Monday, 4 June 2007

Faith HF Lumut Retreat

The highlight of my mid term holidays was definitely the Faith Home Fellowship Retreat to Lumut from 2nd-4th June. The theme was "Give Me An Undivided Heart". We went to Marina Cove Sherwood Resort. Arrived in church at 8.40AM. Kym followed my car. Surprisingly, 3 hours didn't seem long b'cos we were busy playing Sequence and Four Crowns in the backseat. Had lunch at Kampung Koh before heading to the resort.

Arrived at the resort right on time: 2.30PM. Headed up to our apartments. Here's the view from my room:

Sunset from my window

The Marina Water Park which is separated by a fence from
the rest of the resort

The car park-cum-beach soccer-cum-beach volleyball area

We went swimming right away. The little kids rented a float, then a crocodile. Haha. Then, had dinner. Gathered at Kym's apartment (cos it's bigger than the other two, I don't know why). Watched a 20 minute video on "Contemplative Prayer". It highlights Psalm 46:10. A great psalm to meditate on. Then there was a personality test by Aunty Mei Lin. I turned out to be a phlegmatic-melancholic person. Haha. Means I'm stoical, cool, composed and kind of emo. Lol. So was Wei Shern and Joseph. Hehe. Which explains why we get along well.

Me, Wei Shern and Joseph went down to walk around cos we didn't want to play games. Walked around the pool and outside until 11.30PM and then we joined the rest while they were playing games for awhile.

The next day, me, Mervy and Jo went down for breakfast. It was so-so. Breakfast served in the apartment prepared by my mum and Aunty Alice was way better. Had our morning service and a message by Uncle Chee Beng.

After that, we all took a ferry to Pangkor Island. Had to wait so long for the ferry. And there were so many people. The air smelled like sweat. Ew. But the trip there which took 40 minutes was great. There were so many jellyfishes. Seriously. So many.

It was really hot the whole day. We took a van (it's pink and they're the taxis of the island, they're almost the only vehicles on the road, except for a lot of motorcycles) to Seaview Restaurant. The food there was good. Especially the fried calamari. After that, we walked along the beach. Spotted some dead jellyfishes. And Mervy used a stick to get them on the sand.

The beach (can you spot me and Mervy at the side?)

Rocks =D

Cool, right?

Here's another

Wei Shern, Ze, me, Lydidi and Melody

Mum and Aunty Mee Ching with their cool hats, haha

The ladies

Bought lots of foodstuff. Then we headed home around 5.55PM and reached Lumut at 6.20PM. After bathing and washing up, we camwhored a bit. First, it was me and Mervy. We locked Nicholas in the room and took photos with him alone before everyone else forced themselves in. Haha.

Nicholas (he's really cute and he always says "What nonsense", hehe, wonder why)

Me and Mervy

Smiles

This was totally Mervy's idea, which is why he does it so well, lol

Then we went outside and took photos again. Always the same backdrop kind of boring, right? Uncle Andrew and Aunty Mee Ching were outside with Joseph's parents.

This is a nice one

We were s'posed to look proud... s'posed to lah, haha

I cannot do "lala" poses lah... But Wei Shern totally rocks this one, right? Haha

Kym calls this a formal family photo =)

All lovey-dovey... especially Mervy (all that love, but no one to give it to, lol)

This look says "Huh?" (Wei Shern is, as always, lost XP)

Looking elsewhere

The big family (Kym says this is more natural, agreed?)

All of us, again (Aunty Mee Ching took both the above for us, she was like, "Eh, look here lah... Oh, y'all pretending wan ah?" HAHAHA)

That night we were free after dinner. Played Pictionary and Taboo. Youths vs. adults. Being youths, we assumed we would win. Haha. But the adults beat us by 4 points only lah. We had our own Taboo game and then went downstairs to play Pictionary by the pool. My drawing skills are horrible. Haha. My horse looks anything but a horse. And I can't even draw a guitar. Brian draws from the wrong angles. Joseph draws really quickly. And Lydia doesn't know what she's trying to draw. Lol.

At 12.30AM, me, Mervy, Jo, Wei Shern and Joseph headed upstairs to our apartment (Wei Shern and Joseph were gonna stay in our apartment since all the girls were next door and there was no more space). We played a round of Five Crowns and Bluff. I'm terrible at lying. Hehe. In the end I was left with so many cards.

I took this photo of Wei Shern, it looks so cool, right? Mervy says it's like his soul is being ripped out... =D

We only slept at 3AM. That's the longest I've ever lasted! Vincent woke me up when he called. He was out cycling and asked me to come out. But I couldn't since I haven't changed. But I saw him from the balcony anyway. After I bathed and all, went down with Mervy (who waited for me) to meet Vincent at the theme park.

Had to go upstairs for our devotion session. Then at 11AM we all packed up, checked out and left for the beach. Here, we took more photos:

Four of us

9 of us

=)

What is Mervy smiling at?

I was only gonna post the photo before this, but for your sake,
Mervy, I posted this one too =D

It's that pose that Mervy invented again, haha, look at Melody!

UH...

Jo in the car being damn gaya (so says Kym)

We went to Sitiawan for lunch. Ate at Bei King Restaurant. After that, headed home. Bought from several stalls by the roadside. Dad drove real fast and took all the shortcuts. We arrived home so quickly. Wei Shern was still way behind =P Haha.

It was a great retreat lah. Missing it so much. Now I wake up and I don't hear Uncle Chee Beng's voice outside. Haha.There's something nice about going away with other members of the Lord's house and just relaxing. Being back in Klang, the surroundings are so different.

Most importantly, I learnt about giving God an undivided heart. After stumbling in my Christian life, it's been a little in the balance. And we all lead busy lives, that God, in Uncle Chee Beng's words, "gets what's left of our hearts, as we divide it according to the different things and persons in our lives". So we need to slow down and set our priorities right. Give whole attention to the Lord and everything else will matter less. All the things that we say we have to do will seem more petty when we focus on doing the things that He says we have to do.

"Be still and know that I am God"
Psalm 46:10