Saturday, June 11, 2005
EMERGE 2005 Day One! (Tuesday)
1 stuffy SP badminton hall,
1 month of commitment.
24 Judo mats,
30 passionate people,
60 cans of 100-plus drink.
300+ hours of practice,
300 hours of wet sweaty t-shirts,
800 bucks of marche food vouchers, should we win.
1 unbreakable bond uniting us all.
Silver-sprayed hair,
Tons of glitter.
Hours of waiting in eager anticipation..
3 minutes of glory.
3 minutes on one of most awesome stages in the world.
iN one of the most powerful youth conferences in the world.
AttEndEd by different delegates from the US, Australia, India, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillipines, South Korea, Singapore, etc. And CHC's own members, of course. =)
POS was during the night session of Day 1, after Praise & Worship. Judging POS were 3 Pastors from CHC, Ho Yeow Sun, a professional dancer from S'porean dance studio Studio Wu, AND the COACH of the Magnum Force. Whoa.
After a short practice in school after my lessons, the whole bunch of us went down to church in the early afternoon to prepare for the big night.
We spent the next few hours getting ourselves ready for the night ahead. We bought several bottles of silver hairspray from 77th street, and tons of glitter. All of us guys were crammed into the toilet, busy doing out hair up, and spraying the silver on.(NOT FAIR,,, my hair's so curly tt gel has no effect on it! Except making it look like an Afro! Ahhh...)
Me! Bwahaha.
Everyone crammed into the lift.. haha...
At around 6, all the teams settled into the fourth floor POS holding rooms, where we applied tons of glitter to our arms, face, hair and neck. We oso sabo-ed those who refUsed to look like a shiny disco ball by grabbing them and pouring as much glitter on them as we could =)).
From the live video feed straight from the main auditorium 8 floors below our feet, we could see what happened down there.
The auditorium went pitch dark. Suddenly, four bright spotlights on stage pierced the darkness. Then, four Strikeforce (CHC drum ministry) members took their positions behind the eight drums, and wood made contact with drumskin, and the pools of water poured on the drums, coloured as if they were liquid neon by the bright spotlights uNder the drums, flew into the air in a multicoloured explosion. After a short but impactful performance, the large flashlights on stage exploded in a riotous array, and the whole stage lit up like a giant fireplace. The band's drummer hit' it', and Praise & Worship started with a bang!
The congregation flew into the air, as if eager to get airborne. Everyone was jumping as if in a rock concert, eager to get a little crazy for God, eager to let authentic, unhindered and unchecked praise escape from within them. Waves upon waves seemed to cascade down the Auditorium's slopes, as the people jumped at different times. It was an awesome sight!
The time for worship soon came, and within minutes, the very same songs that were sung during normal services brought everyone to their knees, and tears filled the eyes of even the hardest of men. People wept, people cried out, in a shockingly stark contrast to the craziness of Praise just minutes ago. Everyone was so moved by God. He was there, so real, so present, that no one present needed science or logic to prove anything. His Presence was so beautiful, so edifying, that we just wanted to stay there forever, rejoicing and thanking Him for what he'd done in our lives, with the stream of tears that flowed from our eyes. A truly awesome sight.
After that the worship leader coaxed us out of that realm with a short prayer, and everyone got back up on their feet, some drying their moist eyes.
And soon it was time for the Parade!!
One by one the teams shuffled down to the auditorium's backstage, where they awaited their turn on stage. They comforted each other, assuring each other that there was nothing to be scared of, soothing each other's nerves.
Soon it came to SP. We rushed out eagerly onto stage, into the direct attention of a few thousand screaming and roaring people, of which some were SP alumni, and the rest were just cheering for the sake of cheering. CHC ma, rmb? =)
S-P, S-P, Singapore, Poly!
Together we arise, God's kingdom, and Glory!
United we will band, to reach the lost!
G-O-D's plan, no matter the cost!
J-E-S-U-S, is the way!
C-H-R-I-S-T receive today!!
*sCreAm*
And then the secular Japanese rock song we used blasted through the auditorium, and we started mOviN' iT'!
And so we blasted through our cheer, our dance and our stunts, and quickly rushed offstage. After we reached ground floor, we screamed and congratulated each other for a good, although not perfect run, and slapped high five or ten with each other, our faces registering delightful smiles. It was... all over.
I still remember the JC/CI cheer =)...:
J! for Jesus!
C! for Christ!
JC revival, for Jesus Christ!
Say J..(J..)
Say C..(C..)
OOOOOoohHH..
J! Revival! JC revival!
J! Revival! JC revival!
J! Revival! JC revival!
J! Revival! JC revival!
J! Revival! JC revival!
WWHHoooooOOOaa... JC!!
Haha.
And we went back up to the holding room, just in time for the start of the sermon. CHC's senior pastor, Rev Kong, shared with us how he, as a young teenager studying in RI more than 20 years ago, used to arrive at school a full hour earlier before lessons, at 6.30am. He used to sneak up to the empty science labs, kneel before God, pray and play his guitar. There in his own private space, sheltered form the world, he got to have a quiet, private one-to-one time devoted to a God so worthy of praise, and so real. And most of all, so wonderful.
After RI, he went on to RJC and NUS, where he obtained a cert in computer science. However, he shared with us how he vividly remembers the day he was riding home in a bus along East Coast, and suddenly he heard God's call, a still voice he would never ever forget. Nor would he forget what it said: "You shall raise up a new generation of young believers that will take Asia and the world by storm".. Thus he abandoned a scholarship that would allow him to continue his studies in the UK (at Oxford University I think.), and City Harvest Church was formed. What happened after that is history. =)
Pastor also shared with us a song he wrote himself, a song written a few decades ago, but a song so powerful and perfect that it moved everyone to tears once again, and the whole auditorium, the POS holding room and the overflow room, all fell on bended knee, crying out to God, helped along by the lyrics of this beautiful song that seemed to read their minds, that seemed to know the dark history of some of their lives before they came to chruch, and gently reminding them that God is real and He cares =).. :
Once I have turned my face from Thee
Yet You sought me
You cleansed me,
made me whole again
Jesus, my Saviour,
my beloved and friend
Your praises I bring,
from my heart I sing.
O draw me, o draw me away,
Messiah today,
to your presence to stay.
Lord Jesus now change me,
and mould me,
that I can be,
evermore true to Thee.
The service soon concluded, and the congregation dismissed for the day. The POS teams up in their holding rooms recited their cheers one by one, And did the usual "3 cheers, and 3 cheers" thingy. Haha.. After that at around 11pm, we were dismissed from the holding room.
But sadly SP didn't win =(. On Day 3 it was announced: Top team was NTU, followed by NUS, followed by the JC/CI cluster. Whoa. Like all the top 3 are all the 'intellectual' teams. But we still got the $100 consolation prize. Well.. =/
I can still remember the lyrics of Emerge 2003's theme song:
Da Holy Spirit's got me pumpin'
Flowin with da beat,
Tis whole place is jumpin'!
With da sound,
The demons can't stand it!
Cause' tonight we're gonna rock this PLANeT!
Cause' tonight we're gonna rock this PLANeT!
*sCreaM*
Woo~! I love Emerge! The other 2 days of Emerge 2005 will be described in another post =))
jOhn thought at 2:13 AM