Journey with my Creator: May 2015

Missing in action for awhile… Thought of taking a short break trying to concentrate on my studies, ended up doing lots of other things. One of those was preparing for the children ministry at the church camp. I have no intention of taking up the responsibility of planning or conducting lesson and activity for this year. Time to take a break after two years of teaching consecutively in the children ministry at camp, right? After all, I have been involved in children church almost every Sunday and the children are probably tired of seeing this Aunty Shally. So, for this year, we have invited a group of dynamite children church teachers elsewhere to take over the children ministry. However, due to the small group (only 13 children), they had graciously decline and so we took over the baton. Haha… no running away, ya?

Honestly, I did not spend as much time as the past two years in the lesson planning. It was simply because I was not given as much time to prepare. After all, I only took care of one lesson. Hooi Poh and Michael took over the other two sessions; and the final session was a movie time! The lesson was in line with the camp theme: Let the Flame Burn Brighter.

The teaching part was quite simple and straight forward. However, if I plan to dig deeper, there’s too much to cover in a single lesson. So, I just briefly explained to the children the 3-points outline with an object lesson each. The 20-minutes lesson took me 2 hours to prepare. Too much time spent, huh? Maybe it is because I have higher expectations when in comes to children ministry. I never thought of children ministry as "baby-sitting". Each time a child comes to children church, it is a divine appointment for him/her to connect with God. If we could spend an X amount of time and effort for an adult service, children deserve the same, if not more.

Putting that aside, the 13 children consists of the youngest being 2+ to the oldest 11+. Quite a wide gap. I was told that our camp speaker, Pastor Steven, is one who takes time to minister during the altar call. Since my session was the 2^nd day night, which is also the last night of the camp, I expected the altar call to be extra long (from my previous experience in other camps). So, how to keep the children occupied after the teaching? My main concern was the older kids. With all the technologies that they are exposing to, what kind of activity that could keep them focus and interested? And something that required limited amount of preparation time (in less than 7 days).

My first idea was something to do with circuit board i.e. with LEDs blinking like a fire and maybe some buzzers or buttons to control the LED lights. and etc. Doesn’t this sounds like an interesting project and it has everything to relate to our camp theme? However, Andrew, being the electronics engineer who has to do most of the design, was very unsuportive of the idea. Not because he didn't want to help, but his complaint was that he can't get any equipment or electronic materials in Melaka within 7 days. "In KL, no problem, just go Jalan Pasar and you have tons of shops there ... blah blah blah", as he continued to compare KL and Melaka. Well, anyone out there would like to use this idea? Copyright reserved, ya! So, that left me with my second option: T-shirt painting. I’m not sure whether the kids have done it before but I thought if done well, the kids could actually wear it after the camp. Thus, creating a longer lasting impact.

If you have been following my blog, last year I organised a water gun fun time. A few children actually still remember it today (I’m surprised) and they were so hoping we could do it again. That is the kind of impact I wished to create.

However, I have a hard time finding fabric paint or fabric marker. Perhaps I am still ‘new’ to Melaka and have no idea where to find those materials; perhaps I need to befriend local people who are more resourceful. I was already prepared to make my purchase in KL since our camp this year was held at Pearl International Hotel. Finally, I stumbled upon this new shop ‘Golden Egg Crafts’ via web search which will only be opened officially on 9^th May. I called up the owner, Jean, and she agreed to open up her shop just for me! Isn’t that awesome? Guess what… I am her first customer. The shop hasn’t even had their cash register ready yet. Here again, Andrew continued to nag on how easy it would have been to find fabric paint and even fabric marker in KL. Unfortunately he was right. The day before the camp we went to MPH in Subang Jaya and immediately on the shelf we found fabric marker pens with assorted colours. Seems like something so common there (like colour pencils).

Meanwhile, Siang Ling graciously helped me to order the white t-shirt from a t-shirt printing company. The order was supposed to be collected on Thursday noon but the delivery truck was delayed and it only reached Melaka at 9:45pm. Both Siang Ling and I were a little bit nervous as I planned to leave for KL on Friday noon.

To be honest, I am not good with art and craft. At the same time, I do not want the children to simply paint on the t-shirt just to fulfil teacher’s order. So, I printed some pictures and cut it, thinking that this could be used as a stencil. The children are free to paint anything they want with an exception that the camp logo must be painted somewhere on the shirt. The stencil serves as a guide especially for younger kids. It turned out to be rather useful.

Meanwhile, Debbie was having second thought of helping me in the children ministry. She was a great help to me last year at the camp. This year, she was also involved in the worship ministry. I am so thankful that finally she agreed to serve together with me.

Through this activity, I discovered a different aspect in some of the children. I am totally amazed at Kok Weng and Samuel, they did such a marvellous job with their shirts. Kok Weng claimed to be a perfectionist. Jia Ning has fantastic idea although her shirt did not turn out the exact way she wanted it to be. Bryan and Joel are both lovers of Captain American. Nathaniel may not be very good with painting, yet his imagination carries him far beyond the galaxy. Carryn chooses to be on the safe side. I love Erwyn’s handprint on the shirt. Will definitely keep this for a long long time. Elyse’s love for God is shown clearly on her shirt: Jesus loves me.

All in all, I am quite proud of the final product. Seriously, that was my first time painting on a shirt as well. And out of 13 kids, at least 3 of them treasure the shirts, ie my two children and another older boy. I am thankful to God that serving Him has given me the opportunity to tap on something that is extraordinary; something that I know I would not dare to venture in. Truly, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!