02-08/01/2010
Plentong, JB
This is our story and the birth of this wonderful fellowship~
At the 2nd January of the year 2010, we arrived at MAJODI Centre for the annual Self-Discovery Camp. Back then, we hardly know each other even though we came from the same parish, because most of us attended mass at different time on Sundays. So this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to get to know each other. BUT, our main objective off course, is to get to know ourselves better, in order to discover our role in God's plans.
During this long 7-days camp, we were lead by excellent and fully experienced priests, nuns and brothers from the Melaka-Johore diocese, they are Rev. Fr. Joseph Heng from STC Melaka, Fr. Thomas Koo from CDD, Fr. Paul Wong from CIC Johore, Fr. Ryan, Fr. Cyril, Brother Eddie, Sr. Theresa Chay from CSCM, Sr. Josephine Thong, Sr. Marian Lim from SDS, Sr. Clara Lee from FMDM and Sr. Myriam Heng. They are here to lead us as well as to guide and show us their life in God. In order for us young guys and gals to observe, remember and interpret all the activities that we have experienced, we were each given a note book as a 24/7 journal, so that we could write down whatever we heard and saw. And this effort turned out to be very fruitful as all of us gained experiences not only from the activities but from our connection with God as well.
We arrived at Johore in different ways : by bus and by car. Those who went by bus arrived at Johore Central at approximately 4.30pm. Upon our arrival, we were then sent to MAJODI Centre by Sister Chay and a helpful parishioner buy car. While everyone arrived, we unpacked our stuffs in the dormitory and prepared for the 6.00pm. evening mass. It was awkward for everyone at first to have to blend into each others presence while not knowing each other. That's why we have a self introduction after mass before dinner. We warmed up to each other pretty quickly after that, especially after dining with the other youths. The first seed of self-discovering was planted then. After our first tasty dinner in MAJODI, day one came to an end.
2nd day (03/01/2010) ~ (this is one of the most interesting day)It was 6.00am. in the morning, most of us were still asleep. Then, Paul's voice rang through the whole dormitory which woke us up abruptly! We got up, brushed up ourselves, got dressed and fully ready to start a whole new day at MAJODI. The morning mass started at 8.00am. sharp and everyone was freshened by the early morning in-touch with God. The mass was held in St. Joseph Church, which is a short walk away from MAJODI Centre. The excitement started after breakfast, when Fr. Heng announce
d that today is our "Le Tour de Johore", which is a Johore one day trip!The trip was well planned by the committee, 6 cars from kindly parishioners were arranged as our ride for the trip, we even have our own tour guide, Mr. James. Our first destination was CIC, Johore. When we arrived, the Sunday mass was still half way on, so we waited for it to end while admiring the church's state-of-the-art structure which gave us the feeling of going back in time. After Fr. Paul Wong finished the mass, we have a short chat with him while updating him on our current activity. Fr. Paul then gave us permission for a short tour up in the bell tower. It was our very first time up onto such a classical bell tower, just the long climb up the tower filled us with the heavy age of the place. There were four bells with different sizes in the tower, they serve different purposes too. After visiting CIC, our next destination is one of Johore's oldest Chinese temple. We had a short tour there and listened to a brief history of the temple from Mr. James. The temple was one of the earliest shrine for the Chinese who arrived in Malaya during the British ruling era. Next, we went to the largest Islamic funeral site in Johor,e where the late Sultans of Johore are buried from generation to generation. Then, we were given a tour at the beautiful Masjid Abu Bakar, one of the
largest mosque. The view from the mosque was breath-taking. We got an excellent view of the Malacca Strait. Finally, it's lunch time! We had the most wonderful 'hot' lunch, treated by Mr. James, it was the famous JLN. Kolam Air Laksa. One word, DELICIOUS! Next, we were taken for a tour in NUSAJAYA's Puteri Harbour City. Then, we headed to Ledang Heights for a brief introduction on the NUSAJAYA Project. Last but not least, we visited Sacred Heart Church. We were free to walk around the church and see for ourselves the chuch's interior. After that, we head back to MAJODI Center, where our journey ended.
3rd day (04/01/2010) ~ Our daily mass started at 7.15am. The mass was held in English as we have English group youths joining as well. Then, we had our usual morning breakfast. 9.00am. was our first session of the day. This session was by Sr. Chay, and some of us might prefer to call her Sr. "ger ger" Chay. At the starting of the session, she taught us 2 simple but unusually touching songs, which really deepened our knowledge about ourselves. 2 simple games was played during the session, he first game was the 'Game Of Trust',where one person will totally relax himself and trust his friends from preventing to drop him onto the cold, hard floor. The other game was the "Game of Self Decision', a person must made his way blindfolded through a maze of other people's valuable items (or so he thought) without stepping onto any of them, while the others will guide the person in succeeding the mission.
