Participant shares her experience of LifeLine camp

PAPAR – The Sacred Heart LifeLine Ministry ogranised their annual camp here recently.  Below is a sharing by one of the partcipants.

Who is God for me? This sentence constantly resounded throughout the whole camp for the past three days from the 15 to 17 July 2016. It was the core topic which speaker Mike Arents (from Singapore) continuously emphasised on. For this year’s camp, it was an opportunity to reinforce God’s identity, my identity, my mission as well as to develop a more committed prayerful lifestyle. It was something learned, brought home and still practising today.

Throughout the camp we were engaged in personal prayer. This was the expectation and plan from Mike and the leaders. “If the leaders do not have a prayerful life, how can we expect the members to do so?” These straightforward and heart-piercing words (said by Mike during our short briefing) cut deep into our souls as leaders of Lifeline. And since then, it was our mission to make prayer evident not just during camp but to make it a lifestyle.

So during camp, we had something like a 24-hour Adoration starting from 12:00 am till 7:00 am where one person will take at least 45 minutes to spend at the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament until the next person comes in for the next 45 minutes. The feedback from some people about this Adoration was that it was really a good challenge for them to really focus on Christ for those few minutes that some actually spent more than just 45 minutes and some came back for another slot.

One of my favourite activities during camp besides the games was the group sharing. Listening and empathising with each other when we each shared our vulnerable side was something so amazing and precious because that was what bonded us even closer as brothers and sisters in Christ.

On Saturday evening, we had our very own Fr Joshua who came to Pace Bene to celebrate Mass with us. After Mass, there was time for the Sacrament of Reconciliation at the chapel. Some members who went for confession expressed that they did not feel judged but felt consoled and free when they had a moment to just ‘let go’ and surrender to God. After hearing their response, there was a sense of strengthening of faith and restoring of relationship with the Lord.

Personally for me, one of the things that I experienced tangibly during the camp was the chance to restore a broken friendship with one of the members there. This was one of my greatest breakthroughs. God’s timing really is undeniably perfect. That is why I dare to declare that God to me is my Merciful Father because He forgives and loves unconditionally. That makes me His beloved daughter and my mission is to spread His unconditional love and mercy to the people around me! – Joanna CA