Yesterday, I got baptised in PJEFC, my church. (I had attended baptism classes on the 17th and 18th of April.)
In church, my family sat in the front seats (something unsual for the Tan family) along with the other baptism candidates.
My mother and my brother were also baptised. Besides that, 6 out of the 10 candidates were from my Cell Group. I found out that 2 'seniors' from my Cell Group were baptised as infants but not confirmed when they were adults. Therefore, their late baptism . One of them is my mum.
When the Sunday Service ended, all the candidates made our way to the back part of the stage in the church hall. Since I was the first one to be baptised, I stood in front, shaking anxiously.
The first baptism candidate is... Kevin Tan Mingyao...
I walked down the steps into the baptismal pool. The water was slightly heated, which felt good. I got to the middle of the baptismal pool. The officiating minister's assistant held my left arm lightly. Then the minister put his arm on my shoulder. But I wasn't to be submerged yet... there is a certain ritual that I believe all churches practise of asking whether you have repented of your sins, and so on and so forth. I was nervous, but it didn't get better. The officiating minister just had to forget his lines...
I now quote the officiating minister.
'Kevin Tan' *Looks at the mike nervously* 'Kevin' *pauses* 'Kevin Tan Mingyao' 'Uhh...' *Chuckles nervously* 'Kevin, do you repent of your sins...'
And it went well from then on... Phew.
After I was baptised, I waited around watching the other members of my Cell Group get baptised. I was freezing cold, but nonetheless, I had to watch their baptism...
After my baptism, I took a quick rinse, changed and was prayed for by a church leader to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
I shall not forget my baptism. The flunks just made it even more memorable.
Still 'alive'. Pastor momentarily forgets his lines...
9.00 am, 4th of April 2009. Approximately 30 adventurers travelled from their meeting point, Grace Assembly, to a place named... Port Dickson Sanctuary Camp.
These people were to use primitive materials such as oars, little orange life jackets, and funny looking boats called kayaks to transport themselves roughly 10 km from their campsite to a deserted island with a few trees and corals scattered along the beach. These people called themselves... the Royal Rangers.
I was one of them...
We did some chores before we left for the PDS campsite. A few boys and I carried boxes containing bottles of mineral water from the basement to load onto the vehicles. It was tiring, but necessary for survival on the island.
I travelled in Commander Wei Sern's car together with Josh, Acker and Daniel. After travelling for about 10 minutes, we stopped at a petrol station where I bought 'Gatorade', some kind of energy drink, for the first time.
Commander Wei Sern has the GPS programme on his phone that Josh loved to play with on the journey. The programme shows you where you are on the map and if you select a designated location, it will calculate how many km away you are and by taking into consideration your speed, it will also show roughly how many minutes it will take to reach. Nice...
The talk along the journey changed like wildfire. From how Commander Wei Sern had a very strange teacher who told them that the sun revolved around the earth, to Acker talking about how he and his brother used to stick chewing gum on their hair and acted like ‘Venom’ and they had to cut their hair to get rid of the gum, to our expectations of the kayaking trip. We also played ‘hangman’ on Commander Wei Sern’s phone.
Lunch was at a decent 'mamak' stall. We ate a lot because it was only 10.30 a.m. and our next meal was going to be at around 7 p.m. We first had a roti canai each. After that we had second helpings. When we wanted some more, the shop had 'run out of dough' and we had to order fried rice. Must have been a strange windfall for the shop owners. Oh, I almost forgot, Acker tortured and killed a fly by dripping curry on it. However, Josh seems very against killing any living organism and stopped Acker from his murderous rampage.
After lunch, we reached PD in quite a short amount of time.
In PD, we changed, loaded some stuff into a van, and headed for the beach for our kayaking. We were assigned a kayaking partner, had a briefing, put on our life jackets, grabbed an oar each, and set off.
At first, I chose a guy, Daniel to be my kayaking partner. I was reassigned to a junior girl which made my work more challenging.
The kayaking in the convoy was repetitive and tiring but actually quite fun. It was like driving a car on a mass of flat ground. You are doing the driving, not your parents; you cannot crash into any obstacle (ehem, except maybe other kayaks) and you can turn and move wherever you please (as long as you stay with the convoy).
