Batam Trip

I don't think I can make it in time for the university application deadline. I am so dead. I just mailed my application today and the earliest they'll get it is Monday and Tuesday is the deadline so I don't think I'll have time to send any more data if there was anything missing. Fingers crossed.

Anyway. I went on a 5-day mission trip to Batam, Indonesia with 12 other people from 19 Mar to 23 Mar. There were the heck a lot of problems, but it was still overall very enriching.

Let me rant first.
There was a major communication issue right from the start. COGS Batam was supposed to host us and provide us with details and help us arrange our program, but my group's Pastor (let's call him LB for Little Brother since he seems like our little brother even though he's 10 years older... I gave him some Nips [cheap M&M] and he looked so happy I just had to give him the rest...) kept trying and trying to contact COGS Batam Pastor (let's call him PC) but he didn't reply until super late. There were two groups going on mission trip, one to Batam (my group) and one to Changmai, Thailand. The Changmai people got their details and programme very early and had ample time to prepare dance, songs etc while us Batam people only got our info A WEEK BEFORE THE ACTUAL TRIP. Luckily there wasn't as much for us to do, or else we wouldn't have made it in time. Irresponsible much, PC? He didn't even contact LB to explain why he was so late with the info.

My group prepared one Noah skit, 3 Bahasa songs, 2 Mandarin songs, a couple of action English songs and a handful of games. It's a good thing we prepared very flexible programmes too (the games and songs don't require many props), because NOTHING in our mission trip schedule went according to what PC told us. We had to improvise throughout the trip. I'm just thankful that we didn't fail miserably.
We contacted mostly kids, and they really enjoyed the Noah skit (we made cardboard animal masks) and the action songs~ They were so cute.
We went to a day activity place in one of the slums, 2 orphanages, visited two homes, went to St. Andrew's school in Batam (kindergarten and primary) and attended 2 Bahasa services and one Mandarin service.

I think this is the slum (can't remember :/)

Inside the activity room in the slum, singing! So cute.

Noah's ark and the animals

Most of the people we visited are Christians, so we could be straightforward with our Christian programmes and our interaction was two-way. The children in the orphanages sang and prayed for us and it was just one of the most powerful experiences of my life, really. Having children pray is very different from having adults pray, because children are pure souls that are especially welcomed by God. (':

Singing with actions at the orphanage~
"I love you Jesus, deep down in my heart~
Talk about deep, deep, down, down,
deep down in my heart~"

Performing for us!
Them children freestylin'

The teens beatboxing

We watching

That magical moment when they sang and prayed for us!

Building a "swimming pool" at St. Andrew's School!

Sorting a couple of hundred goodie bags for the children

St. Andrew's kindergarten kids performing for us! So freaking cute I can't-

Gaming: Untangle (aka Spider Web)

We actually had a lot of free time (we spend at least 4 hours everyday just loitering around) due to bad scheduling so I just felt like we could have done much more. I mean, if we were going to travel all the way to Batam already (1 hour ferry ride from Singapore, 2 hours waiting time), might as well do as much as you can. I'm the all-or-nothing type.

How we spend our free time: writing out the lyrics for the next day's programme and jamming

Mostly jamming.

I wanna go back there soon~
Everything there is cheap because we stayed in COGS (Church of Good Shepard) and most some hotel. The clothes are super cheap, the food is cheap and good, and the chilli there is so awesome I can't even-

Group photo after a home visitation! (Yes I'm inside)