Diocesan Youth Sunday 2009

Last weekend was indeed a memorable and a busy one! Heck we've been busy all week! All these busyness is to prepare for the Diocesan Youth Sunday on 26 July 2009. This year the youths decided to hold a Youth Service to commemorate this day, with the theme "Take Up Your Cross". Hehe..our very own service, how cool is that! A day in a year where it's purely for youths!

I was involved with the band and oh ya...I've found my very young "padwan" keyboardist...the young & petite Phoebe. I'm glad that she took up the challenge to try out and play for this event when I approached her. It has been quite sometime that I've been wanting to ask her to play (in other words to ganti me..or at least I have a substitute, so to speak), and now finally dapat..hehe! Anyways, we, the band and dancers started practicing since two Sundays ago and had practices every other day, ever since, plus with meetings which kinda left me having only 1 free day!
Phewh!

Saturday was our final practice and as well as decorating session! Mag and I were at church from about 930am til 930pm that day!! Imagine that! Never in my life, have I ever been in church for that long! "Holy" indeed! Haha! :p After our practice and rehearsal we started off with the decorations for the church. Well, we planned to make a wooden cross and decorate it with small purple & white balloons. We also decided to use folded crepe papers to hang around the church which we gave to the "dancing girls "(Lisa, Jill, Shannon & Nunun) to do. The huge challenge was that our church has such hiiiiigh ceilings, which make it impossible to decorate anything up there, so ended up, they hanged the papers onto the tiangs...hoping it will remain sticking til Sunday afternoon (crossing fingers!). However, I guess the biggest challenge yet was to find wooden planks and construct a life sized cross. But it wasn't til Uncle Dennis, who overheard us deliberating on it..jumped into our conversation (and saved the day!) and said that the church already has a wooden cross which they used for Easter. What a relief! Challenge no more! Haha..well...not entirely. A problem surfaced when we couldn't find a part of the base which holds up the cross. So the boys (Adam, Bajeng & Malcom) decided to use what's left of their Kemahiran Hidup skills & try to construct the missing base for the wooden cross. With much groans and grunts...partly infused with occassional laughters (by us gals), they managed! Not bad, though the cross kinda looked "senget"...but it stood, alright! And THAT'S the most important thing. While the boys were busy with the Cross, us gals (Jo, Mag & I) unleashed our hand painting skills..hehehe. The plan was to make a "guest board", so that those who attend the event can write comments etc.. on the board. We decorated the board by "stamping" our watercoloured hands along the corners and thumb printed the borders. It was so much fun! At one point, I almost wanted to paint my tapak kaki and smack 'em right on the board...tapi tak jadi. Heheh. Melampau lah pulak.

So, with the board and cross done, we have the cross yet to be decorated. Oh..we also found out that Amy & Sheila has ter-over blown too many of the balloons. We only needed like, about 30 balloons max and they, in fact have blown the whole packet of 100 pcs (but I think it was less that that. Siong Lee cheated us! Hmmph) of white balloons that we've bought! Noooo....another "garuk palak" moment! However, we timed-out for a bit & went out to grab a fast dinner as it was already half past 6 in the evening and we're famished! When we got back from our dinner, the cross was already decorated!

Thanks to Jo! Hehee. She didn't join us for makan & stayed back to do the cross. Yay! So, cross...done. Now...whaaaat are we going to do with the left over balloons(??!?)....Mag & I were still weighing our options while Bajeng has nicely tucked himself on one end of the church pews...sleeping(!) and the "dancing girls" (hehe) and Malcom still struggling with their crepe paper hanging issue..Maggie then came up with an idea to decorate the entrance doors with the balloons. Ok, agreed. We gathered the balloons and start tying them along the strings. I was already thinking that this would be a looong night and don't know when will we finish with the balloons and it's as if God heard me (well, of course He did! HE always does! Hehe...it's just that we need to be more aware & reminded of Him working around us rather than be overwhelmed by situations and issues), Iyok & Moi came to help out. What perfect timing! And the best thing is that, it so happened that she knows how to tie the balloons 'coz she did it before for her company dinner. And in no time, she's tying up the ballons at a pace that Maggie and I couldn't even catch up. I was on my 2nd balloon and got tangled up, whilst Iyok was halfway til done! So, feeling that we're the "biggest losers" in this balloon tying challenge, Mag & I decided to paste up posters instead! And oh, poor Baj's bike got pimped using left over crepe papers..hehe.
So, that's that. Finally we're done with the decorations by 9 plus and started packing our things. It's time to head off home. Despite being verry tired to the bones, I was satisfied with what the youths did that day...the deco and all, and thankful to God, our provider that has blessed & guided us throughout the day. A little proud feeling swelled in me but not without a tad of nervousness for Sunday's event! However, I shall not be worried, I reminded myself, for God is already there. Amen!

Come Sunday (the day!), the youths who are involved came early to church, all wearing their blue-white AYC tees! We look good together, aiseh hehe. :p

By 230pm, people started coming. Youths from Tudan, Taman Tunku, Chinese congregation and also Good Shepherd, Lutong made it to the service. :D By 3pm, the event is well on its way. We started off with a pageantry (which consists of the tambourine dancers, banner & cross bearers) to the song "Tiba Saatnya" and then a praise & worship session led by Bro. Bajeng. Readings from the Bible, thereafter by Nunun & Zara (part of the dancing girls..hehe). The sharing on the theme, Take Up Your Cross, was preached by Fr. Ramdan, who never fails to bring a blend of seriousness and humour to his preaching. A real good sermon indeed! After the sermon, was the intercession, read by one of our youths, Casper, a 15-year-old-who-sometimes-asks-the-most-impossible-questions, to which I saw potential in him. :) At one point of the intercession, my heart was touched as his deep voice looms over the microphone, reading the prayers. It's one of those heartwarming & inspiring moments I get occasionally. Hehe.

After interceding for the needs of the youths in the Diocese, we we're entertained by a song, sung by the Chinese Youths. I loved the song! I wonder if they have it in English too. Very melodious!

Before saying "it's a wrap!", Fr. Cheong shared a word or two of his story & experiences with youths. The service ended with a song "Hidup Tanpa mu", before everyone heads off for refreshments & fellowship, thereafter, di bawah pokok, atas rumput. :p Sue & I put up a small corner to sell our cards & notebooks too..!

After a few karipaps, sambal puluts and several packet drinks later, it was time to "close shop". But, before we head off home, we did some cleaning up and not forgetting (i repeat not ever forgetting)...group photo! And now, finally..we can say..'It's a wrap, y'all! Overall, the event went smoothly..well, not without a lil' minor hiccups & surprises along the way, but I believe that the youths did a great job and I too believe that there's always room for improvement!
Praise & thank God for He is good! :)