Mourning into Dancing...

Well, I'm all tired and worn outafter today's training. Some can say I deserved it. So I'll just try to keep this post short.

Let's start with Sunday! Yeah, at least that gives a very happy beginning. It was both the outing day for AJ's group back in Lighthouse promised since the group was really fast in their study, and the party day for the Believers to celebrate the success of their (I take it I no longer have the rights to say 'our') latest musical, 'Thief of Always'.

It starts with me beign dropped of at Middle Road by my mom while she, Uncle Alex and both my sisters were on their way to New Creation Church. Journeyed my way to Prinsep Street, where I found the same ol' Prinsep Presbyterian Church standing like she used to.

Walking through (or more like 'stumbling through', with so much nervousness in my heart), and seeing that I was rather early, I decided to head to the Library to wait till the Main Service started. But finding out that the Library was still locked, I decided to tuck myself in the side alley of the Church where there was a bench swing.

Rocking myself to and fro, I tried my best to sing my nervousness away. I sang as much as I could remember of the songs from the Ron Kenoly tracks I recently bought, and soon enough after snging an average of 4 rounds per song, I calmed down well enough to get me walking properly again.

When I walked back into the main building, I saw that the Library was finally unlocked, and so decided to take refuge in there while I still could. I rested for a while and watched my watch closely to make sure I didn't miss my timing. And in a while's time, it was reaching to 9, so I went out and met Tim along the way.

We went up the building and sat along side Thedyus (is that how you spell it?) during the session. The sermon was about the disciplines required within worshiping God and was using the story of Moses' journey up and down Mount Sinai. I didnt really hear much about grace this time, so I must admit I wasn't able to catch much.

Once the main service was over, Tim went to the back to train a new techie while I stayed where I was for Lighthouse. Hmm, to think Eric would have trained me too if I stayed on. But I still know where God wants me to be, and so I shall follow.

After the worship session, the different groupswere dismissed for their lessons while AJ's group met downstairs before leaving for our outing. I heard many proposals through Tim, many about bowling or TCC or beaches, but this day was a different plan altogether.

This day, we were going to eat out at McDonalds! Heh, it was a good plan for many of us, but Zeik didn't like it since he had just eaten breakfast there. While AJ was taking down our orders, Zeik was bending his head away in preparation to puke at Thed.

During our meals, we socialised a bit and in the midths of the chat Zeik wanted to ask if we could go play billards at the billard station nearby. AJ soon agreed, and I agreed to chalendge Zeik. After finishing my apple pie and french fries, we went down and rented a table for half an hour or less.


Through the game, we (Zeik, spectators and me) had a great time and we soon tied in our winnings. But at around that time, it was time for us all to head back to Prinsep and call it a day, and so we journeyed back. Along the way, ___ talked with me about how I was doing and which Church I've moved on to, and so I told her about New Creation and D.A.R.E. and how God prepared it just right for me to come in.

Once we arrived at the Church, Tim and I went to search for the room where the Believers' party was suppose to be held. After much deduction, we found the room and so I tried to sit around while Tim searched for the remainder of Lighthouse members who were also Believers.

While being alone, I found myself leaning against a pillar in the room totally isolated from the pack. It felt torturous just to walk forward, and everytime I tried I ended up falling back on the pillar. In the end, I finally found grace with another table of Believers and sat with them as we all ate the buffet lined up for us.

Once finished with the main meal, I went on to the desserts and soon found myself stuck on the same pillar. By now, a fair number of the Lighthouse boys who were believers were present, and after awhile they called me to sit with them. I slumped myself on a chair and ate the remainder of my partially-crushed egg tart.

Soon, it was time to review the filmed version of the musical 'Thief of Always',and we all proceeded up to the hall to witness what we all looked like from the audience's perspective. After viewing what it looked like altogether, we proceeded with a little worship time with a few familiar songs.

Once done, Auntie Lisa gave us a short presentation on the aims and objectives of the Believers, and what was concidered achieved through this year. We then started our games session, of which was truely ripping fun and I must say I lost most of my nervousness through!

Before the games started, we were first divided into two groups, and then asked to give each group a name. The group I was in decided to call ourselves Milo, based on a regular catchphrase in the play, while the other group called themselves Soon Hock, based on what the nurse in the play tried to pronounce Boon Hock's name as.

It was also agreed within our group that whenever someone shouted, "Milo!", we'd all respond with a loud, "Marvelous!" (which was also blended in the catchphrase). And gradually in response to that, Team Soon Hock always responded with a "Fresh!" whenever their name was called. :P

Games included attempted re-enactments of certain scenes in the musical (which were fun to make fun of, since the actors we were using weren't the originals and more of dancers or backstae people!), quizes about the musical (which Milo ["Marvelous!"] had a great advantage in because most of the actors/actresses invovled in the question were in our group! :P) and even a 'pass the message'-cum-'sherades' game (which was extremely hilarious when you see people messing up while passing on the actions! My group even ended up composing our very own bhangra!)!

But after a couple or so hours of family entertainment (Which, I must say, was worth the effort! Good job, Shaun!), we closed in prayer and proceeded downstairs to finish off the buffet and feast on Uncle Collin's cake celebrating his child's 1st month! After much conversation and lollipops (hehe, we had candy for the winning prize, which both teams tied and both won!), we went our separate ways and went home.

Yeah, I must admit that Lighthouse and Believers were very nice groups to join and be with! I admire their hospitality and am willing to be called upon if I could possibly be of any help in the future! But as much as I'm grateful for them, God's prompting for me is to goto D.A.R.E., and please don't take me the wrong way but I'm excited to know what better gifts God has in store for me as I move on! Indeed, God will always love me and will never leave me!

Now for the sad part.

