Shawn & Hui Ling: Church Camp Stories Part III

Many many many things happened during the church camp. We had lots of fun worshiping, taking in great feasts of spiritual food, having anointing encounters with God, shopping, eating, eating and eating. But since this blog is about marriage life, I shall let it stay true to its calling. But I'll just jot down some highlights here.

Spiritual treasures
Ephesian 2:10
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

When God made us, He made us with a purpose. "created in Christ Jesus to do good works" Eph 2:10
He made us as the answer to a problem in this world. And if we do not stand up to the calling each individual of us has, the problem would remain unsolved or God will have to give that special anointing to someone else.

So don't waste our life on things that do not count. If we don't passionately pursue God and have an encounter with Him, how are we to discover the reason why He put us in this world? And because we were made with that purpose in mind, we will always feel unsatisfied until we fulfill our calling. We would chase after many things to find an identity or a purpose in them. Expensive bags, insatiable appetite for clothes, lust, money, career, studies etc but we will never feel satisfied.

I thank God that He gave me the courage and the vision to be a tuition teacher. Till this day, 8 years of being a full-time tuition teacher, I have never regretted my decision to lay down the honours degree and trade the glamour of a promising career at a top audit firm for a life filled with children and teenagers.

I have to admit, there were periods of doubts and fears of whether I could survive as a tutor, whether I could earn enough to have what I want or whether I would "lose" out by not climbing the corporate ladder. There were also seasons of inferiority, of comparing my salary and my status to my peers.

But as I look back, I realise that God has never shortchanged me. I have a beautiful home, (I'll share the pics with you another time), a loving husband (I heard him praying today asking God to teach him how to love me more. Wow!) and two lovable and very smart dogs. In addition to that, I have students who have stayed with us even after graduation, allowing us to minister to them and help them grow in the kingdom of God, and I have many shoes, clothes, and an LCD Samsung TV, not to mention a 'D' colour diamond ring. Though I didn't strive or save, my dream of getting married at a young age of 24 was fulfilled. (technically I haven't passed my birthday on 7 Oct (our wedding day).

Yes Christians are not celibate people who think that the definition of being holy is not to have a soft spot for lovely dresses, bags and diamonds. But rather, don't allow our love for material goods to control our lives. Instead, we realise that the only answer to life and its emptiness is God. Hence, we focus on what God calls us to do and trust that in the midst of us fulfilling His call, He, as a loving God will provide. Yup that's why I wanna share with you what He has blessed us with in this blog. Not to boast of what we have but to boast about how good our God is. And you can have all these blessings and even more if you want =)

The hotel
The church camp was held at Berjaya Times Square in KL. We were allocated a room on the 41st floor with full length windows so we had a fantastic view of the KL skyline with its busy roads. To me, it felt remotely like the view from Equinox on the 71st floor of Raffles Hotel. It was also the most luxurious suite (except maybe our wedding suite) we ever stayed on a holiday. There was a living area, a bedroom area, a small dining area, a dry kitchen and a biiiiigggg bathroom which consists of a separate shower, long bath and bidet with an ajoining toilet.

Bonding at the living area

The bedroom (with my baby sis)

Food
Boxing chicken, Porridge with petan, pork n salted egg and......

Mango Lor (This is so so so good lor. We had this every night for supper. And the name really had the lor in it.)

Shopping
Seriously, the shopping was more tiring than the sermons. So many things to see, so many shoes, bags and clothes to assess.

Cannot tahan already.

I took a quick nap on this couch at the Roxy boutique while the kids were tryin on the clothes. I even dreamt a bit. Later on, the kids told me not only did they manage to take a photo but the shoppers and even the salepeople were staring at me. Maybe they were wondering why I could hold on the my specs though I was so sound asleep.

Some of my best and happiest buys

Specs with prescribed lens $37.67 only!