So, it depends on the blinded person to decide whether the others were giving him the right direction or he rather trust his own instincts. After these exciting games, Sr. Chay was presenting us a special present each as she had promised at the beginning of the session. The present she had brought was in a small pink box, which triggered our curiosity even more. We stood up one by one to look into the box. The reactions of the people after looking into the box was completely different, some cried, some smiled, some just stoned their faces. Because the first thing everyone saw in the box were their own reflection, reflected off a small mirror inside the box...This is our gift, a gift from God, as he made us as one and only one unique individual on Earth, there's no one like yourself!
4th day (05/01/2010) ~Today, our mass started as usual and after having breakfast, our first session started. It was Fr. Heng's session, which everyone almost caught his craziness after the session. "fate", "origin" and "unity" was the theme of the day. We were divided into four groups for a presentation: your opinion of what's God's purpose of sending us to Earth. We were supposed to convey our idea onto paper and present it in front of the others. After having it done, we presented our ideas while Fr. Heng acted as the judge for the activity. Through this sharing, we see other people's opinion on the matter and it really gave us the chance to learn from others.
The next session was hosted by Fr. Paul Wong. He promised that he wouldn't let us fall asleep during his session and he succeeded at doing it! We danced and sang to warm ourselves up and it certainly worked out well enough. From Fr. Paul's sharing, we learned to encourage and appreciate others. Clap, Clap, Clap...GOOD! At about 5.00pm. in the evening, we were given time for outdoor activities such as playing badminton, ping pong, volley ball, Frisbee, games, and football. It was the time for exercise. At night, after dinner, it's movie time! We watched a movie entitled "Mission To Love" which is about a priest named Don Bosco on his journey to love and care for the street boys who felt themselves unwanted and abounded. Anyway, we only watched half the movie as time drawed towards night prayer and bed time.
5th day (06/01/2010) ~
There were at least 16 priests, nuns and brothers from the Malacca-Johore diocesan visited us today as there was a very cool and meaningful event being held here.
It's called the 'Ultimate Q&A' session. All camp members had the chance to ask any questions to any priest at all and getting a life feedback from them. It was a great opportunity for us to clear our doubts about our catholic community. After the session, some priests and nuns shared their vocation story with us, of their history of how they came to be a priest or nun. In the evening, we got to continue watching the movie "Mission To Love".
6th day (07/01/2010) ~
The best thing about this camp is, we don't only have activities inside the camp site, but we got the chance to go beyond the camping grounds for more actions as well. After nearly 1 and a half hour drive from MAJODI Center, we arrived at the supposed to be mysterious destination for our outing ----> the famous Desaru Beach of Johore. Since is was raining, we had our afternoon mass inside the Desaru Beach Resort's conference room. Then, we enjoyed our simple lunch of nasi lemak at the pool side. It was a perfect relaxation for all of us, the gentle sea breeze brushing our hairs, the sweet rhythmic melody of the sea, the warm rays of sunshine after the drizzle...When lunch ended, the real fun began!! Rushing towards the sea, jumping, yelping and holding each other, were us. Everyone was having real fun! Yu Liang snapped his camera like mad, Fr. Heng being more of a monkey than he usually did, Sr. Chay decided to jump into a sandy hole, Ann
a was nearly buried alive, Paul got his chance of posing by the beach (sadly he's not wearing bikini though), some girls outwitted Ah Tiam in the jumping competition, Meng Keong found some seaweeds for dinner, Sr. Clara got her sea water therapy and Fabian decided to entertain himself by knocking his head into the hotel's glass window! We got back to MAJODI Center at around 5pm. Nobody was wasting time resting, as we have to prepare ourselves for the night's talent show. There were 4 groups performing dramas, themed 'Jesus in Parliament', 'Jesus in The Market Place', 'Jesus With The Women', 'Jesus Performing Miracle in the 21st Century'. There were also Indian dances performed by the brothers and sisters from the Tamil and english group. It was a wonderful and eventful day which left us with the most memory.
7th day (08/01/2010) ~It's almost midnight and none of us seems to want to go to bed! So, to spend the last night in camp, we came up with our own plan. Ah Tiam turned 18 today and he can't get away without us giving him a little celebration. We had a small party, mostly eating, drinking and chatting while reviewing the photos we have taken during the past days in camp. At around 4.00am. at dawn, people began dozing off and finally we went to bed. The next morning was full of unspoken emotions, although everyone was putting up their usual bright faces, but we can't deny that our hearts felt dragged down when thinking of our parting. But time and tide waits for no man, our final half day at MAJODI ended incredebly fast.
We had our usual morning prayer *flash* it's time for breakfast *flash* Bishop's discernment *flash* group evaluation and sharing session *flash* last mass in MAJODI *flash* lunch *flash* we were loading our bags into the cars...all hugs but no tears, because we know deeply in our hearts that it's only the beggining for us, our new discovered selves to serve the Lord our God!
