Session Retreat FOUR

3D2N was our retreat and it took me 4 posts to blog???? Hmmm...... nvm..... back to the event.

Guess what we feared most when we went back to hotel room to sleep for the night (after the heavy durian session)? Some joked the durian smell will erh......exit from our system (you know where) and out to the cooling system of Pulai Springs and "bomb" the whole resort.....hahaha.... wonder who never study science before to say that....LOL!

OH yes, i forgot to mention. The GM, during his apology on Thursday night, mentioned to me that he will come and see me on Friday morning at the meeting room to offer more apologies. Wow.....i am really not so used to people apologising profusely....and from a GM! Anyhow, met him at the lift while on the way to breakfast. It was a short exchange of Hi There and Sleep well. Met the F&B Manager in the breakfast area and he also came to check that everything was ok. I am so glad they have taken a sincere step to makeup for what was lacking initially.

Someone was missing in the breakfast programme........who??????? Perhaps you would have guessed..... Eld Boon! I dont know about the rest, but my food was totally digested and i was hungry that morning. I had to eat my bread! I was thinking to myself if there would be more compensation this day.... after all GM said he will come to apologise. Suddenly my eyes brightened up..... will they give us Mayam???? I got excited.... need to save my stomach for this. So i ate one slice of bread and took one omelette. The rest did ask me the same question and we thought perhaps we would have extra dish in our tea break to replace what was lost the day before. But something inside me didnt seem quite convinced. What if there werent Mayam? My stomach "growled" and i was like....still hungry. Went to take a small croissant to eat and some fruits. This should settle the juices problem.

GM came promptly at 9.03am and confirm that things are running smoothly. He has gotten the banquet people to change the position of our break table. It was now placed just outside our room and has our name on it. To be fair, this name sign was not put up by their people. It was Tik Koy who did it. He grabbed this sign from our lunch table yesterday and put it there. Quick thinking of him. I wanted to but i thought perhaps i want to test them to see how initiative they are after my complaint email. Btw, our tea break was just what we ordered. Nothing extra and certainly no Mayam! :(

We had the last two sessions with Dr Tow this morning. Thank God for enabling him to bring God's Word to us. Over 3 days, he exhorted us from passages like Acts 20, John 21:15-17, 1 Corinthians 3, 2 Timothy 2, 3 & 4, 1 Timothy 4, 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 & finally 1 Peter 5. Few things that struck me and i summarise here:

1) Know your history, foundation, doctrine of B-P & roots when you serve God.

This is so true. Resolved to read again and know them by heart. May God help me.

2) Paul has left us an example... he was very focused and never moved by things.

The idea is to be consistent and serve with whatever we have.

3) To begin well is good. To end well is better.

Amen indeed. How many have fallen along the way? May we remain faithful.

Dr Tow also left some chinese proverbs for us (erh i forgot how it start). But in translation it is:

"Long distance will show a person's strength
Long association will show a person's heart"

4) The growth of the church depends on the leaders (Shepherd... if we have a pastor)

And likewise, Exco... for CtYF. Revival fire has to start from within and overflow out. I have said once before and will say it again:

"The impact of your ministry to people will be in direct proportion

to the time you spend with God"

5) Church care is a cooperative effort and dont be complacent with numbers. Keep the world out.

Yes indeed. Not everyone can water or plant. Let's do the best we can and esteem each other better than ourselves.

6) Make Sunday the rule for the rest of the days to live.

How true this is. YFers, if you are reading it, hope this sinks in and live a sanctified life (myself included).

7) Plan for succession

This is so essential. Who will serve the Lord and carry on the baton? CtYF.... who will step forward to serve?

8) God's work should not suffer because of lack of planning on our part

Woe unto us for our lack of enthusiasm and spirit. Remember Nehemiah? He prayed and planned.... 4 months in total. At the given opportunity, he took it? Why, because he had prayed and he was ready!

9) Teaching happens all the time. Preaching is once a week. Contending for the faith is on going!

Yup! Even as we fellowship one with another, let us never forget to provoke one another to love and good works. And to strengthen one another in the faith. Iron sharpeneth iron!

10) Service to God is a lifelong call. Dont give up.

Have a constant reflection of what we are doing to check if it is God's will. I am personally much encouraged with this reminder.

At 11.50am, we ended our retreat with a prayer and off we went to check out. Took a group pic before we drove off from resort to this long-awaited Chicken rice stall.... Swee Kee Chicken Rice.

It was about 12.45pm when we started eating. Big plate of white chicken, kang kong, individual bowl of soup, tau geh, chicken parts & char siew. How to eat???? Our people did it. Amazing! Some ate 2-3 bowls of rice. I could not. Gave half bowl to Hong Kim. We were split into two tables. The other table ordered more chicken and kang kong. Our table could only afford another plate of kang kong and gave 1/4 of our chicken to that heavy-duty table. The lovely meal ended with a refreshing lime juice with prune. Dr Tow gulped down the whole cup almost instantly. He took some of Mrs Tow's too :)

At 1 plus or 2pm, we were ready to leave. I had addtional passengers in my car now, Peter Phoa & Hendrick. Eld Boon & Kelvin wanted to visit their moms in JB and not going back with us. Eld Goh's car went for a shopping spree. Eld Seah's car and mine went home dutifully. I could feel the heavy weight at the back but thank God for good suspension in Nissan :) An uneventful drive home after a very eventful retreat!

Need to mention a word of thanks to Tik Koy for his cashcard (usage in Singapore) and Ee Huat (Touch n Go card for the toll charges in Malaysia). FYI, i finally drove my vehicle near to the panel and had no difficulty tapping it. We did some bread shopping at the last stop before customs (at Gelang Patah). Bought the Gardenia Apricot with Raisin bread (not available in Singapore... wonder why). Introduced to me by Amy & it was good. Tik Koy bought one too and i think the rest bought some other bread.

To those who wonder how Pulai Springs look like, here are some pics (courtesy of Amy):

Will we go back to Pulai Springs again? Probably. Was given an evaluation form (3 pages) to fill up on Friday. Everyone told me to be gracious.... hee hee..... i dont think i am or was too unkind. Hmmmm, anyhow, wrote the truth but gave constructive feedback. Wonder if they could read my tiny hand writing. Came back and emailed to GM, F&B Manager and Sales Office in Singapore. Gave another 6 points for them to improve. They responded well to me the next day. And Dr Tow, though with all the hiccups we had, was very impressed with this beautiful place and desire to bring Pandan session for a retreat next year. I have emailed to Jean the contact already. So i guess Pulai Springs will see more of Calvary in the near future :)

Signing off here for Tengah session retreat!