Bah, Humbug.

Champagne and chardonnay - poured. Handel's Messiah - sung along to. Wonderful Christmas wedding table decor - adopted, beauty given more mileage. SMS-ed Christmas greeting spam - received. A few choice carols - butchered by increasingly groggy carollers. Turkeys from faraway lands - marinated, roasted, carved, eaten with gravy and stuffing and cranberry sauce. Friends (new and old) - hugged remotely. All manner of liquid concoctions - concocted and drunk to colourful simultaneous reviews. Gifts - exchanged, received, given. A Charlie Brown Christmas - junked for Mirrormask because Dave McKean = treat. Hot mincepies washed down with fruity TWG's Miraculous Mandarin tea - during The Queen's Christmas Broadcast 2010. Omaha Collective's EP - grooved to. Cathartic jamming - greatly enjoyed. Morning-after turkey porridge - supped with joy.

One is hardput to ignore the advent of Christmas: seasonal decor plastered around every mall, Orchard Road shopping belt lit by Christmas lights, carols playing in shops in late November, Christmas and Boxing Day sale adverts stare out of every newspaper and magazine and hurriedly-thrust flyer, fir-tree-scented IKEA is filled with shoppers gulping down Nygårda Julmust (see Yuletide powers of said soda: here, here and here), Starbucks cups are dotted with snowflakes...and the acapella carollers and the poinsettias! they are taking over the country!.

Because Christmas is so big here, it poses a challenge to those who do not believe in reason for the season, much less celebrate the occasion of his birth. They want in on the festivities but don't want to acknowledge that there is anything worth rejoicing about.

No one says "Oh, during Deepavali (or Hari Raya Haji) I just celebrate the spirit of family togetherness and gift-giving and love" because they acknowledge these as Hindu and Muslim festivals. Sure, secularists argue that Christmas has so commercialised that they can, with good conscience, enjoy it without its Jesus-trappings. But what of the ubiquitous nativity scenes? the content of Christmas carols? the moralistic mawkishness of Santa Claus?

And about Mr. Claus: if Jesus were to give a Christmas Day message, it might be along the lines of "We are not amused...", but harsher and not something you would do a stand-up comedy about after. "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good" is stalker scary, but without bite since most kids get presents from "Santa" anyway despite throwing a tantrum at the mall. Scarier than that, the snowy-bearded male bundled in a furry red suit with white trimmings is a dead-ringer for the dragon and beasts of Revelation - he claims to possess the attributes of God himself: omnipotence (all-seeing, all-knowing), omnipresence (especially in the early hours of Christmas Day whatever your time-zone and whether you've remembered to set the intruder alarm), being the arbiter of right and wrong (assumedly, to determine entitlement to pressies), and being acknowledged, almost to the exclusion of all others, as the giver of good gifts. (God knows exactly what you've been thinking and doing, God determines right and wrong because he made the world, and God knows that you've been very very evil with no hope of ever doing enough good to even outweigh your evil, God gives you the best gift of wiping your slate clean (IF you will accept it).)

Some attempts at "reclaiming" Christmas have not gone much better either, eg. delightful Christian acapella CDs for the season marred by well-intentioned blasphemy. If any child of mine, of wide Puss-In-Boots eyes and cute little voice, ever said,"This Christmas, I want to give Jesus all my medicine so he can heal sick people" or "I want to give Jesus my remote-controlled helicopter so he can give toys to other children who don't have any", he'd be sent directly to his room with plain bread and water and a strict injunction to repent.

Jesus is not your local charity - not the Boys' Brigade Sharity Giftbox asking for your unwanted toys for the less fortunate, Jesus is not the Salvation Army ringing handbells for your spare change; he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; he made this universe, so unsurprising he can heal with just a few words, and from a distance, and he can turn water into the wine that is out of this world. He does not need anyone's help.

