† Joshua's testimonial †: Missons weekends

Gosh! what a busy month i got and it's finally time for a short getaway at.....
When: it's held on a duration of 3D2N at Harried Batam waterfront resort

What : Total of 8 different scared pathways for me to discover during this 3 days. ( My last church retreat was when I was Primary 5).
What is a "scared pathway"? To put it simple, a scared pathway describes the way we related to God and how we draw near to him. So do we have one spiritual pathway? Not necessarily. There are worship , intellectual , traditional , contemplative , creation , relational , activist and Compassion pathways for us to discover. As we Humans are all wired differently, It's time to find out what and how are we wired from these pathways.

Who: This year, I was not intending to be part of retreat as i have so much things on my mind and busy with a hundred and one things with Life. Hence this year, my cell leader Joseph Lum ( ex Cell leader brother if you don't know) challenged us to make time for God during this 3 days!
So a total number of 5 from our cell ,out of a full strength of 9 members came to be part of the great experience.

Randy : spent his weekend and holiday not with his family but with us and God , but sadly he got to book in to camp on the day itself after Retreat.

Huijun : Been wanting to get out of Singapore and experience God before starting her next chapter of life. " Work"

Audrey : who has been unwell and wanted to pull out from retreat on Friday night. But all glory to God, she was pretty much recovered and came to retreat with us on Saturday Morning. See! Who say God can't do wonders ?

The programs for our Retreat

Day 1:

We meet up at harbourfront cruise centre at 8am and check in to sindo ferry and make our ways to Batam waterfront jetty . The journey took us 40mins .

My boarding pass!

Getting Impatient & cant wait to fly to Batam! Huijun still want to kick me over to batam instead =.=''

the Sindo ferry we'r boarding

After which, the 1st program of the day was to ice break and have some fun over games. I'm allocated to Group 4 as their group leader. I"ll stun for a min or two before accepting this role. I guess the reason for being in this position is to get to know more people only when I'm out of my comfort zone.

Greetings from Harris waterfront :)

played games the angry bird way :) Aim and fire!

Checkpoint dance and Sing for Group 4

It's about 2.30pm when it's about time when we checked in to our lovely rooms! Loves hotels stays since young as I truly love the interiors and decorations in there.

Spent sometime checking out our room ( Randy and I ) & you know what? Randy indeed " Uncle" but i like it. called room service for almost everything. Eg, Bath towels , Hotel slippers .

Twin sharing Room. Spot Randy?

I'm a Camper of scared pathways 2012

So after which it's time for the 1st pathway of our retreat. Make a guess what it is? Yes it's a good 2 hours of worship ( Worship pathway ). I also just realize, I'm into worship pathway too! Unexpected huh?
Experience God speaking to me though Music every time without realizing. Some Biblical example to share about

king David : He loved to worship God, having authored most of the psalms, we can see that he worshiped God throughout the seasons of his life. And in 2 Samuel 6 , he was excited about the return of the ark of God that he went full out in celebration!

Samuel 6 New International Version (NIV)

The Ark Brought to Jerusalem
6 David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. ²He and all his men went to Baalahin Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name,^[b]the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. ³They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart ⁴with the ark of God on it,^[c] and Ahio was walking in front of it. ⁵David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets,harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals

The Shepherd and his sheep at scared pathways2012

After a full Blown worship, It's time for buffet dinner. Love the Food and meeting new friends over a meal. Oh yeah, First time seeing Audrey & Hui jun so afraid of Cats. They literally ran all over the dinner area trying to escape from the Kitty paws. So Randy and I tried to bring their attention else where while eating. I Hope they are able to overcome their fears in the next 2 days of the retreat.

Guess what pathway coming up next?

It's Intellectual pathway. So what about it? This pathway is best able to draw near to God through rational understanding of God. They need their minds to be stirred before their hearts truly come alive.

During this Mind Blowing session of this pathway, My group we selected Lee He & Arron to represent us in a debate on a passage. The debate was indeed challenging and Our group came in 1st with 48 points. Reason being, Our group didn't go Off topic talking about birds and the seas but straight to the Point.

