Mission Trip (part 11) (SIB Pekan)

again, i woke up freezing and blur blur... haha... i had to. it was 7. breakfast was 8. we all got up and prepared ourselves to go to the meeting hall. we sat there and talked, waiting for breakfast. apearently, there was a funny incident between pr tom and freda involving the bathroom. i won't go into details but since this is my electronic diary, as long as we can remember, its good enough for me.

pr juliana came and served us the usual tasty and filling breakfast. pr tom then asked pr juliana whether she could guide us into the pekan because he wanted to buy stuff for his sermon. it was our last church today and we heard that all the SIB pastors in the district were coming to hear him speak. she said yes so we were pretty excited. but wait, there was one more important question. this was how it went (if i remember it clearly):

------------------------start of conversation----------------------

us: er... pastor, adakah pastor akan masak makan tengah hari untuk kami?
pr jul: um... kalau mau makan di pekan, tak payahlah.
us: oh ok. kami mau makan di pekan bolehlah?
pr jul: boleh. jadi tak perlu masak untuk kamu semua lah?
us: tak payah. terima kasih pastor.

-------------------------end of conversation----------------------

u can guess what was going on in our heads. KFC!!! here we come! suprisingly, we always had chicken in the kampungs. but this time, we were more hyped about this chicken. haha. and so after breakfast, we helped to clear up the plates. we went into the kitchen to put the plates there. that's when i saw a fishbowl with a goldfish in there. emergency dinner? i dunno.

we got ready by 10am and we (except juan) all walked to the pekan. on the way, we stopped by the milk collection plant to buy milk. pr tom had a bottle of 100 ml mineral water with him so he asked if he could buy the milk. the ppl said yes so they cleaned his bottle and sold it to him. nat also had his 1 litre mineral water bottle with him so he also bought some. it was already pasturised and cold so it was refreshing under the hot sun.

we walked into the pekan and jalan into a hair shop. why? coz pr tom wanted a shave. makes him look better for preaching. haha. we didn't want to go out of the shop coz it had air con but we still went out. pr juliana then led us to a cybercafe. sort of. it is one, but unlike the other cybercafes that we usually go to, this one was like a libary. everyone was quiet, doing projects or homework, and very soft relaxing music filled the place. they even offered computer classes. pr jul went off and said she'll be back in an hour plus. so we payed first before using the comp and went to use.

the first thing i checked was my email and facebook. when i saw all the comments about the grad pics, i suddenly missed everyone back home. i caught up with the progress of the youth who went to the salvation army to do charity work. they even did one of our dramas which was "blinded". i so wanna see! bet they had a great time doing it, just like we did. i even chatted with melody leong and she told me what a great time she had during City in Worship. that must have been a great scene coz it was held in esplanate. can you imagine the crowd? oh yeah, halfway into my computer time, guess who came in? pastor raynold from Kampung Soronsob! the fun guy that gave us eagle meat for breakfast! we were hey hi! he was suprised to see us there as well. he even asked me for my msn. i still have his. haha.

at around 11.45 pr juliana came back so we left the place. she took us to a souvenir shop at the cornner of a row of shop lots. there were some cute stuff on sale, including big, bendable, flower that matt has. there was also a soft and fluffly hand. appearntly, if u hit it, it makes a sound. something that nat really loved to do. haha. i bought a tube of super glue for the buckle of my pouch bag that broke in the last kampung. it was only 90 cents! talk about offers. bernice bought a dolfin thingy and a mug for her parents while yi lin bought handphone acesseries for freda and bernice. she also bought stuff for dorathy. so cute... i can't remember what else anyone bought but i know that we left the place for lunch.

we asked pr jul for directions to the KFC because that was somewhat the highlight of the trip here. she couldn't follow us because she had to go back to cook lunch for the students so she told us the directions to get there. we thought we were going the right way but manatau we were taking the long way. she pointed to us the correct way coz we were so far from her already. we walked around a building and then we finally saw it. we thanked pr jul and went on our way. we could smell it from the road across. we were happier still when we entered the place. mission trip go eat KFC. best mission trip ever. haha.

we ate to our hearts content. well, we did. matt just slept on one of the tables while we ate. we just make jokes that he was waiting for his "date" to arrive. maybe he was tired so we went on with our meal. suddenly, in the distance, a figure came. he walked past the field, and towards us. we saw, we guessed, we confirmed. it was pr tom. he was looking for us and he knew where. well, sort of. he was walking pass the KFC until we waved like nutcases at him inside the place. he finally saw us and came walking. when he came in, he was clean shaven.

well into our lunch, something happened. can't give you the details coz if i did, someone will hate me forever :P long story short, i had an extra orange fizz while some of them went to buy stuff. we bought some KFC goodies for pr jul and juan and went to the supermarket. we met up and i went with the others to go back first. i jom the bathroom first coz i felt so sticky and dusty from all the walking.

