197th post: Regret

I tried to prevent tears from dropping but I contributed to a heartbreak - probably a worse one.

我真后悔

Same same but different

A well chosen and described theme! kudos to the organising team, they've really prepared so much for us, I think we have not even experienced all of it, esp the algorithm march lol, jiayi made a good decision to skip the station seeing that adrian was the the station master, he deduced that nothing good would come out of it HAHA, so xingquan challenging me to do it saying that 'eh you MP leh' will not work (it has no link btw)

I thought we really had lots of fun and definitely more time for interaction with each other. It was great for us to be able to sing praises to God outdoors as a form of witness for Him through our fellowship and I really felt like linchung was this old uncle giving us guidance at the front haha :P He raised many good points to lead us to reflect on worship and fellowship, a good start to the day's activities.

To my horror the first game had umbrellas at the starting point. I had an instant flashback of yxh 2010 (youth orientation) where I told the youths to spin 20 rounds with the umbrella, but I myself crashed to the ground at the 7th of my live demo -.-

So we went around to chiong the tasks by taking photos at mac, the trees, food village, ATM (LOL) - jiayi yiliang and langshen posed as the respective alphabets, bedok jetty, jump shot in sea etc. Many farnie things happened along the way. When we were on our return journey, we hit food village and paused for a while and realised yuhan and shixin were gone, then yiliang told us that they were at wenhao's station. I guessed it must be a food station and we should try it out, since we were already hungry by then (12+). So we found yuhan and shixin there, hahahaha only yuhan would be able to spot wenhao at such an obscure corner, plus its prob due to the fact that its a food station as well lol! The questions he asked were seriously.. insane.
1) what's xmls & yqls' b'day? (I smsed shengy, but jiemin alr told him abt the game arg >< ) -FAILED- 2) how many chairs are there in da tang? -FAILED- 3) how many air conditioners are there in church? -FAILED- 4) what are the colour tags of the hymn books in 3a, 1b, fu tang, da tang? -FAILED- (almost got it all!!!) so we rolled the dice and ate the respective quantities of the chosen 'torture food': weird oreos, wasabi + bread, spicy rolls (this was sick, i broke my water fast here and drank she cao shui lol!) and there was sushi, which was supposed to be salty but turned out to be good so my group finished it all HAHA! When I returned to our shelter, I felt a kick to be leg. (no need to guess - it was chai.) Then she stuck out her leg - got some tyre mark or stain LOL. fail la, tandem bike never bang into ppl also can kena hahaha :P side point, guowei's group was really pro. they capitalised on the word tasks to earn loadsssss of points while slacking at mac! my group chiong around then we only realised that there were more tasks in the package other than the front page -.- thanks jiayi :) or else we'd have become the feeder group -yuherng's :P then we tried to play frisbee, haha epic fail cause the sand was really scaling hot or of sorts.. we kept going to the spot which lay chai's destroyed sancastle and also to the water lol. we gave up after a while hah. then we went to spectate hweiyun getting half buried lol lol.

All in all its been a fun day and everyone was really tired and exhausted after everything.

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The following content is purely random.

December seems to be the time where people die. I mean, I see a trend, perhaps its due to the cold weather. Some say it is compounded by the absence of family members, maybe due to the holiday/festive season? I don't know, its a sad fact if that was really the case.

To a christian though, I think death would be freedom.. a nice beginning :)

Give thanks to the LORD for his love is everlasting

There is no greater sorrow than that over unreciprocated and most of all, love which is not understood.

I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Matthew 26:29-30)

Christ sang of his own sacrifice (hymn 118, the last of hallel) after he broke the bread and drank of the cup. What a struggle it must have been for the lamb that is to be slain.. Being omniscient he knows the humiliation and suffering which he has to undergo. He even knew about His disciple's denial of Him, His betrayal, his utter rejection by man and finally..even that of God, on the cross. What a struggle! If not for His loving kindness which is everlasting, I believe that the days of Noah would come upon all mankind for a second time. How great is God's love!

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? (Isaiah 53:1)

No one, with a rational mind would give their all and love someone if he/she already knew beforehand that it is destined to go to waste, unreciprocated, not understood and totally rejected. The natural defense mechanism of every human to avoid hurt would come into play, as the saying goes, 'the higher you climb, the greater the fall'.

The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!” They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this. A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. (Luke 22:22-24)

We shook our heads in disappointment when we saw the disciples' priorities and concerns when Christ predicted His sacrifice. There was really none who understood. No, we shouldn't despise the disciples with a pharisee's pride and self righteousness. We should take caution that we are vulnerable to such a grave situation, blinded by sin. We should see that this brings out God's grace all the more, to us, we - whom God has compelled to hear His call while many others made the wretched choice.

Christ bore it all alone, in submission, in faithfulness, in love - in its purest sense, for the people He came to redeem.

The greater the sorrow he was willing to undertake reflects the extent of His love.

It is precisely because He knew and was willing that made His love so unique, so deep and true.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 118:1)