-01 - 9:19 p.m.
GOD'S CLAY NEW YEAR PARTY!
We just had our small grp FIRST ever New Year Pot Luck and Gift exchange Party!!! We went to moonie house which was super deeep in some estate around toh tuck area.... and it was quite a good turn out abt 20 plus of us came!!! AND CHIN EE SURPRISE us by dropping by too!!!!!! WE had a really good time of makan and fellowship! then a 30 mins worship session lead by kevin and Joshua! Thanks for leading guys!... after that we broke into 3 smaller grps to share abt our yr and our new year resolution! after that...We were like all in a rush when we realise we were lateee! We each grab a present each and then rush of to church for watchnight!Reuben,justin,jia zhi and me were like lost trying to get out to the main road to take a cab after chin ee send the girls to church first...while vyan,josh and kevin went another way. We actually literally RUN all the way... one big round and were actually lost in the estate for awhile! In the end we got to church in time at 10 on the dot...with vyan,josh and kevin joining us sooon. Well.... the extended worship was goood! Really like the song from youth alive "I CAN'T A DAY LIVE WITHOUT YOU"!!! well.. HAPPY NEW YEAR everyoneeeeeee!

(The God's Clay cake from englee... we ate after the watchnight!)

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2006-12-14 - 12:13 a.m.
God's Clay Retreat Pictures!!!! I really loveeeeeeeee God's Clay!!!!!!!!!! This is the BEST GROUP EVER!!!! (pictures courtesy of soe and feli!...)

(We made this in the sand at pasir ris, we had all our hand prints below the God's Clay word)