Monday. Well, I'll keep it shorter by just getting to the point. Monday was supposedly the extended deadline for the traning cards in Canoeing. You see, before Canoeing made a shutdown to give more time for us to study, Mr. Goh gave us cards listing simple drills we can do at home to prevent our fitness from dropping as much as possible. These included push-ups, sit-ups, running, back extentions and so on.

Beside each item, there was a quantity of how many of the item we were suppose to excecute. And beside these terms was a calendar of the entire period of time we'd shutdown for, excluding the exams itself. For every item we did each day of the shutdown, we had to mark it out on the calendar. And by the time we came back from exams, what should be expected was cards colourful with pen markings of mostly, if not fully, completed programmes.

And now the exams are over. So, what about my card? Well. My card. Let's put it this way: It's as good as white.

Well, as much as I did push ups and sit ups and running 2.4km once a week, the card still looked rather white with the many other items I missed out, and the number of days I missed them out by. That's as good as white.

And after secretly handing my card up after training to Eugine, who helped gave me a slower sentence by sliding it somehwere in the middle of the well-coloured stack (Thanks, bro), I quickly but calmly rushed back home and retired to my desk in great prayer that whatever Mr. Goh does or says to punish me for what I've done (or for this matter, what I've not done), I desperately wanted to cling on to the faith that God would still be there with me.

And that leads us to Tuesday. But before Tuesday's training is firstly school. Didn't recieve results today, but had a couple or so of briefings or so about what we'd expect next year as students. One of the things discussed was an Edusave test which promised that if passed, would garuntee my parents a smaller pay for school fees.

That made me look at the test more seriously. Normal secondary schools in Singapore pay roughly about $7 per month or so, as much as I've heard, and unfortunately for this case I'm not in a 'normal' secondary school. The school fees are as much as $300/+, and the priveledged lot are able to get through the fees well enough.

'Priveledged' is defined here as those who are rich or under programes that help to pay a portion of the fees. And as much as I'm in the Intergrated Programme, I'm still not a Gifted Education Programme student, nor a Music or Art Elective Programme student, and my PSLE score was still 260, 2 points away from an automatic application to the Edusave Scholarship.

And thus as far as the committee in charge of these payment priveledges are concerned, I am not woth the expense.

But PRAISE be to GOD, I have another chance! This scholarship will help my parents out a little more, and I am confident that God has lined it up perfectly as another one of His many gifts for me! And this means that by His name, His stripes and His blood, I can get through this test and claim my blessings!

But this excitement that relief was soon enough slowly died off when school ended and I proceeded to the MPH1 for Land Training. There as I was changing into my tangtop, Mr. Goh called for my name while looking down at the stack of cards in his hand. I said a short prayer, placed my clothes aside and made my way in front of him.

He looked up, and slit out my card from the deck, asking me if the crosses I marked meant that I did the excersize or that I didn't dot he excersize. I checked the tensions in my face to make sure I didn't give the wrong face, and I slowly admitted that it was the former. He then looked down and gave a short chuckle.

(Mr. Goh scolds somewhat like dad: both of them appear happy even when they're shouting and giving sharp comments. And also that they both don't scold that often, but that's not the point.)

He then commented on the lines of me givning him an empty piece of paper and chuckled again before sliding my card back into the deck and turning his attention to Mr. Ismail, who just entered the area at around the same momment. I took it that I was dismissed, and joined the queue of the chin-up bars.

When training started, Mr. Goh announced right after our Warm-up that he was greatly dissapointed that we did not do our programmes during the shutdown, pointing out a few particular dissapointments that included me and my 'empty piece of paper'. I bowed my head down while he was mentioning these dissapointments, but raised my head a little when I heard what he was going to do for running today.

He said he wanted us to run 10 laps on the track (that's 4km, for those who don't know) to see how fit we were in running. Good, I thought to myself. A chance to redeem myself. On Mr. Goh's mark, we jogged to the starting line, where we lined up with the C Division. And at Mr. Ismail's famous whistle, we dashed off for our longest dash since a month or two.

I ran at a good speed; although I didn't time myself,I was beating a good number of seniors and so I took it as a good sign. By the time we were done, it was starting to drizzle, so Mr. See asked us to proceed back into the MPH1. Inside, Mr. Goh was saying that our running was not up to expected and reveiled that today's programme was going to be the same programme as in the cards.

Again, although rather exhausted this time, I thought to myself that I could somehow make up for my 'empty' reputation by giving a good performance today. And so I did everything to my best, not that it differs from what I ussually do but that this time I had my cauntience of my killed reputation in my mind.

Once we all completed the programme, which Mr. Goh made us do twice each, everyone could point out thir own weankeses and strengths. For me, I was weaker in my abdominal power but stronger in my arms and legs. Nevertheless, I was well-relieved during warm-down that it was all over.

After training, I changed back into my dry uniform and bought a hotdog bun to nibble on before leaving for the bus stop. At the bus stop, I met up with Cliff and Abraham, who first greeted by quoting Mr. Goh's 'empty card' statement on me, but later commented that I was pretty fast during running, somewhat too fast for a blank card.

I smiled back, not saying much just in case that they were being sarcastic. At the same time, I praised the Lord that He gave me enough strength to go through today's training and out of it in one piece. It was around this time when I realised what the slow music in my MP3 were meant for. It was more or less a sense of comfort after a tough day of training: I even found myself skipping the fast-paced songs on my way home.

Ah, well. I'm just relieved it's more or less over. May the Lord be with me if there is more judgement to come next training (which is now Saturday this wekk, since Mr. See has to go for a meeting in school to decide a few grades here and there this Thursday). Now to look forward to the good things God's gonna bless me with: Tomorrow's Results' Day, so I'm claiming by faith that I'd get what I requested for!

Isaiah 43:2!!! God bless y'all!!!