24-7 & Good Friday

This week would probaly be the most emo week for most christians, especially SJC ppl. cos in conjunction is the 24-7 prayer. this good fri/easter features something new - stations of the cross. must admit, after everything is done up, it is quite helpful in creating the mood (until some ppl spoil it by laughing or joking) and giving us understanding of the whole event. those stations that require participation from visitors, such as cypress' cross thing, received almost no response. they mus be disapointed.

this 24-7 is the second one that i signed up slots in. previously only 1 hour, this time i signed up 8 hours. probably only possible cos of holidays period.
the first is on thursday, 11 to 1pm. i woke up at 11, thinking my slot is at 12. luckily henry called and i asked him to confirm for me the time. and i was like "oh no! the prayer streak has been broken!" when i heard i was almost an hour late. i rushed there and reached at abt 11.50. and there was nobody in the room. really, the streak was broken, by me! now it had become "23/1+24/6" prayer.

so with that 1 hour which flew by quite quickly, i did written confessions and called for God's presence. i even asked for a tangible touch on my hands, which i didnt get, but instead a sore feeling inside my left palm which went downwards and then went off. well that could be a sign too. and i did feel God's presence in the form of peace and cold drafts.

upon some meditations, i felt God telling me to do something, partly out of plain obedience, that would risk a loss of friendship, or at least weaken it. i was reluctant and asked God for another way out, but i thought it was the right thing to do too, so i proceeded to make the 'sacrifice' soon after. But just like in the case of abraham with isaac, God prevented the 'sacrifice' from happening, saving the friendship and perhaps made it stronger. it was quite amazing and taught me that God rewards the obedient.

on good friday i had cell outing and DG outing which together lasted the whole day and until the next morning. the acacians first met early in the morning at 6am for 2 slots of prayer and then breakfast at crystal jade, (blew 10 bucks there.) followed by GF service at 9.
the acacians then went to the hwa chong field to play frisbee for about 2 hours . though we were exhausted and sun-baked after that, we wanted to continue with soccer somewhere else, when it started to rain. so we headed for exit and then it stopped. but being stubborn, we went back to play again and just then it rained again! so yeah we saw that as a sign to stop playing this time and went for lunch at mcdonalds.

im glad i didnt choose dg outing over cell's. cos the dg outing was like crap until about 10pm. the guys went their own way and did their own stuff. even henry wasnt there. so i sat around and talk, play abit of cards. bathed at 10.
I was really tired already at 11, but we had 4 slots of prayer as a DG. i planned to just attend an hour and go sleep. so i went in at 12, did some 4 step prayers, just the 3 of us. then left a few mins, they decided to have a worship session, which lasted for the whole next hour. i suddenly wasnt tired after joining in the worship with the tambourine. we used guitar, tamoburine, handbells and drumsticks (using he holy communion tupperwares as drums) and made quite alot of noise. joel chua also went hyper and crazy, dancing and making a fool of himself.
henry finally joined us during the last hour (2 - 3am) and conducted some family-centered reflections and DG discussions. i felt quite achieved to pull through the whole thing.

i got the most comfortable sleeping place in the youth lounge, but was disturbed by antics of my dg guys. got a few hours of sleep, had breakfast together at 7+, then went back church to sleep until 11.45. im surprised there wasnt enough commotion around to wake me up earlier. nothing much happened after that, went back at 1+. but overall, it was quite a good time. something rather unique. i hope i have time for future 24-7 prayers.