Have you been high today?

Nicki is lucky to have sane roommates in camp. Look at the people I was stuck with for two nights.

MAD Camp 2009

I have been to many youth camps - well not that many, really - my first being MAD Camp in 2004 when we were in Shalom Villa; the time when we could fit all of the campers into two apartments and did our praise and worship with only a guitar; when we would literally sit at the feet of the speaker and hear the message.

Time passed and gradually I grew to predict how camps usually are: the first night everyone will be chatting until late at night and doing anything but sleeping; on the second day half the campers will be late for the morning exercise session and for some mysterious reason everyone will only be all excited and ready to take the world on the final night... People will try to stay up as they did on the first night but fall asleep out of exhaustion anyway; and on the last day everyone will wake up late, eat breakfast and go to the final session (which starts late) half asleep. Everyone goes home, sleeps the afternoon away, and continues life as usual.

But MAD Camp 2009 was nothing like that.

I missed the first 24 hours or so of camp because I had to attend class on Thursday morning; but as I reached that evening and attended the first session, it was as though the place was alive and electrified by the presence of God. Pastor Cheah nailed the whole heart of MAD as he began his message saying, "YOU are the face of the future!" God was so powerful and tangible in the place that as the altar call went on late into the night, all I could do was say over and over again, "God... you are here" It was a revelation on a whole new level: the power that created the universe was THERE in the room that we were in.

I left the hall that night saying to myself, "If I had paid the full camp fees just for that session... It was already more than worth it" But as we all know, the camp did not end there. In fact, it only got better, and better, and better, and better, leading right up to the final session on the last day of camp. Sure, we were tired; sure, we felt like we needed more sleep... But God was in the house, and we did not let him pass us by. Every message was alive with the power to break mindsets and transform lives; the anointing as so strong in the place that we know it was more than a feeling... It was God and it was real.

MAD Camp this year was more than "just another camp"... it was more than another youth camp... In fact I do not even know what word I can use to describe it; but one thing I can say... Our time has come.


"All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle; C.S. Lewis

It's a strange, strange world that we're living in

Just yesterday I was watching one man loading up some boxes onto his truck, dressed up all appropriately for the job, too: faded red t-shirt, cargo pants with belt pouch, unkempt hair and a beard.

Then my friend, who happened to be beside me turned to say, "See that guy there? He has a friend from his school days who is a company manager now."

"Wow," I remarked "So where is that friend?"

"Oh, the friend is the guy who hired him to deliver these stuff"

*

If you remember, I had one nostalgic encounter with Uncle Donald (if you don't recognize the name, you haven't read that one yet) not too long ago; and I found it quite interesting just how far the road not taken can lead us.

Two years down the road, I might be watching the Oscars on TV, and suddenly jump to my feet and scream to no one in particular, "HEY, I USED TO BE IN THE SAME CLASS WITH THAT GUY!"

Then probably I can storm into his studio halfway through a scene and demand the Rm6 which he still owes me for half of his biology knowledge. Being the class treasurer was a totally uncalled for position, but desperate me took it anyway.

It eventually amounted up to sleepless nights, many headaches and ringing ears, and ultimately Rm70 going out of my personal fund. The case was particularly bad with this pregnant teacher whose facial expression changed from neutral to disatisfaction to anger to long-patience and then to sadistic joy, all within 2 seconds of seeing me.

So there was one time when she shot at me (after owing her cash for 4 months), claiming that I took the money and used it for my personal selfish reasons like funding secret tests for nuclear weapons.

I was about to jump to my own defense when I remembered that a week ago, I borrowed a sum of cash from the class fund to buy myself lunch. Deeply embarassed, that day I went home and returned two times the money that I took back into the fund.

Suddenly the prospect of being hired by an old classmate to move stuff around sounds much more happier and optimistic.

Ipoh!

We all love Ipoh. Well, us being us, we love it mainly for the food there.

So I was there two weeks ago with my family, and I was half-expecting my dad to drive up to a relative's house where we are going to stay for the next 3/4 days because it's cheap lodging, but no! We came in front of this super canggih-looking hotel that even has the red carpet rolled out for us!



Okay, I didn't get a picture of the carpet. But the hotel was cenggih okay! You know things are going to get interesting when the first thing you see once entering the hotel doors are two escalators.

They're so canggih, even their security cameras looks canggih.



Even their rooms use scanners!



Okay, the canggih-ness aside, the hotel had this weird and wonderful collection of various sculptures and whatever the heck you call those ancient artistry things.



By the way, everyone meet John. John is my younger brother. John is camera-shy, and John likes to read Doraemon comics.



Using his free time, John likes to sexually harass wooden statues of ancient chinese warriors.



We had one ball of a time just checking out the stuff around the hotel lobby area. Even the receptionist was so thrilled to see us.



Service with a smile! =D



Oh, and if some of you remembered my sister's tortoises that went missing, I think I've found them.

Dang, where's the wildlife society when you need them!

Pictures!

There, the pictures =D





Oh If you don't see the significance of the two pictures, it's that we're wearing the same colours! Black and white. Geddit? Geddit??

And yes, I have small eyes. Big deal -_-" It's probably one of the better pictures I've taken since



So don't complain.