after bathing, everyone was back and rested for a while. later in the afternoon, we had devotion by pr tom. it was a continuation of the day's before about the 10 comandments. halfway thruout devotion, it started to rain heavily so we went to take our clothes that were hanging to dry in. oh did i mention, we can hang our clothes at the clothes line between the kitchen building and the main building. so anyway this church, SIB Pekan was our next and and final ministry . so after devotion was our practice time for our service later. since it was our last practise, we decided to go all out. nat and yi lin were picked for testimony. nat's testimony about his salvation was hilarious as he tried to find the right words. it was relaxing for all of us as well. then we practiced the heart drama. pr tom gave kevin some tips on how to utilise the steps of the stage to pull his devil act to be more extreme. yi lin then practiced her testimony which was pretty smooth. good job :)

after practice, we went back to the asrama to rest. we had some more snacks and rest. since we had like 2 hours till dinner, we were all super relaxed. since our dress code was the blue sym shirt and jeans, we just bathed and wore our shirt while still in our shorts. we decided that we will change only before dinner. kevin came in to talk, because he said girls are better listeners. now that's a man that's up for grabs! haha. matt came in as well as nat. we yabbered all the way until we had to change into our jeans. bernice went to bathe while matt said he'll give us only 30 seconds to finish changing. funny. considering it was our room! we changed within 30 seconds but matt never opened the door. we thought he was being gentlemanly but turns out he just left. bernice came in but she was in her shorts. (i will skip this part coz something very funny happened but not appropriate to tell u... this is only for the memory of the girls of SYM 2009)

skip to after all that, the guys came in again to gel up their hair kevin got his eyes done. the gelling was done on time but kevin's eyes were not. so we went to the meeting hall to finish up. yi lin borrowed my blush while i kena makeup attack again by bernice and freda. this time is extra bombing. my hair. bernice used gel to give my hair a wet look while freda used her sunsilk hair repair thing to get my hair into place. she kept saying about rebonding and stuff like that. wow. guess i messed up my hair that bad huh... bernice and freda likes to do makeup and hair for ppl so i guess i got help from the experts. well, give me few more months and my hair will be long and hopefully smooth. haha.

soon it was dinner time. we sat in the dinning room which was actually long tables in the midde of the room and chairs along the wall. there was a man and his wife who cooked all the food. we all sat in our places except yi lin and kevin who had to finish up. as we had our dinner, we talked with the man and found out that he's a teacher. freda's brother came later and joined us as well. pr jul came after and served us another dish. after doing kevin's makeup, yi lin came in for dinner. kevin followed but i nearly spit out all my food when seeing him.

he was pink! the devil was sorta blushing! it was so hillarious. everyone was asking yi lin why was he like that and she said made him look evil from afar. immedietly, finally, dinner was alive again with laughter. thx yi lin, for that. it was starting to get awkward when no one talks at the dinner table. and so we continued our dinner with lots more noise and laughter. since the group that i was in for children ministry had to do this last time, we asked for everyones sweets and got all the stuff ready. freda went to her brother's room to borrow his water boiler so that we could have out "slumber party" later. then we all went to the church after dinner.

at the church we were suprised to find the number of ppl there fewer than other churches. we were expecting alot of ppl including VIPs of the area but i guess the earlier storm prevented that. so we greeted the ppl there. the youth there were mostly girls that sat in the front row with pr jul. there were few more families around so we went to shake their hand as well. so far we only saw 1 kid there so pr tom said that there won't be any children ministry that day. yeah!!! now all of us would get to see pr tom's sermon which is supposely the most action 1. i went to ask about their ohp but turns out they don't have one because they were using lcd to project their lyrics. pr tom then told me to check whether they our songs in their computer but they didn't. so i had to type them out but there wasn't enough time so we had to stick with the old fashioned way of holding the mahjong paper. both me and kevin were in charged of it because he was next to me.

service started nicely. holding the mahjong paper with both hands and not being able to relax one leg proved to be a challenge. there wasent much vantilation going on so it was pretty hot. not to mention i was wearing a blouse inside of my shirt so i was sweating on my arms fast. i prayed to God that He would give me the strength to hold on and He did. Praise God. if not, i would have been lying on the floor, passed out from the heat. My testimony. :)

the drama went well. kevin's devil movements were the best in all his other times in doing it. utilising the steps were a great idea. pr tom's sermon later was different than the rest. the milk that he bought was used as part of his visual aids during the sermon. it kept ppl awake and attentive. espeacially when he gave out different kinds of milk to the congregation. everyone had a great time. even after ministry. we spent time with the youth and took photos with them. because it was getting late, we all went back to the asrama for debrief.

we came back to the asrama to find it out of electricity. appearently the switch tripped so we were walking around trying to get it back on. everyone had their torchlight on so it was disco minute. haha. the boys of the asrama were poking out their head to look what was going on. pr tom finally managed to get the electricity so we were all "yeah!". but the night was not over. we still had debrief. and so and 11 something at night, there we were, sitting on the couches, having debrief. suddenly, juan jumps up and says "yes!" all of us were like, huh? he then points to the ground in front of freda and shouts "freda! crockroach!" freda immediatly withdrew her legs and looks "where? where? where?" all of us were looking for it as well. manatau that juan said "yes! APRIL FOOL!" we looked at him like, are u serious? but in the end we all laughed. how could we forget?! it was the 1st of april already! freda whacked juan while we all became, u know, its a feeling. i can't explain it. u had to be there urself. after all that happiness, we all went to our rooms.

we the girls, thanks to freda's foresight, had hot water to cook our instant mee. word spread quick and soon juan and kevin joined us as well in our room. all in all, we had a great time of fellowship and fun. slumber party SYM 2009 style. only we can pull it off. haha. we all only had few more minutes till lights out so we finished our food and went to bed at the final night at the asrama.

yes it's me
8:22 PM