TAIWAN EMERGE 2006

I’m flying off to Taiwan next week! For those who may not yet know, I’ll be going for the first-ever Emerge Conference 2006 in Taipei. My flight departure time is 2.55pm on 12th July, a Wednesday and I need to be at the airport by 12.30pm. Last night my brother sms-ed me to ask when I would be leaving and he said he would try to take leave that day to send me off. My mother also said she wants to apply for ½ or 1 day’s leave to see me off. Hee… hope they really can be there… my first time taking plane without any immediate family members beside me… but of course I have my spiritual family with me.

Not everyone is departing on the 12th. Some would be leaving as early as 9th July this coming Sunday to make preparations for the Conference. There will also be people leaving on the 10th and 11th. The Conference will be held at Taida Stadium from 13th-15th July and I’ll be flying back on 17th.

This is so exciting, and all the more so because my mother is sponsoring my trip there! I’m really thankful to God for this because my mother and father weren’t really in favour of me going there in the first place. I had initially wanted to sign up for the mission trip to Indonesia but my parents replied a direct ‘No’ because they were worried about my safety. There were trips to Taiwan that I could choose from too but even though my father is okay with Taiwan, I wasn’t prepared to choose to go to Taiwan because trips to Indonesia are cheaper and more affordable for me, given my savings and income. And so I thought I would only be able to go on a mission trip only sometime later in the year.

However, when news of Taiwan Emerge 2006 was revealed at one of our Tue combined prayer meetings a few months back, I got very excited and hoped that I could go. Spoke to my parents about it but my mother didn’t really allow so I thought no chance again. But God made a way for me. One day, my mother commented to me out of the blue that she caught one of the Taiwanese variety show programmes on TV that promoted delicious Taiwanese snacks. Almost instantly, she encouraged me to go and said she can let me go! I was amazed at her change of mind but quickly said ‘Ok’ in case she changes her mind again, hehe! So I submitted my name to Bro Victor and he said he would check and get back to me.

Weeks went by and I heard no news… then finally, I got the confirmation that I would be going! Praise the Lord! Now this is the funny part… Gary sms-ed me on a Tuesday night to confirm with me my flight details and airfare which he would have to submit the next day. Before then, I was telling Mei over MSN that I haven’t applied for leave yet. Think I must have scared Gary… so I went to my Director first thing the next morning to ask for my leave to be approved. I prayed before that for the favour of God and man to be upon me, and somehow I just felt there won’t be a problem, just felt faith in my heart that since God opened the way for me to go with my mother’s approval, God will open doors all the way to the end. True enough, my Director gave me the go-ahead on the spot. Thank You, Jesus!

Well, I haven’t started packing yet cos I have been busy with intensive training for the Conference the past 2 weeks. What training one might ask… hee, well, at the trip’s briefing last month, Pst Zhuang called for all mission trippers who have had experience in Parade of Schools (POS) in Singapore here to gather because they want to present this year’s NUS POS on the first night of the Conference to the entire stadium. Reason? The Taiwanese will be having their own Parade of City Clusters so we’ll be performing POS to let them see how it is done. I looked at Bro Kenneth and he looked at me and went, “That’s us, right?” Haaa… totally unexpected… didn’t know going Taiwan also involves dancing and cheer-leading, hahaha… anyway, to cut the long story short, a group of us have been training and practising every Mon, Wed, Sun night at SMU basement for up to 4 hours each night.

Not everyone who went for the training would be performing though due to some logistical procedures, so during the 1st few training sessions, our i/c Bro Qizhi actually got the dancers to dance in groups to audition us on the spot. I never felt that conscious and stressful before… but Bro Qizhi just encouraged us to give our best and not to worry. So I just gave my best for every round, though in the final round I made a few blunders. But still, I thank God for His grace that I cleared the audition in the end and so was selected to be one of the dancers. :) And over the last few training sessions, I came to know that I am positioned in the front row on stage.

For me personally, I really think it is a great privilege to be able to play a part and represent the CHC youth ministry in Taiwan by performing POS. Also, my cell group mate, Felicia was so sweet and thoughtful and gave me a very cute, pinkish notebook yesterday so that I can jot down my daily happenings and revelations in Taiwan. Thank God also for friends that I made through the POS practices, esp one girl called Faith whom I am doing ‘couple’ dance with.

Will be having our last 3 practices this week before we fly off. Do keep us all in your prayers :) And oh, we are reciting our Emerge cheer in Chinese! Will post the Chinese cheer lyrics up soon! :)