I love camps, ever since I was young, I'd attend Junior Fellowship camps whenever I could, when I grew up in Zion BP church, Serangoon Gardens.
Of course the reasons for loving these camps, have changed. I used to love camps coz it was fantastic fun, we'd stay in dorms, have crazy skits put up during dorm inspection, hang out with friends all day and night, play lots of games like water bom fights, captain's ball, relays, and the climax was always some night games, where there'd be a dungeon for those captured. Oh, and of course we got to chat up the girls!
Since I attended ARPC since 1994, I've attended quite a few ARPC camps, whenever I could. The first I attended was in Kuantan, I think, with Philip Jensen as speaker. During the years we were first in Indonesia 1997-2003, we didn't go for any, but we did for most of the other years.
ARPC has grown from 100+ (back when we first attended), and now maybe 2000. We used to know everyone those days, and I loved the close fellowship. The years we were first in Indonesia, were.... disorienting. Each time we visited, it just exploded in numbers - it went from maybe 200 to 1000 in the 6 years we were gone (we take full credit for that!), and we felt more and more lost and detached each year.
By the time we got back in 2003, we felt like new comers all over again, esp with 4 services, our old friends were scattered across the services. It was actually hard to make friends (beyond the hello and goodbye) during the limited time we had on Sundays, and was pretty much limited to those with similar demographic - young families with young kids.
2 things helped, in me getting to know people better: 1 was attending a Discipleship Group, and the other was going for church camps.
Church camps are great because
1.Everyone at one place - instead of spread over 3 or 4 services. Everyone who goes that is. And with this year, there's about 900 folks to attended, which is an astounding proportion of the church there.
2.Everyone's captive - Except for Malacca, where everyone tries to sneak out for meals, other locales been good, coz everyone is stuck at the site - perfect for getting to know folks!
3.Time to fellowship - we just have more time and opportunities to chat, during the bible study group times, as well as the meals, which we try to sit with different folks each time. Also, most of the afternoons are free, so there's time for the kids to go hang out with other kids, play some sport, or take a nap (wait... that's not fellowship?). There's always some activity on, where you can catch up with old friends, or meet new ones. During Sundays, there's really little time to catch up, everyone's busy as bees, and zipping off somewhere.
4.Sermons - it's also a great opportunity to be learning from God's word. This camp, the theme was "Heaven and Hell", there was 8 talks, with each talk going for 1 hour or more! So we're talking about 8-10 hours of solid bible teaching.
So God willing, my family will be there each year. It's great for us to stay connected to a home church, catch up with old friends and meet new ones.