We're so self-centred that even though we've signed up with the anti-commercialisation and pro-real-meaning-of-Christmas lobbies, we still can't get over the fact that we are not quite the focus of his coming - his obedience to his Father and his Father's jealousy for his own name is the reason he came. We rejoice because we are the unworthy beneficiaries of this.

Christmas is historical, joyful and essential.

Youth Camp and Growing Pains

A whirlwind snowed-in-at-some-European-airport-type week at youth camp, bookended by fortifying good beef shabu-shabu and lovely handmade tofu, and photog duties at a fun wedding where the newly-weds were their own emcees and reviews from friends were warm and glowing. Camp recovery was also aided by champagne and chardonnay on one night on the occasion of Christmas and birthdays and retro sing-a-longs, and jugs of honey beers by a river on another on occasion of it being too early to go to bed when there were new friends to chat with.

Greatly glad for the opportunity to do some work at camp and be partnered and encouraged by the hard work of others - the without-fanfare kitchen slog that produced delicious pots of picky-camper-approved spag bog, curries, mustard chicken, babi assam..., the determination with which campers were served by leaders bearing food, water, good cheer.

The holiday camp menu may have lacked the medieval culinary delights of roast swan and pig on spit, but the knights of 1395 were tearing up Project Run-Away with spaghetti pot helmets complete with the latest in wireless pink remote-controlled water guns, vital-parts-endangering bubble-wrap armour, insectile gold 4G antennae for communication with headquarters and Saturday Night Fever dance moves.

During the day, even without skateboard steeds and horseys to pull them, knights made short work of each other at the jousting tournament with pool noodles chalked with plain flour. The presence of a style judge ensured there was neighing and grunting before the joust, with one horse deciding to buck and run away altogether.

Defending the Castle against the Dastardly Dragons was a tower defence game with flour and water catapults clearing their columns of the jumping fire-breathing overgrown lizards who sometimes managed to retrieve the medieval explosive devices and fling them back at the catapults. Loads of work to be done on gameplay but glad the boys were immensely happy to be throwing flour and water around.

Later, the dragons decided they had enough of all that white powdery stuff and made off with a princess from each of the four kingdoms. Kingdoms were to retrieve their princesses by collecting power cards hidden in locations around Changi Point during the wide game. Since only one princess could be rescued, the kingdoms then fought each other by attacking with weapon cards or weighing down a gluttonous enemy princess with cake cards so she'd be too heavy to be saved. The smack talk was hilarious.

One of the most powerful weapon cards was a Grow Your Own Giant kit which had to be used together with a Plain Water card. Before receiving a kit, Giant Protection Laws required kingdoms to demonstrate the ability to care for their giant by identifying flavours of jelly beans (a Giant's staple food). All teams managed the 70% pass rate but all failed to distract attacking enemy giants with the requested jelly bean flavour at the Final Battle.

The next day, we held a jelly bean tasting session for the remaining half-kg of gunk made from artificial additives, chemicals, preservatives and flavours held together by a strong binding agent. (Candylicious at Resorts World Sentosa supplied flavours not found in Cocoa Tree stores. Who can resist the ironic simulacra-referencing-simulacra of Jelly Belly jelly beans!)

Pants and Lions around the Fairy Point Chalet were ace, though nothing more than a variation of hide-and-seek, and so brought to mind a chapter in C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters that we were speeding through for book club, in which Lewis describes the sincere enjoyment of things as almost a matter of virtue/godliness. Lewis Carroll too, in his Easter Greeting in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, praised the simple joyful reading of his literary nonsense which like the merry voices of children as they roll among the hay, as pleasing to God as "the grandest anthem that ever rolled up from the dim religious light of some solemn cathedral".

The romantic childhood of happy innocence is neither corroborated by experience nor by Scripture: the selfishness of toddlers is apparent as soon as they are able to articulate their thoughts, though any damage to others is limited to the toddlers' inexperience in being cunningly charming and relative powerlessness; and Jesus' injunction in Matthew 18 to become like little children seems to have more to do with their utter dependence on others rather than their innocence.

