The outing at Pasir Ris Park for a whole of 12 hours, from 9am to 9pm, was significant. It was my first trip with the rest of the church as a family of God. Here, we witnessed many baptisms, which was heartwarming for me, seeing people going back to Jesus Christ.
In the morning, I woke up without the alarm. Packed the stuff the night before, so by morning the things were already done, and we set off to the beach at 8am. Reserved some seats for Uncle Daniel and his family, but they came late, at around 10am, an hour after the service started. It turned out that he had made several trips to bring Auntie Noreen's sisters here as well, resulting in them coming late together as one family.
Morning sermon, about the family as designed by God Himself. After the sermon everyone was stuffed, due to the hot weather, and the limited ventilation underneath the tentage. The weather wasn't the problem actually - the grass was, respiring and giving out carbon dioxide as well. As carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping gas, it was no wonder the tentage was an inbuilt furnace, given the numbers of people that were there.
It was hot, it was boring, it was stuffy. No sports, no swimming, no football. Now I saw the purpose of bringing the guitar, again, as Uncle Daniel, Uncle Kelvin and I sat under the nearest tree singing Chinese worship songs, hoping to spread His love through the songs to the passers-by. It was then that Uncle Yiye and his family came along, being told of our performance to be held later at night, but ended up coming too early.
In any case, the games started, and we were appointed to Orange Team, which ended up the last team. However, we didn't play for nothing - they gave us a tidbit prize which consisted of a bag of Mamee noodle snack, cookies and a sweet. How nice, even losers get some kind of consolation prizes.
The rest of the day after the team games was virtually boring, as there was practically nothing to play or interact with, other than talking to people, playing kapadi(a traditional Indian game that resembles sumo-wrestling) in the mud, or playing soccer with a small football. I thought, no kick, playing with such a small ball! I went later to talk to the fellow brethren watching the soccer game, and then took a shower.
The door was unlocked as the bolt got knocked off, and the floor was barely clean, with mud and sand at all the four corners of the cubicle, but thank God I managed to shower successfully with the help of Uncle Kelvin holding the door from outside, maintaining bathroom privacy in such a public place. After getting out of the showers, the sight of the Married vs Singles football match was already starting, and the first thing I thought to myself was "Why on earth did I hit the showers in the first place? What a waste!"
Eventually I gave in to the urge to play in the fresh new clothing, fully expecting myself to go dirty and sweating in blue jeans. Pastor Bennett was there, and it was enjoyable. Though I was merely playing as a goalkeeper, the tension was there whenever the ball came close, which was often. Caught 2 balls, let in one. Married Team won over us, the Singles Team.
Performance started after dinnertime, and it was then God's mercy and grace truly shone in my life at that moment when a blow of stomachache hit me when the land breeze blew against me near the tentage. The urge was there, nature was calling...
I can't answer now. I can't answer now. If I did, I'd be cocking-up the whole performance item and waste the effort that we've put in to prepare the programme as one whole cell group. "Lord, please protect my underpants, lest I shit myself during the performance," I prayed in desperation as the throbbing gut started to already slowly let out gas stealthily.
The medley went well. Made minor blunders with the change in key, and finished the playing perfectly. Guess what happened - I made a run for the toilet without any toilet paper, still thinking in my mind, Hallelujah Lord for answering my prayer.
"Oops," came the exclamation when I was already at the toilet bowl letting go of that atomic bomb to answer nature's call. "Alamak, what to do?" I groped around for my phone, my only hope of getting out of the toilet, yet remaining clean in the bottoms at the same time. If only I could shout "Hallelujah!" loud enough that the people in the tentage could hear from the toilet that I was in, more than 200 metres away from it.
Mishaps happen all the time, but that ultimately didn't spoil the fun the other programmes had in store for us, and of course there's the exhaustion. What mattered to me even more was that we, as a cell group, could serve God in a practical way by offering a performance programme, to which they were lacking in items for. Praise God for all that!
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