awesome =]

it's just one of those many things that God has planned, which reminds me of just how almighty and merciful and full of grace He is, and where i learn soooo much about His word and what His will is and what He has done for us and how this impacts our life and what we should be doing in response to His overflowing and infinite love for us =D

and i really feel i've grown a lot over this weekend in my walk with God <3

AND THE YEAR 12 LEADERS WERE ALL THERE, wheeeeeeee~! corporal zhang and HTL and lee and simon and gabes and jen and 'chelle and kelly and alison =D annnnddddd alumni ^^ becky and joy!!!! =D it was an AMAZING time of fellowship and support and wow it was a reallllly packed schedule XD

and eddie brought her guitar along! andandand NOW I CAN SO TOTALLY PLAY TIME OF YOUR LIFE, wheeeeeeeeee =D andddd she kind of taught me the opening of tears in heaven but i gave up ><" and now i know six chord shapes, wahahahaha =D

but yes, due to pressing stuff (such as hmm organising SOMETHING and doing maths homework, urgh) will have to kind of skim over the talks.

but what has really challenged me this weekend is setting my hope FULLY in Jesus - placing EVERYTHING in His hands, and not seeking comfort/security from worldly things such as academic achievement and materialistic possessions (ie, the cliche asian dream of 5 investment properties, lol) and really, to live as a stranger in this world. the camp kedron analogy by adrian was awesome: you know, we're here at this camp for a few days, and it's comfortable here and we do enjoy being here, but it's not really our HOME. so you don't see us decorating the walls with posters or really settling in and making it our home and getting comfortable, and although i know you all love being here, somewhere within us we kind of want to go home where there's hot showers and nicer food and soft beds and our own pillows. same thing, this world isn't really our home - our home is in heaven, so why get comfortable?

and coming to terms with the fact that i have ALREADY been redeemed with the blood of Christ, and it's not that God's going: you need to do this and this and this before I can really love you, no, it's because of what God has already done for me out of His infinite love and grace that i'm compelled to be holy, just as Jesus was holy ^^ and it's always Facts, Faith, then Feeling, in this order. see, these three things are walking along on the road, and Faith is following Facts, being based on the fact and the knowledge that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, and naturally, Feelings follow along in the right direction.
however, if Faith were to look back on Feelings, it'd be like. hmm. am i good enough? i don't FEEL like i'm saved. is God really out there? and poof, Facts disappear in the distance and Faith becomes stranded cause it doesn't know where to go now.

(ok at the time it made a lot of sense to me, now i'm just not retelling it properly ><)

anyway, first night we celebrated genie's birthday =D hahahaha quite amusing, cause gene was just in shock and like. huh. what's going on? whatttttttttttttttttt T_T and we were all quite hurt, hmph. nah joking XD and romni baked reallly yummy cupcakes and yes, we made gene eat three. i think he was kind of traumatised by us ><" ah well XDD gene's awesome ^^

and then me and romni and lil and eddie shared a room and we spent the first night just talking about alot of random stuff. and romni and lil and eddie were telling me about cadet stories, hahaha =D they have so many funny stories from cadets, and i feel kind of deprived T_T kind of. XD

saturday was epic =D 2 talks, 2 group discussion/bible studies, an elective, QT and trivia/games! =D and free time, wahahahahahaha. JUNGLE SPEED =D really, REALLY fun XD lil bought along hot pink nail polish as punishment for the guys - one fingernail painted for each grab of the.. thingo when you weren't supposed to. hahahaha XD
personal highlight was when I WON THE TUG OF WAR WITH HTL =D for one card. hmmm. moo was like, "elaine, i must say i really admire your courage. if it were me, i'd take one look at HTL and be like, nope, not worth it, and just give the thing to him"
but yeah i was dragged around for hmmm 5 min and i just kept holding on =D was considering falling onto the floor and being dragged around in a kind of sitting position so that he might take pity on me, but aha HTL gave up ^^ whee~! (it's an unfair advantage for girls, really, cause me and lil always just fall over when it's a guy and the guy immediately goes, SORRY SORRY! and lets go, hahahahahahaha =D)

andddd after dinner we were playing the cup game. or the cup whatever. which is SO ADDICTIVE and can't wait for videos to be uploaded on facebook cause it's too hard to explain. but it is AWESOME. =D

and trivia/games was awesome. best game was probably clothes stack XD in our groups, we had to make the highest possible "tower" with what we were wearing. it was quite rowdy and quite disturbing, but our group had an advantage cause i had 6 or 7 hair ties on my wrist (thanks pansy!) which helped with erm.. holding shoes together, lol XD and i had my jacket on, and someone had size 11 shoes =D and isabella has a scarf ^^
but yeah the sabotaging was so fun and some cheat even ran back to their cabin and brought back a whole heap of clothes, and was in such a rush that he brought his underwear along as well, so of course the foul play was discovered =D

and last night i probably got hmm. 3 hours of sleep. ><" not good, really but ohhhh it was so awesome =D cause we were ALREADY on a high from games and supper (too much milo, XD)
anyway, lil bought ruse yearbook, and we prayed through the yearbook for our grade! which was like, wow XD but yeah, went around praying for every single person (ok fine so we skipped a few that we really didn't know what to pray for, but for the most we prayed at least 4 or 5 sentences for each person) and it was amazing, cause we just got even more hyper from the praying. and it took us like, 2 hours to get through everyone... lol. we finished at like... 1:30am, but we were soooooooooooooo high and we would just randomly start laughing and yeah XD and hmm yeah, started talking about deep & meaningful stuff, lol XD found out sooooo much and feel sooo much closer to lil/romni/eddie now =] and it's just so awesome, that God has given me such great friends/sisters in Christ to love and to love me and to encourage me and to support me and to always be there for me <333

ah well. houseparty is over, but i'm determined not to let what i've learnt fade away with time.
really, truly. =]

Dear God, i pray that you'll help me remember what i've learnt at HP '09 and really apply it in my life and use my life to serve and glorify you. with the new week of school and the upcoming holidays and beyond, i pray that you won't let me just fall back into the comfortable routine of life but to really stand up for what i believe in and to always be challenged to imitate Jesus and be holy, and to be a testimony to how awesome you are and what you've done for me. In your precious son's name, Amen =]


We Belong to the Day

1. We belong to the day
To the day that is to come
When the night falls away
And our Saviour will return
For the glory of the King is in our hearts
On that day we will be seen for what we are

2. We belong to the day
Let us journey in the light
Put on faith, put on love
As our armour for the fight
And the promise of salvation in our eyes
On that day the proud will fall, the faithful rise

Strong as a mighty rock
Our refuge in the coming wrath
The heart of the bride belongs to Jesus, Jesus
The earth in its turning stops
To marvel at the Son of God
And all of that day belongs to Jesus, Jesus

3. We belong to the day
We were bought with Jesus’ blood
Soon he comes as the judge
In the power of his word
We must tell of his salvation while we wait
For the day when Jesus comes will be too late

Oh, if ten thousand years go by we will wait
Let us tell of his great love, he will come
For his patience means salvation!

and to finish off... from QT: "My salvation and my honour depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in him at all times, O people pour out our hearts to him, for God is our refuge" Psalm 62:7-8

<3