As we see repeat campers grow up and chaff at additional responsibilities and turn all emo about the lack of a boyfriend or girlfriend, we wish, not for them to return to a time when all they cared about was playing their favourite card games while drinking Ribena. We wish for them to grow to maturity, that is, to find true joy and satisfaction within an intimate relationship with God our Father and Jesus our Saviour and Brother and Judge and King.

*********

Thanks to a worldwide fascination with the Middle Ages, on-theme board games were easy to find:
- The Hobbit
- Lord of the Rings (Reiner Knizia's)
- Settlers of Catan
- Citadels
- Carcasonne
- Kingdoms
- Sleeping Queens? (requested by a camper for nostalgic reasons)
- Saboteur?

*********

Naturally, we had an appropriate camp song ("with warfare toms") to go along:

(ignore the visuals)

O Church Arise

O Church Arise and put your armour on
Hear the call of Christ our Captain
For now the weak can say that they are strong
In the strength that God has given
With shield of faith and belt of truth
We'll stand against the devil's lies
An army bold whose battle-cry is Love
Reaching out to those in darkness

Our call to war to love the captive soul
But to rage against the captor
And with the sword that makes the wounded whole
We will fight with faith and valour
When faced with trials on every side
We know the outcome is secure
And Christ will have the prize for which He died
An inheritance of nations

Come see the cross where love and mercy meet
As the Son of God is stricken
Then see His foes lie crushed beneath His feet
For the Conqueror has risen
And as the stone is rolled away
And Christ emerges from the grave
This victory march continues till the day
Every eye and heart shall see Him

So Spirit come put strength in every stride
Give grace for every hurdle
That we may run with faith to win the prize
Of a servant good and faithful
As saints of old still line the way
Retelling triumphs of His grace
We hear their calls and hunger for the day
When with Christ we stand in glory

by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend (a delightful pairing)
© 2005 Thankyou Music

Games and Wide Game Preparations - Underway

It's that time of the year again when philosophical questions about the pedagogical value of games arise amidst the increased pressure to complete preparations for the upcoming youth camp.

For the Pensieve, to be taken out and considered at a more opportune moment:
1. At the very least, games are required in any camp for the element of fun. This relaxes campers and ensures that they are not brainwashed or pressured into making any important decisions. The fun is multiplied, I think, by the whole atmosphere of the camp - hence the themed booklet and time-table, quirky morning announcements in costume, evening entertainment and the angle used in the exposition of the passage (within the bounds of the text itself of course). Reports are that the Titus Trust camps do not go to such lengths to do the good work, however, to Jews...

2. Games create opportunities for relationships to be built and also demonstrate character. The wide games, especially, are meant for chats about what has been taught and for questions from campers, if any. No pressure of course since the Spirit blows where he will, though we must be faithful in proclamation.

3. Modern pedagogy recommends games as effective teaching tools. One notes, however, that God employs practices and ceremonies as mnemonics and Scripture (the word) as weapon. (Have been thinking for some years about the validity of board games as effective means to teach God's character and man's dire need for salvation but drawing board is still cluttered. How to demonstrate not just need for salvation but also grace freely given, faith not works, and need for perseverance concurrently? Love Andy Geers' brilliant idea for Bible-teaching computer games. Enjoyed Monkey Island very much for its humour. Reading through the Bible with two people now is fantastic not only for what we learn about God, but also the LOL yet all-too-understandable moments in the Old Testament, so that should translate easily... A biblically-accurate Old Testament adventure game would be utterly cool.)

4. Since it makes an appearance only toward the end of camp, the wide game might be used as a revision of things learned - recall and reinforcement. Naturally, it'll always be about the need for/importance redemption rather than being huge (and useless) on morality. Would rather have this subtly in gameplay rather than crudely in clues (too ed psych!). However, difficulty lies in getting the exact facets from speakers beforehand.

5. For future reference, previous themes, entertainment, games and wide games off the top of my head, alot of misses but a few near hits:
Revision Party 2006 (Singapore International Campus)
Theme: there wasn't a theme.

