Cell Retreat Rox!

My cell and I went for a Genting trip last weekend. Wow! Came back yesterday evening, I slept like a baby from 5pm+ to 9.30pm >_< It was awesome~!

1st Day...
We reached there about 9.30pm? Really late, right? That was because we left at 7pm from KL Sentral and had to wait for different busses to take us to the apartment - Awana. The unit was great! We had a small kitchen, hall was big enough for all of us.. and comfortable room. Awesome! It can fit 9 of us. Cool, eh?

The night itself after reaching the place, we asked our fav personal chef (one of our own peeps) to prepare supper for us. Tasty~Yummy~ We had a wonderful balcony which became my 'sanctuary'. I love that balcony.. just staring out at the greenary and the sky. Awesome-ness. I spent most of my time there either alone or talking with a number of my cell members there.

You know being teens/young adults, when we are gathered together we won't sleep early. Who goes to camp and sleep early, man? We spent time singing songs (Christian & Secular). We can identify the potential singers, guitar players and crazy ones! *haha* After that some of us played card games - 'Chor Tai Di' - no gambling la. Just for funz! Also, we played Mafia. One member was bullied and picked on like crazy. Man, I think our unit was producing sound polution. Thank God, we didn't have any complaints from the neighbours. Maybe there weren't any around! I had to remind them to tone down their voices from time to time. Crazily, we stayed up till 3am+.


2nd Day...
Surprisingly, the guys woke up first!!! and they woke up about 7.30am!!! Oh my gosh... O_o I thought guys tend to over-sleep most of the time, like piggies. I guess, I underestimated them. *haha* we had great breakfast from 2 chefs this time =) Later, we did devotion and a member of mine, pop questions about the passage he read - "The Coming of Jesus Christ" and "Idleness". Basically, we were discussing about the whole book of 2nd Timothy. It was a good discussion as we try to understand the passage better in its context.

After that we listened to a sermon my friend brought by Ps Kong Hee from City Harvest Church on Marketplace Transformation. He spoke a lot about being out in the world rather than hiding ourselves within the confined walls of the church and making Christ known in the things you do, the work of your hands and the daily decision you make in your workplace. He focused on how we should work towards excellence in our work and from there, how we can actually bring transformation in the society. So then, we try to relate it to our student life in college and universities. How are we to bring transformation there and make a difference? We had a short discussion about the sermon and some of us didn't agree 100% of what he said but we understood the main focus of his message and agreed that there is a need for transformation and impact in our soceity.

Later in the afternoon, we went up to First World Plaza to 'makan'. Oh man, almost all of us were unsatisfied with our lunch. It was superb expensive & tasteless!!! >_<

We went to the outdoor ThemePark. I was extremely tense and sooo afraid to sit on the rides. Pretty freaked out. Not that I haven’t sat on it before, just the experience itself, makes me feel extremely nervous, scared… as if there were butterflies in my stomach. Almost felt like purging my food out when I see the rides. Argh! >_<>

I was sooo tense and was trembling with fear, from the start till the end, even when the ride was slowing down. I have no idea why, when I sit for these kind of rides, there would be some amount of tears collected around my eyes. “Go-Kart” was slow but I pretty much enjoyed the ride. The air was fresh and I got to just chill as I drive. I tried to compete with my one of my members, but he blocked my way when he overtake me! Not fair!!! =P Some of my members went on sitting for more rides but the rest of us was dead tired and once of those rides were enough for me.

For dinner, we vowed not to go back to the same place to eat. Instead, we went to eat fast-food, KFC there. It's more expensive there as well. I think the amount of money we spend on food cost a bomb. We were really behind time (acc. to my schedule),but I had to bring them to "Ripley's Believe It A Not" Museum. People who go to Genting have to visit it. Seriously! It's worth your money. Only RM18. My whole cell members really enjoyed it! By the time, we came out and reached back to our apartment it was about 11.30pm.

I had a sharing session that was supposed to happen, but I thought perhaps they are mentally tired ya know. So, I just let them chill for the night after being out the whole day. Guess what? Some of them were still hyper! We were singing again like the previous night, playing 'Mafia' as well as bullying one of my cell member (he was the target) and playing cards.

As for me, instead of playing cards, I had a great time chilling at the balcony with some of my members/friends. A lil cold at the wee hours in the morning, but great place to be. I call it my 'sanctuary'. That is the place where I talk to God, poured out my worries and concerns to Him, spent time with my devotion, actually wrote something in my travel-diary and just enjoy the greenary as I reflect upon life. I also, get to know more about my friends as I talked to them personally or in a group.

Most of us slept at 5am that morning.

To be cont...