From the 24th to the 26th of November 2017, the Kristus Aman Confirmation Class of 2018 held their confirmation camp at the Marist Brothers Champagnat Youth Centre in Port Dickson. 18 students from the confirmation class attended the camp, along with their class teacher Geoffrey Chee and a small team of 4 facilitators: Ian Ho, Rachael D’Rozario, Amanda Pasaoa Lee, and Ian Leong. If the names of the facilitators may sound familiar, it’s because they’ve been actively serving in the Kristus Aman Youth Ministry for a couple of years. The team based their sharings and topics on the CCC, and hence came up with the theme for the camp “AMPowered”, which stood for “Anointed, Marked and Powered”.
The group arrived at the retreat centre in the afternoon and were welcomed with a wholesome lunch after sorting their luggage into their respective rooms. Shortly after lunch, the participants were ushered to the seminar hall and then began the first introductory session called ANOINTED, which invited the participants to be open and present throughout the camp. After the afternoon session, the evening was dedicated to having fun at the beach with one another, strengthening bonds via salt water and sand. The ANOINTED session continued at night and the topic was on Sin and Mercy, and after a time of praise and worship, many of the participants took this opportunity to surrender their imperfections to God and spent some time kneeling in front of the crucifix.
Day 2 began with some morning exercise led by Rachael and everyone filled their tummies with a typical Malaysian breakfast meal, Nasi Lemak. The following session MARKED, allowed the participants to express their creativity as they were asked to draw a house and a man to represent God and themselves. The activity invited the participants to realize their true identity in Christ as beloved sons and daughters of God, as well as to tackle a few misconceptions about God. The afternoon continued with the POWERED session, which revolved around affirming the participants that because they are loved first by God, therefore they have the power to love others as well.
The evening was again dedicated to having fun at the beach, but this time with a healthy dose of competition amongst the small group through an “Amazing Race” challenge pitting participants against each other. Despite the competition, it was heartwarming to see that the participants were still helpful towards each other whilst completing the last challenge, which was to build a small floatable raft. The night saw a continuation of the POWERED session, explaining the works and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the concluded with another touching session of praise and worship.
The morning of Day 3 seemed somewhat a sad one as everyone knew that the camp was coming to an end. Instead of a usual session, the facilitators held a Q&A session to answer questions posted by the participants about the Catholic faith. After lunch, everyone boarded the bus back to our little chapel, where Fr. Michael Chua celebrated mass for the camp attendees and also the participant’s parents. After mass ended, the participants were invited to share their testimonies of what happened at the camp, in front of all the parents. Definitely not an easy task, but somehow some of them mustered up the courage to testify about the love of God that they had felt during camp.
