Woohoo, slept for like twelve hours...guess i was really tired. Haha.
Good thing i don't have work today, cancelled cos there are five weeks in this month.
Don't really understand why but doesn't matter also.
Anyway, happy birthday to caleb! :)
Mission Trip to Batam with fellow cellmates and kyann and ronnie
Although this was just a two-day trip, but it really felt like a week cos we had very long days and our days were very packed as well.
We met up for breakfast at harbourfront early morning then proceeded to the ferry.
Quite cool lah, taking ferries to travel to other places.
They mentioned that my bag was so flat as if i didn't bring anything much over.
Haha potential light traveller & got skill in packing :P
The weather there was really hot and dry though.
Plus because their air wasn't that clean also due to the transportation of mostly bikes on the road, it can get really warm at times.
We bought some rice and instant noodles for the slum houses when we reached there, packed them into many packets to distribute.
So we split ourselves into three groups, i followed gideon and kyann(leader and leader's gf)
It was rather a new experience and a new insight when visiting the slum areas.
Their houses were really small and they were really, really poor.
However, what really touched me was their carefree-ness and contentment with life.
The little kids there just run around their areas freely and happily, and everyone were very friendly and heartwarming.
Kids just go around to all houses and that is something very common.
This clearly showed us that their relationships with each other were very strong.
They know each other's needs and situations, it was really amazing.
Their houses were just made up of planks and they don't even have proper tiles.
There wasn't any fans or lights either. It was that bad.
So we basically visited about 8 houses, went in and talk to them, asked for their needs and prayed for them.
And we realised that their needs were very simple.
It was mostly just mainly safety, protection and health.
Their worries were basic physiological, very very different from us over here.
So honestly, we should feel very privileged with what we have now.
Comparing to them, ours is really luxurious already.
Although sometimes we may feel that there are some other people who are richer and affording much more comfortable living, but we are very fortunate comparing to people living in poor areas already.
And they have very interesting culture. We usually address the parents using the children's name. For example, if the kid is named Ruth, then the parents will be known as Mr/Mrs Ruth.
So anyway, all communication had to go through translation, which we have a translator for each team. But besides that, some of them do know little english over there.
So after which we rested awhile after checking into hotel, and started preparing our various activities(games, message and testimony) for the youths in the evening.
Everything went pretty smoothly, although we had to quickly adapt and change our plans due to the uncertainties.
Ended pretty late though, so we had our dinner at like 11pm sg time.
Slept for only three hours that night cos was having a good time with kyann, haha :)
Second day, we had rice and bread for breakfast at the hotel.
Went to their church there.
Gideon preached to the adults, joshua preached to the youth, and my team went over to the sunday school of 60 kids :O
Kinda shocked cos we were only told to expect like about 25.
So similarly, had to change plans on the spot.
Ended up it was well also, and they were very happy with all our prizes and stuffs.
They learn willingly and were very interactive.
Their bubbly and cheerful nature was really heartwarming in a way.
All of us did a very good job, really proud of all of us :)
Lastly, visited two houses and we left for the shopping mall.
Hahaha, walked around and spent the last few hours chilling out.
We were really considered like millionaires there man, hahaha.
A&W was awesome! Haha great lunch yesterday.
Haha, we also had ayam penyet and some seafood for lunch and dinner on day one.
Well, it was really a good trip lor, thank God for it.
Everything was well and we were all very united, cooperative and bonded.
I got to know kyann and had a great time with her, she's awesome :)
Appreciated one another also for all the hard work and fun.
Would be cool if the whole cell had gone together, haha.
Waiting for gideon to upload photos! :)