About 3/4 way to the island where we rested, the kayak of my friends Jonah and Daniel capsized. Apparently too much water got into their kayak and they started sinking; after sinking to quite a low level, they called for help... and capsized. Tragic, but in the end they were saved by the patrol boat that accompanied our convoy.
We reached the island after paddling for roughly an hour and a half. It felt so good to wade in the water, even if it had a hint of green in it. We rested for about 20 minutes, and then set off again.
After about 30 minutes, we reached our destination - Pulau Pejudi (Gambling Island, don't ask me how it got that name). We rested in the soothing water for a while, and then did Community Service. Most of us set up tents, but Josh, Acker and I volunteered to start the cooking fire. This fire, let me assure you, lasted a very, very long time.
We gathered some rocks and corals which we arranged in a circle and put wood and coal on top. This was to make sure we didn't 'dirty the sand'. After that we started the fire.
Just before we started cooking, Acker saw a strange sight in the horizon. 'Oh no! Rain! And the wind is blowing this way!' he exclaimed. The commanders and rangers feverishly set to work cooking. Acker was being a pessimist and started lamenting that we wouldn't have any food. Meanwhile, Josh was praying that the rain would be diverted away. It didn't...
The winds picked up in strength and as we stood in the open, sand particles flew and pecked our legs. It was as if tiny needles were poking our legs. Later, we moved a kayak to block most of the sand. When the rain came, the commanders had an ingenious idea. We took a ground sheet and those who weren't cooking held up the sheet to protect the fire and most of the cooks. I helped to hold the ground sheet. I was freezing and my blistered hands (from kayaking) felt a biting sensation, one foot away from me, Commander Rosanne, one of the cooks, said that she was burning. This is a strange world we live in.
After cooking, the rain subsided. We ate the burger patties, fish balls and sausages with bread and some vegetables. It was delicious after the cold rain.
After we all ate, we laid out a ground sheet and watched the beautiful sunset. If only I had my camera then...
Soon, darkness filled the sky and all we had were torchlights and the cooking fire. We told some stories and cracked jokes sitting on the ground sheet. As usual, Josh, Acker and I took care of the fire. Occasionally one of us would get up and look around the beach for more wood to burn. This carried on until about midnight, when I dozed off in my sleeping bag, on the sand.
I woke up at around 2.30 a.m. and walked to the fire. Commander Peter was there, still taking care of the fire. I warmed myself, went back to my sleeping bag, and continued sleeping.
The next time I woke up was at about 6.00 a.m. I got up and since it was sooo freezing cold, I sat by the campfire once more.
After a while, we packed our bags, ate a breakfast of tuna sandwich, and put out the fire (yup, it lasted THAT long). Then we got into our kayaks and paddled back to the PDS Camp.
About 15 minutes away from shore, Commander Nat became quite hyper. 'Aaah! I'm so tired! Paddle faster! Paddle faster!' he screamed while frantically trying to go faster.
About 2 minutes away from shore, I started going a bit hyper as well. 'Left! Right! Left! Right!' I ordered myself while making big and fast movements with my oar. My kayak went at about 1.5x its normal speed, and upon reaching, I couldn't move the fingers on my left hand. I had to pry them open with my other fingers.
After calming down, I kept my kayak. We all bathed/changed, loaded our stuff and left the PDS campsite.
We stopped for lunch at a very nice Indian rice shop. Everybody kept on passing the meats that they couldn’t finish to me, Commander Wei Sern, Josh and Acker, seated at one table. Oh well, we didn't finish them anyway.
After lunch, we left for Grace. On the way, Commander Wei Sern lost his way and we were delayed an extra 20 minutes.
But the story doesn't end there; some of us brought home the tents. We are to wash and dry them and bring them back the next week. Pfff...
Kayaking is truly a very good experience and it trains your arms. I enjoyed the trip very much. I also got to know some of the rangers and commanders better. I thank God that I survived the strain, and that He led me through this.
Still 'alive'. Pastor momentarily forgets his lines...
Into my 'grave'...
And 'resurrected' with Jesus Christ!