Make a guess how well did i fare in this pathway? I got the lowest of 11/30 for this pathway. I guess i have Hands but without brains? Guess i must read up more and get some IQ. Did a IQ/ EQ test some years back and I'm better with the EQ then the IQ. So i Guess that's the reason why people with high IQ wont be able to understand me. Ahhh....

Before ending the exciting day, we are treated to a movie titled " Truman show " . catch the trailer people! It's a good show and inspiring too!

Day 2

Good morning Folks! We were early for breakfast in the morning and head to service hall for service. It's a very unique service as it's suppose to be a traditional pathway.

Bread and wine the traditional way

so what is this pathway all about? Means that a person is best able to draw to God through rituals , symbols and tradition.

so this morning , we had of hymns & communion the old tradition way where normally what Catholics ( eg Saint Andrew cath church ) and lined up in a orderly manner, We went up front to the Pastor to received bread and wine. ( Doxology & Great Amen). Love the tradition and unique service. Should we have this once every 3 months in service? But i learn to appreciate every single way. Did't know I'm a traditional guy too!

After which is a quick sermon by Pastor Beggy and somethings which i took away from it was " What Do You give attention in your Life"

James 1:22-25

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.²⁵But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

So example, If you strike a conversation and the entire conversation is about God , meaning to say his has been reading up on God. " Not just hearing the word , but doing of the word."

This verse struck me and kept me thinking about my Boss Mark. I Pray that God will speak to him in his own special way.

So after which, It's contemplative pathway where we had Quiet time with God is our own time and location. This pathway is about loving God through solitude where we quieten our heart to listen to Him.
Randy and i went to Audrey 's room for Quiet time together and each of us pick a Corner within the 4 Walls.
Randy pick the balcony and it started to pour. Thankfully, no one pick the washroom to spent time with God. * Smiles*

So we Have our Lunch after that followed by R&R. We took a cab town to Batam Mega mall and managed to grab some stuff :) It's a quick 2 hours of shopping and we head back to our Hotel for Sunset service. ( Creation Pathway). So what is creation pathway? It means loving God outdoors and they tend to draw near to God through nature. It could be the beach , mountain & woods.

check out the photos! Myself, Love nature but I could not draw near to God as I will be very distracted outdoors with all the insects and things happening about me. But indeed it's a good service!

Its worship by the Beach! Sun is setting real soon.

Yes yes it's coming down already!

The secret at the most secret natural place

Bottle infested with Ants!

So what's next to be
discover?

Yup remember the sunset service? we are to gather in our little groups and talk about it. So that's where the Relational pathway side of me comes alive! we split up into groups of 3-4 and talk basically everything under the moon. I have no idea what and how I started the conversation but I did! It's one of my strong pathway for sure.

After which , this is the part where i enjoy the most. FOOD! Tonight dinner was awesome. We were served with lots and lots of different kind of food. There are BBQ , Ice creams and lots of food. Just a little bit of here and there and I'm full. We also celebrated Birthdays for the month of August. Yahoo!

This was the best dinner I had in this month!

Looking at them! so bubbly and cheerful

Up next It's round 2 of Games! Night Games to Bring out all the Activist pathway folks. Lets see what is the nature of these people. They are someone who are able to draw near to God and revitalize one's spiritual life through intensive service , ministry challenges and confrontation with injustice. They are energized more by interaction with others, even in conflict, then by being alone or in small groups. Sounds like myself yeah? I also think so too!

Group 4 - the awesome!

And to Sum up my thoughts for the day, God has been playing mighty role in my life and strengthening the pathways I had in many ministry and workplace. Able to touch people from different walks of life. I enjoyed this retreat and Thank God for helping me make the decision to come for this retreat to discover myself.

Day 3 :

Started our day late as we could not craw out of Bed.. we were the last to report for breakfast and for the service in the morning. But i got a capable assistant in my group. She updated me everything and so detailed too!
So After which, it's the most exciting part of the retreat! We'r are heading out to the slums for mission work. Some of the places i went before 2 years back. But am glad to be back to IBC ( Batam Bible school ). This place also reminded me of how lucky I am to be in Singapore. Shall let pictures do the talking on this part.