Games: Debut of the flour and water game at the BBQ at the international hostel. But the mix of the heady aroma of meat roasting and groups of strangers ravenously attacking whatever came off the fire and the lack of tongues wasn't much use for the game.

Wide Game: There wasn't a wide game. There was only one camper and he "forgot" to bring his revision. There were also four or five rather tired tween-companions.


December Holiday Camp 2006 (Costa Sands Resort, Sentosa)
Theme: apparently it was pirates. We had pirate hats, a swashbuckle and a hook for announcements. Monty Python's Parrot Sketch in the heat and mozzies failed, mostly because we were both reading off the same script. Parrot (really a bobble-headed toucan) nodded through a talk perched on the speaker's Bible.

Games: Debut of the Chair Game; Giants, Elves and Wizards; and Dan Young's Crocker.

Wide Game: Amazing Race round Sentosa - luge rides, blue tongues from 7-eleven brainfreezes. Complaints that the clues were too intellectual, even though I'd thought it was already much simpler than the excellently fun Casino Royale Game. Also, ability to identify GPS co-ordinates and GPS-enabled devices were not common amongst campers then, even amongst the Mainland Chinese PhDs.


December Holiday Camp 2007 (St. John's Island)
Theme: The barbed-wire fencing surrounding the campsite inspired the prison-freedom theme. We need to be freed from guilt, righteous judgement. Booklet had handcuff, barbed wire and birds (= freedom or lack thereof) motifs. Bird looked like it was flying through the pages. Songs = songs of freedom.

Games: Chair Game; Crocker.

Wide Game: C sent us on a photo and bible verse treasure hunt around the island. Mozzies galore.


Revision Party 2008 (Prince George's Park Residences, National University of Singapore)
Theme: Choose Your Own Adventure - ending in either eternal life or eternal death; choose wisdom or foolishness. Proverbs and 2 Corinthians. Booklet resembled retro cover page of a CYOA book and used a CYOA font which read "The Search for Wisdom: Choose from 2 possible endings".

Games: G, S and Z's flingo bibs + scoopball scoops + old tennis balls mash-up in the basketball court.

Wide Game: Aim was to show-up assumptions involved in living in this world, that we are choosing all the time - decisions are made minute by minute whether to follow erroneous assumptions:
1. No instructions were given that the Wide Game was at all competitive. Yet, the participants assumed it was, so much so that the leaders of each group refused to share their half of the ice-cream recipe: one group held the ingredients for making the ice-cream from scratch and the other held the instructions. One group ended up with salty ice-cream....*bleah*

2. Instructions were to check with me before setting off. Some clues were deliberately vague. Yet, the participants assumed they knew where they were going so decided to start off before calling back, to save time and to ensure that the other teams didn't know their whereabouts. One group's assumption that they were headed in the right direction landed them on the wrong side of campus completely.

The homemade ice-cream (the one that wouldn't make unsuspecting livers do overtime) was a great hit though. This might have had to do with the calvados in an old vanilla essence bottle.


December Holiday Camp 2008 (Fairy Point Chalet 7)
Theme: Beijing Olympics: "One World One Dream". Booklet cover was a tweak of Beijing Olympics logo - the stick man had his hands raised and was white against the background of a red splatter... Font looked like Chinese brush-strokes. Opening ceremony, closing ceremony and unpaid foreign talent. ;-)

Games: Round-robin table tennis with plastic plates. Didn't get to implement other table tennis games, which then featured in the next year's December holiday camp. Observation-logic games.

Wide Game: Around Changi Village and over to Pulau Ubin. Clues revolved around what had already been taught during camp: the Garden, the Fall etc. Prophet Notes, like Old Testament prophets, would pop up now and then to tell/remind participants that a great chasm had opened up between them and the Safe Haven (FPC7) and that they needed someone to save them. They were stopped at the gate to FPC7 for the Final Challenge, which involved St. Peter (yes, yes, dodgy...we needed someone!) asking them why they should be let in. This drew out the participants' old assumptions about how they could be saved/get to heaven, despite the talks thus far.


