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Prologue

Right! Finally here's the first part of what I've teased you guys so much about since last Saturday. I know some of you have been asking me about when would my full write-up about my church camp come out. To hear and read those comments from Steemians who are interested to know about my personal life have really made me look forward to writing this post. I've never been so encouraged actually. But in order to give you all a well-deserving post, I needed to make sure I was in my right mind to actually pen this all out.

As some of you may know, I've been working around the clock ever since I got back from camp. My company have just started a movie and requires from me a lot of attention to details on the animation. Hence, coming back at 2am every day isn't the best feeling. Tired and hungry makes a bad day too.

As I'm now recuperating and feeling much better today, I'm ready to share with you my personal life. A part of me that guides my perspective of life and the way I live it out. It is the most important thing and it will be the center of everything I do and that is my belief as a born-again Christian.

Before I start, I will be sharing much about my Christian walk in this post series that will come in two parts, so if at any point you feel uncomfortable reading, you are free to walk away. After much hesitation on posting an article like this(I know many have hesitated for the fear of what people might think or say), I've decided to just go ahead with it because I can't deny that God has been very real in my life and at different seasons, He showed himself true and faithful to me.

A Camp of this Sort

Truth be told, I honestly didn't want to go to this church camp. I actually have already decided not to go due to my busy schedule and the upcoming movie production schedule, I knew it was going to be tight. I didn't want to spend my weekend outside. I wanted to stay home and hibernate and rest before my work gets busy.

During this camp registration period as I was contemplating back and forth whether to register myself, I was reminded of what happened 11 years back when I went for my first church camp which was an 'Encounter Camp'. Encounter Camps are camps where you attend and expect for an encounter with God. Usually, these camps are filled with a lot of revival and breakthroughs for many individuals for their life and most of the time, their life would be transformed. That was what happened to me 11 years back and I can still remember vividly how it all went down.

I never expected to hear God, but I did.

God showed Himself real to me when I was 17 years old. Being born in a Christian family, I only knew that Sundays was a routine, Sunday school was where I MUST attend but all these never meant anything to me. I only go to Sunday school weekly because my parents asked me to. My parents were converts from another religion. They were non-believers a while back and they accepted Jesus in their life right after their marriage. My dad was a little more skeptic but when he accepted Jesus as His Lord and Savior, he was on fire for the Lord that he threw out all his shrines of idols and cleansed my whole house with prayers. That is another story for another day.

Coming back to my 17 years old self, it was all a religion routine for me.

I went week after week to church services, sing praise and worship songs, pray and go home. My extremely introverted self never got me any friends from the youth or Sunday school. I was always alone in a corner or with my parents. (Hard to believe ey? I'm now VERY different from where I once was)

Until one day, I remember that I was going to sit for a major exam in high school. It was one that would decide my educational future, whether I can get into a good university or not. I remembered praying for peace when I studied and God did give me peace throughout the whole exam. My friends were all panicking after every single paper but I wasn't. I somehow felt that God was with me and my future was decided.

That was one of the first time I clung onto God for something. Remember, being an introvert and a routine going Christian, I didn't expect anything to happen. This was just a start for me.

At that time, my church started a second service and it was on a Saturday night. I've decided to attend that service alone without my parents. I needed to be alone to worship because I somehow felt always wary when my parents are around. After going to the Saturday service a few times, I felt more freedom to express and worship, to a point summing all up from the peace God gave me throughout the major exam, I felt the urge to share the gospel to my friends. I know the bible always asked us to go out and share the good news to the world and I wanted to fulfill this.

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So I went ahead and began inviting all my friends because I wanted them to feel the peace I felt since they've all been panicky about the exam. I was so excited and was like a little fireball bouncing about.

Until one Saturday Night, I was hopeful for four friends to come to the Saturday Night service with me, they all rejected me. One even told me that, 'Hey, believe yours and I'll believe mine'. It was pretty upsetting for me because I was so hopeful. At the same time, I had a growth under my arm that's been bothering me to a point I can't even lift my right arm properly. I kept this a secret because I didn't want anyone to worry.

So there I stood alone at the corner in the Saturday service. Oh, I sit alone btw, because I'm super introverted.

My Heart was crying out to the Lord

If you can hear me.... why would you ask me to share the good news when none of them would come. It's hard to face a rejection yet alone face 4 of them. Why Lord? Why? As you can see, I was still pretty naive back then and I probably would've annoyed all my friends with my constant wanting them to join me to feel His goodness but God is a loving God. It was during this time when He spoke to me for the first time.

As the night of the worship started and progressed, I couldn't lift up my hands in worship because my right arm was really painful due to the growth under it. I was upset, angry and hurt. Despite all that, I told myself this, 'You know what Lord, no matter what, I will lift my hands in worship to you'. I raised my arms up high in worship. When the worship was ending, the pastor came forward to open an altar call. An altar call is a time when you can come forward for prayers.

Being an introvert, the last thing I would expect myself to do was to go forward but the pastor spoke something that really nudged my heart. He said that he sensed that someone in the sanctuary was very disappointed and God wanted to talk to that person. He called out a few times and the Holy Spirit nudged me to take that 'step of faith' forward. I was very hesitant but a still small voice nudged me.

I walked to the altar. Till this day, I never remember what the pastor had prayed upon me, I just know that it was my very first encounter with God. When I stood up there, head bowed, eyes closed, I heard this from the Lord.

Me : I'm so tired of everything, why would they reject me and why would they do that to me? why would YOU allow that to happen?

God : My son, I love you with an everlasting love, I bring you Joy and not harm. There is a reason why I didn't allow them to come.

God : If they were all able to come tonight, who is going to take care of them all? When they feel left out, how would they feel?

At that moment, I knew that God has His timing for everything. Not mine but His. He revealed to me the reasons why this happened and all I needed to do was to trust in Him and to plant the seed.

That year, my church was having an encounter camp at the end of the month. I signed up for it, and it changed my life forever. Oh and the 3-inch growth under my arm? It disappeared right after that altar call encountering God. It never came back. Just vanished and healed.

Back to Present Day

Because of all that happened and how camps of this sort have given me such life-changing memories and experiences, I signed up for this church camp even when it was out of my way.

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This is me carpool-ing my pastor's car on the way to what would be an amazing camp at a resort in Port Dickson. In my next post series 'Meeting with God at Church Camp', I would share lots and lots of photos from the camp and experiences. Till then, Be blessed!~