( vyan and me were so bored before checking in...we started playing the "vampire chac"..i just learn that game the day before this retreat..so sux at it in this video... but now pretty good at it! hehehe!) (we were so tired after staying awake the whole nite... we knocked out immediately at abt 7 plus am when we return back to the chalet!!!) (God's Clay at entrance of costa sands, before check out) (God's Clay at delifrance in white sands mall after the retreat) (I Love God's Clay!!!!!) Anyone who have more photos or videos of God's Clay at the retreat or camp do send it to me! Thanks!!! 2006-12-10 - 11:46 p.m. WHAT A WONDERFUL SMALL GRP called GOD'S CLAY!!!! Todays YM service was a blast again! Looks like YM REVIVAL really maybe coming! Vyan,cherie,moonie and soe met really early today at abt 9 am just to pray before the service started... camp has just ended and our small grp retreat not to long ago and our Grp has matured to a whole new level. And now we are planning to make a point to come evey sunday earlier just to pray for before the service. When we got to service... WOAHH!!! Yiling told eveyone to feel free to go to the front to praise and woship! And yess it was gooood! the fire and passion in the youths were still there! Almost eveyone jumping and hands lifted up! YEAAAA! After that was small grp time... at first i wasnt sure how long we cld spend during this time, bcoz englee cldnt come and i was afraid i ended to fast as i was told to lead today. BUT strangely.... today small grp time was the longest in HISTORY!, first we broke a record yesterday after the JOH for deciding what to eat for dinner... abt 1 hr 15 mins deciding!!! and now we broke the record for longest small grp time... We like started sharing our camp experiences and it took like 2 hrs plus!!!! We ended like abt 1230 plus until the 1130 service grp had to come in. And thru out this sharing session i was really touched by eveyone in that room. As everyone was sooo opened and i almost even cried while hearing their testimonies... and for me to cry is like the mooon turning blue. But i was really glad that our grp has grown sooo much over this years... and after this looong sharing session abt 16 of us God's clay ppl all went to have lunch together at carl's junior... what a fellowship we had man! to see this bond in us now! i'm like crying in my heart oready... sob sob... hahaha..jus joking.. but i really was feeling that in that rooom at that time. I REALLY LOVE GOD'S CLAY!!!!!!!!! 2006-12-04 - 12:33 a.m. Great God's Clay retreat!!! It's been a really one eventful yr this yr for God's Clay and this is one retreat i will never forget! We started our retreat with a pot luck at some hut near the beach... and surprisingly,this is the BEST pot luck we ever had! We had so much FOOOD! normally our potlucks are like a failure... but we really have to thank Englee for contributing so much food. We then played our "traditional Polar bear game!" This time.. moooonie really improved a lot! hahha Check in to the resort abt 3... and played some games first... vyan and i was playing the "vampire chac game"... and we are getting goood at it man!!! Next was our first discussion session! And the discussion and reflection of what God's clay is today was very real and open! I started of the sharing by saying how our grp has grown closer to each other ever since the last retreat till now... and it was really good reflecting on the past yr. God has really bless our grp so much! The discussion became became more serious as we discuss of what our grp really need for the yr 2007... although i totally agree that normal sunday small grp time is really not effective... Feli brought up a Very good point which i feel that as a mature grp now... we should CHALLENGE ourselves for a more in depth Bible study and grow more spiritually as well. And so this is one of the main focus our grp can move to for the yr 2007! And i didnt even think of it, Thanks Feli for bringing that up... Our other grp members also then opened up with real honesty, and it really brought this time of sharing even further and deeper...and i really feel this is what a small grp sld have. Englee brough up this main thing, it was abt "LOVE". As love is the main thing a grp sld have. Well i do feel our grp have love oready, but well we still need to maintain that and grow in that more! Later we went to the beach... had some really cool God's clay carvings in the sand... and had a really cool dinner by the beach! We ordered pizzas as well as a lot of the left overs from lunch. And as usual, we cldnt finish all those foood.... so we played this game... "I NEVER...." and bcoz of this game... we somehow finished almost the entire meal layed infront of us...but we were super bloated up by then! We then had a MASS DANCEE trial! the girls taught us the mass dance for the upcoming ym camp... so vyan,josh and me was like learning the guy role for the dance at the camp and we are like then suppose to show the rest! I tink! arghhh! And the guy role was actually quite girly at first..because the entire Choreography was done by our very own God's clay dance girls! Well... did abit of twitching here and there... but only manage to cover verse one...oh welll mass dances really remind me of CJC orientation! sighhh.... After this had another great time of worship lead by Feli, ben tan and josh. And we den carried on with our discussion and sharing for our grp... Englee then ask us to really take 30 mins of a real SILENT RETREAT... just to focused on God and to hear what he have to say to us... so vyan,justin and me then went out near the beach for some time of solitude.... during this period... i really cld sense that God's presence was really in our midst... i felt so at ease during that time... and i really didnt want the time of solitude to end...i actually felt i was kinda restricted by the time... but it was a very good time of sharing betweent the 3 of us when we gathered back... we then headed back to the chalet... and each of us shared our experience in that time of SILENCE! And the girls all shared abt how each of them could really feel that God was in their midst and that there was like this PEACE of mind among them, the fear of spiritual warfare we talked abt earlier subside and each of them was sharing how they like literally saw a "glow" in their faces... and like there's this undescridable JOY in that room suddenly! And cherie shared how she came into that room after her dance recital... and she immediately felt this strong presence of God there that made her cry. When hearing their sharing.... it actually touch my heart that i almost cry.. But i didnt ah! But that was how touch i was internally... imagine seeing what God's grace has done for our grp over these years made me just in AWE for our ALMIGHTY LORD!!!! We then had a mini birthday bash, and i actually wanted to continue that time of silent retreat and not to play any other games. So some of us headed to the beach at like 2 am oready in the morning... i actually wanted to go there for some solitude..but in the end didnt really do it... so as i layed back at those breakwaters rocks... gazing at those stars in the sky! SUDDENLY MOONIE SHOUTED! SHOOTING STAR!!!!!! And Ben tan was next to me and said...I SAW IT TOO! And i was like!!! WHAT!!! I was staring in the sky but i MISSED IT!!! ARGHHHHHHHH! Everybody there saw it except meee!!!!! Whats the odds of seeing one!!!! welll.... after that... with just some of us left... we all just gathered real close to each other sort of like a circle and started just talking and sharing random stuff as well as some realllllly DEEEP AND PERSONAL stuff! The HIGHLIGHT of this time was VYAN TANG WAS LIKE FARTING ALMOST EVERY 10 mins the entire nite! And i really mean that much almount of times he farted!!! Its like a NEW RECORD or something... never knew one cld FART THAT much!!! Well...in the end we spend the entire nite or rather morning awake.... talking and talking with just real honesty... its just like we felt so opened and comfortable suddenly with each other we cld share stuff even what we normally would not share to somebody of the opposite sex. We also felt that we sld talked abt each other weaknesses and how we cld overcome them. Well... we cldnt see the sun rise, bcoz the beach was facing the wrong side!so sad... but well by the time we headed back to the chalet it was like 7 am oready... and we were like so FREEZING outside the entire nite we just went to the mattress and KNOCKED OUT! Abt 2 hrs later we woke up and just had a closing session of pray and sharing. After that some of us headed to white sands mall and played POLAR BEAR again over lunch!!! Signing off BEN LAU!!!