Revision Party 2009 (NACLI)
Theme: Love Scandal (Ruth and idea of redemption). Booklet font was suitably lurid. Dried pasta given out for good behaviour etc could be used to redeem sweeties. Unsophis.

Wide Game: From Kent Ridge Park to Mount Faber. Having recce-ed the route, thought this a very pleasant walk indeed but there were complaints of untoward physical exertion by the time they got to Hortpark. Again the clues were meant to reinforce what had been taught at camp. Very unsophis. Debut of hilarious homemade charade clues - unfortunately, they'd taken so long to get to Hortpark that we didn't have much time to do this. The charade cards have since been misplaced.


December Holiday Camp 2009 (Fairy Point Chalet 7)
Theme: Movies. Finally got closer to what one would imagine a themed camp to be. Campers were to be woken up by a sqwaking rubber chicken (referencing Chicken Little). Had willing participants to do morning announcements in costume - we had a leviathan and pirate, and a geography teacher ("Where is this?") and Spartan ("This is Spartaaaa!"). Talks and the forum were based on certain movies and the booklet showed one scene and used the marketing font for the relevant movie (the credits were fun to do). Songs = soundtrack. Evening entertainment was quite a failure though due to the female scampers not wanting to embarrass themselves and the staid teachers being aghast at the star hair-sculpting with whipped cream (some of the campers liked it though and one started eating the whipped cream off his friend's head...) in preparation for The Golden Raspberries. The Mobile Movie Director Academy yielded one giggle-in-office-inducing short movie involving a fight between Stitch and The Chicken.

Games: Along thematic lines as well - Balls of Flurry (pingpong dodge ball, pingpong air-hockey), Jerry Maguire (American football), Lords of the (Flying) Ring (frisbee), The Great Lebowski (bowling), Not Quite 2010 (flour and water game with blindfolds and obstacles to demonstrate that listening to the right voice is important).

Wide Game: Hastily completely overhauled during the camp... Involved tim tam slams on Pulau Ubin and many incriminating photos with The Chicken. The Golden Raspberries award ceremony was really laugh out loud funny thanks to the MC.

Revision Party 2010 (Prince George's Park Residences)
Theme: Detectives (the importance of truth and evidence). Murder mystery in parts over several evenings, cumulating in the Wide Game. Ms. Poncey de la Woncey's birthday party on her private island ended with Ms. P in a pool of blood and no heartbeat. There were potatoes and an ugly red dress. Each character had an Obvious Characteristic and a Deep Dark Secret. The campers (detectives) were allowed to ask pertinent questions of the characters and examine the pocket contents of the characters to determine the killer. Ms. P had a death threat (a Shakespearean quotation) in her pocket. All suspects had some sort of white powder (sodium chloride, detergent, flour) on their hands or in their pockets. Ms. P's body disappears the next day...

Wide Game: To find Ms. P's body and the killer! Each group was given a potato. Clue in (yes, *in*) potato sent groups to a uni sitting room where a book containing a play by Shakespeare lay amongst the newspapers. There was an email address on the page which contained the quotation in the death threat. Secret question to access mailbox was a math question. Mailbox contained co-ordinates and photo of a place in Labrador Park. At spot in Labrador, there were plans for a catapult to fling Ms. P's body into the sea. To calculate the distance of Ms. P's body from catapult, they had to solve a physics question...or so it seemed... The physics PhD later realised that there was no distance given between the counterweight and the fulcrum, thus making calculation of the answer impossible. Someone else noticed the more important calculation error in the diagram. :-) They found Ms. P's body covered with white powder. A simple positive result on an iodine test determined the identity of the powder and therefore the murderer. A talk was then given on importance of evidence to determine what really happened. If we do that before we decide whether a person is guilty or not, it would be of greater importance to examine the evidence for one's beliefs.