Ong Puay Yoong (CG-Ken Lee, PJN1)

Well...the initial reason that I signed up for BMEW is mainly for the church membership and subsequently to have a church wedding next year. Therefore, my anticipation of the encounter weekend getaway is not anything near excited but merely as an obligation that I need to be fulfilled. As the weekend drew near, I began to feel scared and worry as I know I am not strong in my faith and till now still spiritually weak.

However, to my amazement I truly enjoy all the sessions with Pastor Chris. Pastor Chris really makes things easy and comfortable. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank Pastor Chris for the effort and time he has spent with us.

The sessions that touched me most are Session 1 - The Father Heart of God and Session 5 - Faith to Heal Our Souls. From Session 1, I learnt that I have been taking things for granted. I am never satisfied with what I have. I always have this envious feelings towards my friends but failed to realise that actually how fortunate my family background is compared to other people. I always blame God for the things/talent/gifts that I do not possess and wonder why God is so unfair in certain circumstances in my life. When Pastor asked us to share with our Prayer Partner about our earthly father, only then did I begin to realise that not everybody live a perfect life and everybody has their ups and down too. It touched me because I felt that God is trying to reach out to me by telling me that He really loves me that He has given me a good daddy (my earthly father) and a happy family despite the other lack of talent I have. God has taught me that I might not be rich, popular, talented, intelligent, outspoken, pretty but I own one of the most priceless gift in the world, that is a beautiful family and God's love.

The sessions continued to Session 5 and Pastor asked us to kneel down and forgive those who have hurt us. After doing so, I felt relief and more relax as I began to slowly let go and throw away all the hurts and rejection that I have always kept deep down in my heart. I knew the hurt has been there always all this time but I just choose to ignore it and therefore it has make me a sorrowful, low confidence, timid person and sometime emotionally unstable. After I have accepted Christ about a year ago, I tried to learn and pretend to be a more happy person but the negative thought will still comes back to haunt me occassionally. At the end of Session 5, I am convince that I was put to attend BMEW for a purposes that is God wants to heal me emotionally.

Between sessions, Pastor has also asked us to pray with our Prayer Partner. I am always so afraid to pray out openly for others because my vocabulary is so very limited and afraid that I might said the wrong things. Therefore, I did pray to God on this area but have no confidence that I can achieve that. When Paster paired me together with Christina and Phoebe as Prayers Partners, I felt very blessed and felt that God is answering my prayers by telling me that you can do it. God gave me the assurance and confidence to pray with Christina and Phoebe where Christina was my mentor and Phebe reminded me of how I was when I first started my Christian life.

I have never expected that I actually miss the encounter weekend when I get back to work on Monday. I came back to work a happier and more relaxed person. All the bitterness is gone. I felt more loved and secured. I never regretted that I have participated in this encounter weekend. Infact, I would glady do this again and again. Don't miss this one of a lifetime opportunity cum encounter with God.