Our God is indeed a good good Father. :-)

When Van first approached me to take on the role of CF Camp chair, the first thought in my head was, 

 No. 

 No. 

No.

No way.

I thought that was an absolutely crazy idea and I couldn't even imagine myself in that position. I was inadequate in many ways and clearly knew that I can't perform that role well. I've only served in the publicity role.. being a chairperson will be on another level. I rejected her immediately and she told me to consider it and pray about it for awhile more before giving her a final reply. 

So I did. I really considered hard. During the first few days/weeks, I was still overwhelmed by my inadequacies. I really didn't think that I could do it. I prayed, wavered, and slowly came to find God's answer for me - to go for it.

"God doesn't call the equipped. God equips the called."

I accepted the CF Camp chair role despite still having doubts in my own abilities. But I had to have faith that God will bring me through if He wanted me to take on this role. 

A few weeks later, Van approached me again and asked if I'd like to switch over to serve as the chairperson for CFTAD instead. This time, I accepted it immediately. Reason being (apart from God's nudging)? I've always thought that having such time of thanksgiving is very important in all our lives and found that it'd be a really meaningful task to take on. What more, to serve Him and His people while organizing this. It's not going to be easy as well, but I knew that God was definitely going to guide me through it. 

Van and I started off this with just the two of us with our laptops, empty Google Docs shared between the two of us at the NIE Library. We were pretty clueless as how we should even start or go about doing everything. But of course, task number one would be to form our committee. Thankfully she was familiar with the members so we managed to come up with a list. We briefly discussed about some other things during our two-person meeting together and were excited to embark on this journey amidst all the uncertainties. 

The members contacted got back to us, and our committee was formed. Had our first meeting during recess week and during then, it finally felt like everything was taking shape. :-)

Sent proposals to the school. Got a prompt approval from their side and a grant as well. 

Sought for affordable and suitable venues - we had several difficulties for this, but thank God for providing CSC eventually which fit our budget. :-) 

And very amazingly.. two alumni approached us for a love gift donation! :') This came as a huge pleasant surprise to us as we weren't planning to request for any alumni donations this year initially. It really helped us a lot in our budgeting. Thank God for the loving alumni. :')

Going back to the planning, throughout the school semester, we were simultaneously working on this with our usual school work. It wasn't easy I must say - to ensure that all the planning and aspects were progressing alongside. Thankful for the committee who helped out in the areas they were tasked to that allowed us to move forward smoothly.

A week before CFTAD and after the end of my finals, I was determined to devote all my time to preparing for it. All the logistics - the door gifts, the appreciation gifts and cards, decorations etc - were settled promptly within a few days. We did face some issues during this week, but thank God for providing as usual. Those issues were promptly resolved and we were ready for CFTAD.

However.. I lost my voice on the Thursday before CFTAD. Was down with a very bad flu and sore throat and had a constant throbbing headache. I was so panicky then, as I had to speak for quite a bit during the night. Really spammed water for the remaining days leading up to the night and tried hard to conserve whatever voice I had left during my classes with my kids. Thank God for those who prayed for my recovery and helped in ways they could. :')

The week prior to CFTAD went by in a flash. The actual night arrived much sooner than I expected it to. During our preparations, we faced so many issues - left a really important bag of items in Davin's car (which he already drove off), and we couldn't do majority of the venue preparations. Some logistics also arrived later which saw the need for some reshuffling of the program. But really thank God for providing through that time. Despite the delays and hiccups here and there, we still managed to execute the entire program well in the end. :-)

Some actual day photos~

Really thankful for all the help throughout this short time of serving! 

First, to my committee. Thank you all for being so willing to step up and serve alongside with me. Thank you for all the hard work put in for the night. Probably not going to get our committee picture for quite awhile since the photographer will be away for quite some time, but I'm really thankful for every single one of y'all and I'm really glad to get to know everyone better! :-) 

Of course, not forgetting Prarthi who always provides the much needed feedback during our meetings!

To Van as well, I probably mentioned most of what I wanted to say in my Instagram post, but here's another thank you for you again! You've really helped out so so so so much in so so so many ways in the preparation for CFTAD. Really thank God for putting you in my life since Year 1! Looking forward to many more memories together. :-)

And also to Eunice! Mentioned most of what I wanted to in the card for you already, but thank you for being so willing to help Van and I throughout this journey! Thank you for always giving us the much needed guidance throughout this time of serving together. :-)

Not forgetting my sister, mum and dad. My sister helped me in the packing of the door gifts despite being worn out after a long day of work. My mum helped me to wrap some gifts (which I'm really bad at) nicely. And my dad, he sent me home after my tuition ended to collect the logistics before I headed down to CSC. Really thankful for these precious helping hands provided from the Lord. :-)

And of course, the worship team and photographers who came forward so willingly. :-) The whole CFTAD was only possible with everyone mentioned above, and not forgetting, God. 

His constant guidance and providence in our times of planning, trials, execution really amazes me. There were so many things could have gone wrong, but He always overcame those problems for us and helped us through. Thank God for giving all of us the heart, the strength, the love to step forward to do this. 

As I mentioned in my IG post as well, 

"It wasn't easy, but definitely worth it for the One."

I mean every word from the bottom of my heart. 

It had been my greatest honour to be placed in this position to serve Him. My times of distress and fatigue really mean nothing compared to what He has done for us. It's really hard to imagine and extent and magnitude of His greatness and goodness.. but the truth is that:

He is that powerful.

He is that great.

He is that loving.