IMPACT College Camp 2010 – Go The Distance

CoffeeTravels, Road Trips — By Nicholas on July 1, 2010 at 1:50 AM

This could possibly be the last time I get to attend the College Camp by IMPACT. You’ll never know what might happen in the future, but one thing’s certain, is that I’m not growing younger by the day, soon I’ll take the leap of faith into the working world and, yeap never know where that will lead ya.

Anyway, I really really thank God for the opportunity to co-organize the College Camp with Ren Yau and Rachel. Truth to be told, Rachel and I were last minute additions. While I was informed briefly by Pastor Sue to assist Ren Yau in organising the camp, I didn’t know there was much work to be done as I thought it was similar to the Kampar camp 2 years back.

I remembered we were pretty backdated in the camp preparations when we had to think throughly about what theme to use for the College Camp this year. Ren Yau and I had to dig deep into our ‘thinking box’, and with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit we manage to stumble upon 1 Timothy 6:12, which talks about fighting the good fight of faith. Hence, we decided to adopt the verse and themed the camp Go The Distance.

It was pretty suitable, now that I think back. HAHA! Going the distance in food, hmm.

The venue was El Sanctuary, Alor Gajah. None of us had been to the place before, that includes the adults that went along. We had to rely on information from those who had been to the place before, and the reviews we got were all pretty good. Of course, they were proven to be true as we totally love the place!

We had a bungalow to ourselves. We were initially supposed to be taking the chalets located around, but some other bunch beat us to it and the people at El Sanctuary allocated the bungalow for us, of course for a higher fee. Thank God we were later than the previous bunch! Having the bungalow made life so much easier for the camp committee! I couldn’t have imagined how I could play my game on the 2nd night if we had no personal hall to use.

Awesome accomodation, it got the boys dorms and the girls dorms with 35 beds each. Superb! Hey its even better with only 15 of us staying in for 2 nights. Haha!

Planning the Rescue Mission on the 1st day, was a total last minute thing. Ren Yau was cracking his head as to how to do the ice breaker, since we have Melody whose from FGA KL joining us, and also the twins who were always very quiet. With no idea how El Sanctuary look like before the trip, we just had to cross our fingers hoping the terrain would suit the different stations we planned just that morning itself before leaving for Alor Gajah.

Eggs and flour, anyone? We drafted a story about how the 3 of us (camp committees) got separated and kidnapped while camping, and the campers need to solve 3 different tasks to unite us back together again. When the 3 of us got back together, we made each team ‘dig’ for treasures, which were actually mentos sweets from a bowl covered with flour. The catch? They didn’t know there was a 2nd layer. Hahaha, this was totally Ren Yau’s mischievious idea!

So what they saw were just flour on the top surface, while Rachel had previously mixed flour, eggs and some water and dumped in some mentos sweets at the bottom surface. Totally wicked!

The group picture above was the results of their quest!

We also brought along a guitar and a keyboard for Praise & Worship purposes.

The other best thing about this camp was that we actually get to watch the World Cup in HD! Haha, the owners have Astro B.yond over at the cafe area, so we decided to hit the place for the Brazil vs Portugal match.

It wasn’t an exciting match, many of them were doing everything else but watching football in the end. Ee Leen was busy with the iPad the whole night long!

We spent the whole of Saturday in Malacca town. If you had read my previous post, you would have been enlightened on our agenda for the day. Eat, eat, eat and eat! We did get to have some sight seeing around town of course.

The cruise tour near Quay Side.

The scenery around Quay Side.

Christ Church Melaka.

The one-handed statue up at A Famosa Fort.

The A Famosa Fort itself, or whats left of it.

We had also taken quite a bit of group pictures here and there, good thing Ren Yau was there to handle my camera or I would have definitely missed out on being part of the group shots!

Group photo infront of Christ Church Malacca.

Group photo in A Famosa Fort.

Group photo up at the A Famosa hill.

We even had some group shots over lunch and pork satays!

Table #1 at Heng Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls.

Table #2 at Heng Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls.

Yours truly, Kevin and Ji Ern in pork satay shop.

After a fulfilling (not so fulfilling as we were pressed for time!) trip in Malacca town, we headed back to El Sanctuary for shower and dinner. Did I mention the food prepared by El Sanctuary were awesome? I didn’t? Okay so now I’m telling you. Haha! Awesome homecooked food, too bad I didn’t manage to take photos of any of it.

The agenda for Saturday night was the game I had planned for weeks, with ideas sought from Lydia, and the game turned out to be quite successful. Hmm, it might get a replay over at one of IMPACT meetings as well. Ngek ngek!

Oh well, Ren Yau and I had to do a brief demo, and both of us ended up blushing like mad. Oh well, wheres the fun and laughters without some added spice? At least it cracked everyone up! Good times indeed.

Jonathan’s team was simply amazing, they could fit 3 persons into that tiny hula hoop! And I thought the hoop was small enough to not make them so greedy hahaha! I shall leave you readers to ponder about it without revealing too much information regarding the game, since it might be having a replay in IMPACT. Wouldn’t wanna spoil the surprise now, would I?

As usual, happy times passed by amazingly quick. After Sunday Service on the last day, we presented thank you gifts to Pastor Sue, Aunty Irin and Uncle Stephen for watching over us, not to mention driving us around. It gotta be really exhausting, but we were all glad they were willing to sacrifice for us.

The Camp committees with (From left) Uncle Stephen, Aunty Irin and Pastor Sue.

With heavy hearts, we ended the camp in prayers and close the session with a complete group photograph consisting of all the campers of IMPACT College Camp 2010.

IMPACT College Camp 2010 Group Photo #1.

IMPACT College Camp 2010 Group Photo #2.

You are probably wondering who took the picture. :p Don’t panic, there was certainly nothing supernatural, haha! We managed to make use of a stand to do a timed shot.

So it came to an end, the College Camp for 2010. We spent the afternoon in Malacca town again for some unfinished business, and then made our way to Seremban to meet up with Datuk Roland Wong for dinner. After that, it was a longgg and tiring journey back home to FGA USJ.

You know, the truth about camps is, they bond people together. Likewise, I strongly believed the ties between each college-going youths were strengthened throughout the course of the camp while we did activities together, eat together, watch the World Cup together and even slept together (I mean, in the same dorm!). It was definitely fun while it lasted. I personally had much memories to cherish and to keep for a lifetime!

That being said, I miss College Camp 2010 already. Lets all continue rocking on for Jesus!

P/S – You can view more photos of the camp here.