i am so glad i went this year. at first i thought, it wouldn't be that engaging just listening to talks and bible studies for 5 days straight, but the way everything is structured and the content just makes you keep wanting more. everything was said out so straightly, just super upfront. i'm pretty sure that if we had a sermon about those topics, all the parents/older people would feel super uncomfortable, so it was really suited to the uni age group, since high schoolers won't be mature enough. would just like to emphasise, it's a super personal topic, and the best way to go about the week is to really respect what everyone had to say.
i would like to think i matured as a Christian this week, learnt so much, and i guess i would feel a bit more confident in answering those awkward questions on such a personal topic...but here are some of the main points i've learnt, there's just way too much to talk about
- tuesday night's talk was the best (all of them were good, but i liked this one a bit more). it was on marriage, about how we as Christians we are married to God and the church to become "one flesh" and how our earthly marriages is to model the ultimate marriage of Christ and church, and to show God's faithfulness to his people.
- marriage is the strongest bond a person can have, but cleave, you must leave your parents and break your parent-child authority relationship. it's really interesting to think how a child who shares the genetics of their parents would need to completely leave them in order to bond further to a "stranger" well person who is not related to you in the flesh, but marry them and after your public declarations, you share a stronger bond than to your parents. so important to marry the right person.
- it's ok to be single! God has chosen what path i will go down: being single or married. for any Christian, sharing the Gospel is the ultimate purpose, so if i am to be single forever, it'll still be ok since i'm part of the family of Christ, and have our identity in Jesus
- if God plans for me to get married, serving the Lord comes before submitting to your husband
- which brings me to another point. tbh, with everyone dating these days, it's just a human desire to want to date, and yes, there have been doubts before that if I come across a non-Christian then maybe...but after this week, i am assured i will rather wait to find the perfect Christian guy then to have a messed up marriage. and if your non-Christian husband leaves you, you it's best to divorce them =/
- when dating, you should think about the potential for marriage since it's so important-it's such a strong bond.
- and a joke from one of the speakers, don't marry a mummy's boy, you'd have to submit to him and also to your mother-in-law
- our world's view on love and sex has been so twisted...
- really admire this couple who came to share their story. you could see it was really heart wrenching for them. basically there was a Christian guy who claimed he was Christian and helped to do stuff in the church etc, but was involved in a lot of porn, drugs, alcohol, smoking etc. there was this girl who was also a Christian but dated another non-Christian guy who she broke up with. then the guy who read a lot of porn confessed to the girl of what he did, but the girl slept with another guy before marriage. for non-Christians out there, i can tell you for sure Christians can still do what normal people do. but the guy was really understanding by understanding that all sin is sin, and forgave her.
- i think i have a better understanding about gays. not to shame them, but understanding their sin is the same as mine. and it was quite interesting learning the basics of becoming gay. the person who spoke himself used to be gay and watched porn etc for over 10 years even though he also said he was Christian and helped the church. but with God's help, he eventually turned away and went from being gay to dating then marriage.
so many interesting questions that weren't answered in the Q&A sessions, like if God made us single, and we come across a guy, how do we know what to do so we won't be tempted into wanting to date them? there was a lady in her 60s still single, which she gave some very insightful experiences, but not enough time to answer them...there was also a females only Q&A where people described it as a girls slumber party where texted questions to some leaders. i missed that one since it was all full, but the questions were like sex education but so full on...asked some friends what they talked about, but i can't remember any of the really good questions off the top of my head...
side note, the showers there are horrible. this tiny ledge smaller than an A4 piece of paper to put your stuff on, no hooks at all and i don't like to hang stuff over the shower door. felt dirtier after i showered. camp food was alright, i guess i was well fed. just continuous eating throughout the week. i didn't bring any cup noodles/junk food etc, but during bible studies and manuscript discoveries, people just over you so much food.
this is probs 1/30 of the things i learnt. for non-Christians, you'll probably won't understand any of this, it's just basically to jot down here my foremost thoughts on this past week. such a wonderful experience to bond closer to my brother and sisters in Christ (:
some snapshots of the camp centre. i was on centre 2 and so were all my bible study groups, so didn't have to walk much compared to people on centre 3 where it's a 5min drive away.
soft serve in a cup-80c never knew you could actually buy this
Thanks for the summary post of UNSW's MYC! I wish I could have gone to an MYC! So glad to hear you learned lots :)
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