Day Two : Pensive in Preparation

Devotions were at 7am which Uncle William took, followed by breakfast. Each person was supposed to lead the devotions on each morning and today we focused on the passage in Psalm 127 that said, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain”. It was a timely reminder for all of us before the children’s camp that we had to trust and rely on God to empower us for the activities ahead of us. The day was spent packing the ‘goodie bags’ for the kids, preparing some of the materials for the games and photocopying the material for kindergarten as well as the college program. At around lunch time we walked to a nearby shop that had photocopying services. A house that we had visited the day before and the people were somehow related to me. I came to find out that I had a lot of relations.

When we reached the photocopying shop, we were told that electricity had just been cut off a little while before we arrived. To the people in Nias, this is a normal occurrence. Every single day, without fail, there has to be a certain period of ‘electric-less life’. It’s just a matter of timing – in the day or in the night. When this happens during the day, the fans don’t work, the heat is unbearable, and the people just laze around because they don’t feel like doing anything. Afternoons like these have a sort of sleepy effect on the village as the day seems to drag on. With no computers to use, no tv to watch, no internet to surf, no entertainment whatsoever...moments like these can be used for deep reflection. I used the time to mentally prepare myself as I told myself that even thought it won’t be easy, I’ll do my best. I thought of the children’s camp that we had in Singapore when I was a little younger and how it was difficult to endure the late nights and have to control the kids on the following day. Pearlyn was my inspiration. I called her superwoman then, coz she somehow just managed to go on teaching with a smile despite the wearisome situation. Plus after weeks of training and preparing under Pastor Alvin, I really wanted to give it my all such that all the effort put in wouldn’t go to waste. Most of all, I wanted to make God proud.

Uncle Gilbert and Darren had to go to the town with my father to photocopy the materials for us since there seems to be a more constant supply of electricity over there. They came back late because they spent so much time sorting out the kindergarten material that was in one big lump. I needed 20 sets of each, and they spent all their time making sure the stuff was photocopied correctly. Tired out, they came back late while we were just finishing up dinner. We thought that they were eating dinner outside since it was pretty late. But instead they had been painstakingly sorting through hundreds of papers and that was quite touching. Well.. it was mostly my stuff that needed to be organised. I was grateful.