Journey mercies

Among the things I loved when I was in UK was the big group of close-knitted friends among the people in the Newcastle Chinese Christian Fellowship. There would be the English speaking cell, which is mainly comprised of Malaysians, a Singaporean and some Indonesians, the Cantonese cell group, which comprised of those from Hong Kong and the Mandarin cell group, those of course from mainland China.

Every Friday night we would gather at St. James church, have our worship sessions, and have somebody speak, and then break into discussion groups. And after all that, rush to the back of the hall for the snacks the kitchen crew would provide and me and Hui Min will tell each other we would start our diets sometime soon, trying not to let the crumbles fly from our mouths stuffed with food.

Then to wrap up our Friday nights, after being kicked out of the church, we would go for supper (snacks and supper are two different things mind you). The favorite place then (apparently it has won the dirtiest kitchen award two times in a row after my year there in 2002-2003) was Mangos, which also had the few rudest and most obnoxious waiters. But it was the few restaurants that were opened till late at night. Our group was so big we usually occupied the two largest tables in the restaurant. We would all talk, laugh and not have a care in the world.

Those were good times. When I came back to Malaysia, among the first in my batch to leave, things certainly felt empty.

What helped keep me from sinking lower was meeting two seniors from Newcastle, Calvin Teoh and Por Vin, who was back in Malaysia and settled. But having left a 30 odd number of close friends, it was hard not to feel depressed, even if Calvin and Por Vin are nice people, they were still a poor substitute.

Then Cynthia came back shortly after me, then Tricia, Loon, Wai Yan, Wei Aun and Alvin Ling, and the holidays brought back people like Hui Min, Ming, Michelle, Yee Kiat, Chia Ying, Christina, Wei Ling and husband, and Welson and then newer people were added to the group, like Adrian, Fiona, Sean, Danny, people who went to Newcastle after my year and suddenly, Malaysia was overwhelmed with people. The last major reunion dinner had so many people that we could not talk to everyone with the limited time we had together. And I think we stopped keeping count on birthdays because I was definitely spending a lot of money of dinner, presents and cakes!!!

Soon, Yvonne Chan Li Yuan, Stephanie Chu and Faye will be flying home at the end of this month with Carter back for holidays. And rumor is that Eugene Kuek will be flying home as well. We might have to bow to pressure to have a Newcastle-Malaysia CF soon with the amount of people coming back. Having people coming back is good as some I've not seen for two years. But being the first to be back, I've had to be in every welcome lunch and dinner for each of them that comes back and my wallet is giving out a squeek each time we meet now. But I shall not complain. I'll just get those people who still have pounds in their wallets to pay. Times six worh they can easily belanja six of us poor Malaysians.

I spent the weekend up in Gohtong Jaya, for an Inter-Brethren Assemblies Fellowship Camp, attended by people from Brethren assemblies across the country. Well, supposed to anyway, but they were mainly from the Klang Valley and Penang and Ipoh.

I was initially apprehensive about attending the retreat, because I only knew two people who were going and well, over the years, this retreat seems to have garnered a reputation as a "Singles Camp", where not a few love stories have grown from. But after being assured that the people I knew going were only focused on having fun, decided to go along.

Having been out of the Brethren circle and having influences from different schools of Christians such as the charismatic group and the Anglican churches, I was wondering what it would be like to go to a Brethren retreat again.

The conclusion? Fantastic!!! I had one of the best weekends and enjoyed myself so much with the people I met during the retreat. Everyone was so excited about meeting old and new friends and by the second day we were there most of us knew each other's names. By the second night, we were all feeling comfortable and chummy with one another, which enabled us to go a little deeper with each other and share from our hearts. By the last day some apparently shed tears at having to say goodbye to each other.


The highlights of the retreat for me were:

1. Meeting my brothers and sisters-in-Christ from all different assemblies

2. Dinner times where you get to spend more time talking to people

3. Playing captainball (one time I fell down on my bum and knocked my elbow quite hard on the ground, which still hurts whenever I put pressure on my elbow, but where's the fun if you don't get rough just a wee bit?)

4. Playing Risk till 6.30am and conquering the world! Muahaha... (Only had half an hour's worth of sleep and fell sick for two days after that, but I still Conquered The World!! Muahaha...)