Simply looking at the Trilogy attendance from the youths is enough to demoralise me. Traditionally only about 40% of the youth population attends overseas church camps but this year's attendance is nothing short of dismal. And honestly I'm saddened by the lack of support from the youth worship ministry. As of this moment only 3 out of around 30 worship ministers from the youths are going.

Don't get me wrong here folks, this ain't a badly disguised attempt to shame people into going for the camp. But I'm pretty disturbed by the numbers (no I'm not obsessed with figures. But figures do provide a good indication of where we stand)

Truth be told I didn't want to go for Trilogy. For one thing I don't like the schedule. I know that all those free time slots are to let peeps have a good time exploring Bangkok with both old and newfound friends, but half of the entire camp programme allocated as free time?? Kind of a waste of my leave if you ask me. Going for the church camp, missions trip and the Hillsong trip is wiping my leave like crazy. All my friends in MINDEF think I'm nuts, clearing my leave so early.

But in the end, I've decided to go, with the main reason being my service as a worship minister. Yes, my main reason for going to Trilogy is to play for the worship (this is where you gasp in horror). Not the venue, the speaker or the theme of the camp. But hear me out before you burn me at stake lar. Like Roslyn said, we're going there to dominate the spiritual landscape. Yes, we're going to learn to develop fellowship within the church, but we're also going to worship in Bangkok and proclaim it as God's territory. Every note we sing, every chord we play, every crash of the cymbal is another strike into satan's stronghold. We're going there to give the evil one a major headache he's not gonna forget for a long time.

I believe that without me, even without the entire Worship & Music ministry, God can still touch the church and fill the camp with His presence. And I also believe in giving God our all. If we can have a group of passionate, Spirit-filled and talented ministers up at the frontline, leading the church into worship, why not?

And the fact is that I CAN be part of that team. It just involves me making certain sacrifices, among them a 12 hour bus ride to Chaing Mai after the camp (can you say "doh"? I probably could write a whole series of entries on how I passed the 12 hours). It means that at year end while all my mates clear their leave before they ORD, I'll be stuck at work with no leave to clear. It means that financially I'm pretty much in the red, having to pay for so many overseas trips this year. But none of these are unscalable mountains. A pain in the butt, maybe, but it's not really a sacrifice if there is no price involved isn't it?

I'm still wondering how Roslyn is going to plan the worship sessions for the camp. The response from the 11am worship team isn't all that great either. But people from the worship ministry especially - do reconsider. After all, serving in ministry is not just using the talents God blessed you with. Part of the reason why we serve in ministry involves meeting the needs of the people around.

PS: Don't let the potential difficulties turn you off. Finances, schedules, parental consent and all that. If you're willing to go, there aren't many things that can stop you from going (conscription being the number one ultimate brick wall), especially when you start praying.

PPS: Ok so maybe this WAS a thinly veiled attempt to get more people to sign up for Trilogy. No I'm not in the camp com, nor have I been offered any incentive to badger for more signups.

posted by NEB at 2:36 AM

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