Best Ranger Competition

This competition on the 15th August 2009 was tough, stressful and tiring for 3 Adventure Girls, 3 Adventure Boys (including me) and 3 Expedition Rangers. The commanders looked at us sternly, treated us harshly and showed us no mercy. We weren't even allowed to talk to the other rangers throughout the testing. We were on our own for one day...

We met up at Grace Assembly at 7.00 am and left for the campsite where the tests were to be conducted.

We were tested on the following skills:

Firecraft (Cooking your own 'maggi mee' lunch with wood and matches)
Ropecraft (Demonstrate useful knots like the bowline, clove hitch etc.)
Toolcraft (Properly pass a penknife and hand axe, sharpen a penknife and handaxe)
First Aid (Demonstrate proper first aid on a victim (a commander acted as the victim))
Compass (Use a compass to locate things and complete answers on a sheet of paper)
Lashing (Tying sticks together with raffia string to make a signboard which must be sturdy)

I think I did quite well overall...
But I did pretty bad at Compass...

We also had to go through an interview.

The interviewers were Commander Terence and 4 Councilmen; 2 on each side of him. They asked me questions about Christian Service, what I do for my church, my views on politics etc.

I think I did well for my interview. I managed to answer most of the questions they asked me. I said a lot of "Yes sir"s too.

We did a lot of running here and there to collect firewood and get to the different stations for the different tests. I had to do lashing in the miniscule free time that I had which ended my testing.

After dismissal, we returned to Grace Assembly where the boys helped keep some things back in the store room. I then followed Acker and Kedric back to their house. I took a refreshing shower there and then watched Acker play a computer game called 'Sudden Attack'. Something like Counter-Strike. Then, at 7.50 pm, Commander Nat came to pick us up for dinner in a restaurant, Magic Wok.

We had a delicious dinner. Of course, as is the Rangers' 'tradition', the Commanders shared some jokes about the Ranger's flunks during the Competition. I thought one of the funniest was that when James was asked what 'Rapture' is during his interview, he shouted, 'Praise God! I love Rapture!' thinking that Rapture means the casting out of demons.

After dinner, my mum came to pick me up and I went home.

I have learned a lot from this experience. I learned greater independence, coping by myself. Although I studied quite a lot, I still made some flunks. But... oh well, this first time will train me for next year as I now have a better idea on how to prepare for the Competition... if I am chosen again...

On a more humourous note, at the Campsite, there were about 100 other Campers who were so noisy. They were singing songs that I couldn't understand. Their songs were so repetitive that the tension of the Competition was lessened.

Praise the Lord I made it through.

A Not So Ordinary Day In Royal Rangers

Last Sunday, after Sunday Service and Sunday School, I attended Royal Rangers, as usual...

There was a parade, announcements, role calls and a uniform inspection before we dispersed to our respective Outposts.

In my Outpost, the Adventure Boys had the traditional IQ Challenge. We played 'Aunt Mary died last night, did she die?'. We had to observe keenly to discover a pattern or code to decide whether she died or not. The winner gets a 1.5 litre bottle of soft drink. Nobody figured it out.

We did some Ropecraft and had Devotion.

Then, it was games which we always look forward to. This is where the 'Not So' in my post title begins...

We were playing softball... I was pitching to Joshua and Kok Leong was the catcher when some things went awry, very, very awry...

After Joshua hit the ball, he let go the bat... The ball came straight at me. I caught it. Then, I noticed that Joshua wasn't running...

'It's bleeding!' someone exclaimed.

Kok Leong was on the ground saying, 'There's blood! There's blood!'

At first I thought he was semi-joking, but it really freaked me out to see his hands covered in blood. The blood was dripping, forming a small puddle of red liquid.

The commander rushed to Kok Leong, assured him that he was going to be fine, then took him into to the church building where they applied first aid on him.

I asked Joshua what had happened. He suspected that after he swung his bat, had let it go and the bat had hit Kok Leong in the forehead.

After that, everything was fine; it was a small cut. His father took him home. He said he was fine. That was good.

I have never seen so much human blood in one spot before. It was really freaky when I saw his blood stained hands. I just thank God that the bat didn't hit his eye which would have caused more severe injuries...