OCF Easter Camp at Portsea!

I came into the camp not knowing anyone except Ee Jen and not expecting anyone I know at all. How more wrong I was. Here are some excerpts from the camp that really touched my heart and I know I will always remember.

Long-lost friends reunited:
In the camp I met up with Ming Han (we met up a lot of times in KL if you have been reading my blog faithfully), Mathew (my fellow church friend in KL) and Lynchia (she had always been attending my church in KL but I didn’t know her until now!). The four of us combined is actually a small FBC (First Baptist Church, the church I attend in Malaysia) reunion. I totally didn’t know that they would be attending OCF Camp at all, and was pleasantly surprised to find out in the camp! If you know me well, you know how I treasure long-lasting friends and such a reunion like this really makes the inner-most part of my heart warm. That’s just Joshua.

Team Zachaeus:
I was assigned to this team with no idea whatsoever whom the team members were. On the first day on arrival at the camp site, I saw the team list and I totally didn’t know anyone on the list. I am glad that after 4 days of spending so much time together (practically the whole day) I know this people reasonably well now and that they are a lovely bunch of people. To Nick, Shin Han, Jason, Fang Ni, Hannah, Christine, Priscilla, Dawn, Becky, Richard, Magdalene and Marc, it was a real pleasure meeting you and we sure had some fun times together. Especially during the ice-breaker games events on the first day. We managed to win 5 out of 7 games together. That made us the best team of all out of the 14 teams in camp. I am proud of you guys! After all the running, dedication and energy spent in those games, we made it! Most of the bible study groups, worship times, breakfast, lunch, dinner and devotion was also spent with you guys. You made me feel like part of a team of dedicated people to Christ and I love you guys!

Mystery! Game:
On the second night of camp, at 10pm, we were made to play this game called Mystery!. The scene was set in World War 2 in 1945. The Gustapov (German soldiers) were killing persecuted Christians for their faith. Christians were not allowed to practice Christianity at all. Any Christians would be shot dead if they were found in any churches at all. That was the background of the game. The camp committee were to be the Gustapov soldiers. They are to treat us like real peasants during World War 2. They were told to punish anyone who is “seen to be going to church”. Everyone else in the camp were the peasants. Because the whole campsite was huge (we had a big oval, a basketball court, a volleyball court, a beach-side, girl’s dorm, boy’s dorm, carpark and other buildings) we could play the whole game at night in the whole campsite.

Around the campsite there were 7 envelopes that were scattered that represented “churches”. We are to find the envelopes and “join a church” by writing our names in the envelopes. The trick is, we can only join one church in the game. There is only one true church and the rest are all dodgy churches which do not practice the true faith. During the whole game, we have to use the darkness of the night to hide from the Gustapov. If they catch any of us, we have to do whatever they say and they will punish us. In the real history, any Christians who were caught would straightaway be forced to eat dog food and drink urine. But in our case, we were just asked to do push-ups and squats. The game started at the oval at 10pm when the Gustapov gave everyone (about 150 people) 3 minutes to run and hide. All the campers were running away very afraid of the Gustapov. Everyone ran everywhere, and they tried to hide in obscure places. Remember, it was at night and the campsite was really dark and situated next to a jungle. You couldn’t possibly see a dark area without a torchlight.

Unfortunately, the Gustapov had torchlights. And campers were told to break into groups of two or three and each group had one torchlight too. The game went on and I was hiding in the bushes on one of the hills near the basketball court. It was so dark where I was but my group was going along with another group. There were 5 of us together. As we waited in the darkness, we could hear Gustapov in the far distance screaming to people who were obviously caught already. They were shouting in a real scary voice that represented German soldiers without mercy. But the punishments were just push-ups, squats, both or be sent to the Nazi camp for more punishment. Still, the whole darkness area and people getting caught represented real-life Nazi situation during World War 2 when real Christians were being persecuted for believing in Christ.

It touched me that I can just believe in Christ now without anyone threatening to shoot me. After much sneaking around (with my pro sneaking skills), we liaised with other groups and found out which churches were the fake ones. We all ended up near the carpark next to a “church” which is the envelope. We were there for a long time discussing whether this was the right church. On the paper it said “We were saved because God overlooked our sins” which we debated for quite long because the true answer is actually God forgave our sins, not overlooked. Soon a group of 30 of us were there hiding and we decided that it was the right church, though it was wrong. But in the end as some people decided to go out and “spread the news” to other people instead of just waiting there till the game was over, we found out the right church.

We realised we were wrong and finally sneaked our way to the right church (with me not ever getting caught!) and soon signed up to the right church. The lessons learnt from the game was that if we had found the right church, it is our responsibility to spread the word of God to others and not keep it to ourselves. And that some people even tried to evangelise to the Gustapov which I found very amusing and courageous. They would die for their faith. Really wonderful game that brought the best and worst out of people.

Card-games group:
You guys are just awesome la. Yuki, Matthew, Ben, Steven, Joshua, Patrick, Ming Han and Khoa, you guys can make me laugh so good. I never laughed like that for a long, long time. When it comes to playing cards and having fun, you guys are legend! I really enjoyed the times we played Citadel, bang and bluff! So so funny. I guess one day we just have to meet up again and have fun again. I think I wouldn’t have done anything else in my free time because I know I can play card games with you guys.

Funny times at the camp:
During Mystery!, one of the Gustapov caught one guy and a conversation went like this:
Gustapov: What are you doing out so late?!
Guy: I am looking for my dog called LUCKY
Gustapov: Now, tell me the real reason why you are out here! I am going to count to 3. One, two, three!
Guy: Oh sorry, it’s actually my cat.

Another conversation went something like this:
Gustapov: What are you doing out this late at night?!
Guy: Hanky panky ma’am!

On the last night of the camp, we all dropped lots of eggs and flour on the camp leader who is Andrea Tan, as a sign of organising the camp really well for us. We repay her with “love”. The next day Andrea revenged by doing the same thing on the camp committee. It was so hilariously funny.

When playing Bang! with the card-games group, Patrick killed himself instantly with a dynamite. It was meant to kill others but it starts with him and explodes with him. We were laughing non-stop for 5 minutes.

We were taking photos of us jumping on the beach. Can’t wait till it is posted on facebook! We look really funny and hilarious and crazy.


Memorable moments at the camp:
I saw a penguin swimming so near me on the beach. But because it was swimming so fast, I couldn’t catch it at all.

Some people gave their lives for God that night. Tears were rolling down people’s cheeks. Everyone was in a state of praise and worship. God is truly wonderful.

The testimonies of us during centre sharing every night was just so wonderful. No where else on earth can you get a group of people so united in Christ and such a sense of belonging was in the house then.

The small FBC reunion that we had really touched me. I never knew we could have a small FBC reunion in Melbourne with friends whom I treasure. Really wonderful time.

Food at the camp:
Thanks Jojo for being such a great chef for us! Our menu just kept on getting better as each day passed. We even had nasi lemak for lunch on Saturday. So nice la, I didn’t know camps can serve me my favourite food. But one thing, we had some chicken every night. So right now I am a bit sick of chicken already.

What I got out of the camp:
I will remember this camp as my first time I actually spent time with OCF people and my first camp with them too. Thanks Ee Jen for bringing me to this camp. I made lots of new friends from this camp. Other than that, I learnt more about my walk with God. Am I closer to Him? Am I more surer in my faith after this? I hope that the answers to those questions are yes! May we continue to walk with Him in faith.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.