All For Chirst (AFC) together with Christ Church, jointly organized a mini bootcamp from the 29 – 31 August 2009. 14 AFC members gathered at St. Paul’s Church PJ and left for Penang by bus at 10:00pm on 28 August 2009. We arrived at Christ Church Penang at 4am.
The objective of the mini bootcamp was primarily to assist Christ Church in encouraging and reaching out to new/non Christian youths from their Chinese speaking congregation. Besides that, it was an effort to promote the AFC Bootcamp in December. The mini bootcamp officially started on 29th August 2009 with a total of 37 campers from Christ Church, Penang. We began the camp with an ice-breaking session where the campers, and the AFC team, got to know one another.
AFC led the dance training sessions. There were 4 items taught; namely Think About His Love (corporate sign language song), Shackles (dance), Hallelujah Praise (dance), and Hands (skit). Because of the very limited time, the AFC trainers put in a lot of effort to train the campers while the campers did their best to learn the dance steps. A presentation of the dances was held on the night of 30th August 2009 with parents and church members being the audience. The core team of AFC also presented half of an AFC Master Remix, as a preview of a dance item that would be taught during the upcoming AFC Bootcamp 2009.
During both the English and Chinese Sunday service, AFC had a slot where we introduced ourselves, presented a sign language item (Our Hearts), a short skit (The Lord’s Prayer, translated for Chinese service) and played a short video of what AFC has been doing during our past year-end outreaches to old folks’ home and shopping malls. During the night session on 29th August, Daniel Chai spoke (translated by Evonne Siew) about our identity as children of God, what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, what our response should be and how we are to follow Him. This was linked to the sharing of God’s love and serving Him through performing arts. The night session ended with a time of ministry. Morning devotion sessions were led by Christ Church youth leaders.
Feedback from Christ Church has been encouraging. The mini bootcamp made an impact on the youths of the Church. They are excited and encouraged to use their dance and acting in service to the Lord. Also, a group of older youths considered making a come back.We are thankful to Christ Church Penang for their wonderful hospitality, and also to all who were involved in this outreach, including the parents and older ones who came along and helped with everything. Special thanks to Evonne Siew who did all the translation work despite the short notice.
We want to thank God for the opportunity to carry out His work and to do whatever we can for Him. We also want to thank Him for the enthusiastic campers that came for the 3-days camp held during the Merdeka weekend. We had a good time of fellowship with the campers and also tightened the bond between the AFC members. Last but not least, we want to thank God for His grace and mercy that we, as His servants, were able to have this opportunity to show others His greatness and love.
