While my friends in the US are really having camps in their great outdoors this time of the year, Christians all over Singapore are having Church camps – mostly in nearby Indonesia or Malaysia 🙂 Just in case you are wondering, it isn’t really a camp since we almost always hold it in a hotel 😀 So why do we call it a camp?! I have no idea! Lol!
It is a chance for the Church family to go away for a few days (usually 4 days, 3 nights), to soak in the Word of God and have fellowship with each other in a deeper way compared to the usual Sunday service Hi and Byes.
Well, our Church had its very first Church Camp in Batam last week and man! I survived it! 🙂 I was just reflecting that since I became a Christian at the grand old age of 24 in 1994, I only attended my very first Church Camp in 2006! And it was with 5 children, aged 1.5yrs to 8yrs. Actually, in that year, I attended TWO church camps – back-to-back. One in Penang, organised by Ang Mo Kio Methodist Church, where dh was the Camp speaker and the other in Johor Bahru, organised by our then Church, Full Gospel Assembly.
We have been very blessed by churches who have been willing to invite the entire family to join them whenever dh has been invited as the Camp Speaker. Since 2006, we have gone on to attend Church camps every year. I remember attending one in 2007 just weeks before I was due with #6, one in 2008 when I was 6mths pregnant with #7, one in 2009, when #7 was just 3mths old and of course this recent one where #7 is now 15mths old!
Let me just say that it is physically tiring whether one is pregnant or dealing with a toddler! Everyone asks about packing – that, my friends, is the easiest part! Lol! There’s the waiting which always tires me out and then having to watch more carefully over the younger children since we are in a unfamiliar place. The baby and/or toddler also tends to become more clingy since it is a new place with many people coming up to them frequently to say hi. And of course their nap and sleep routines all get shuffled around which often lead to frayed nerves – mine, too! 🙂
I am just very glad that we nurse our babies and toddlers. Even with the packing. Imagine bringing along milk powder to last 4 days?! Heavy! Nursing is like the magic bullet 🙂 If the food isn’t agreeable, she nurses. If she’s bored, she nurses. If she’s sleepy, she nurses. If she’s fretful, she nurses. Great, eh? 🙂 But of course the downside is that once home, she still wants to nurse like there’s no tomorrow! 😀
And as mentioned in my FaceBook update recently, I like to make sure my house is spick and span before I leave for any trip. So the days leading up to it was a whirlwind of vacuuming, dusting, Scooba-ing and ironing. On top of making sure all 7 little people have packed their stuff.
The children are good. I give them little cards and they write down what they need to bring. We travel light. One outfit per child per day. Only the baby gets an extra change of clothes. They get to choose their outfits and put them into the designated suitcase. I go through their stuff 2 days before to make sure everything is correct and then I close up the suitcase giving express instructions that NO ONE and I mean NO ONE is allowed to open it and take anything out of it.
See? The packing is truly the easy part 🙂
But in the midst of all that rushing around – we were also rushing to finish up our school work, I must have overdone it. My left foot which has been giving me trouble finally gave up on me. I had sharp shooting pains radiating from between the 1st and 2nd toe all the way to the upper arch. Standing around and waiting for the ferry with the 15mth old certainly did not help. By the end of the 1st day, my foot hurt so bad I couldn’t sleep. I had to pop 2 panadols 🙁
By the time we came home, I was in TREMENDOUS pain. I could not walk properly. Thankfully, our usual physiotherapist was available to see me on Thursday morning and that brought temporary relief. However, it was only after the children’s prayers on Thursday night that my foot felt much better. Now I am still in pain but only a fraction of what I had experienced when I came home from the camp. Hopefully, the visit to the chiropractor on Monday morning will set things right.
Did I get anything out of the Camp? Well, I did get to know some people better, which is always nice. And I did get to hear parts of the teaching. But what I missed was the discussion 🙁
I grumbled and pouted and said to the Lord, “Not fair! I also want to be a part of it! Why must I always miss out?” And He said, “Not this season.”
I was still upset, arguing with Him – the self refusing to die, you see, always insisting on my way. But I have come to accept that this is not my season. Yes, my season is long compared to someone who limits her family size but I am not to compare. My life is not my own. My time is not my own. There will be time enough if He so wants me to. If nothing else, I have learnt that He is enough for me. That I am not to compare what He is doing in my life with what He is doing in the lives of others but to focus on what He has called me to be.
Easy? Nah! Not by a long shot! And now I have to go practice submission with a cheerful heart.