| The Fellowship Camp was held at the beginning of the Easter holiday for three consecutive days. This year, the theme of the camp is ‘Clasp of Clans’. The theme is adapted from ‘Clash of Clans’, which is an online multiplayer game in which players build a community or their own town (in the form of a clan) and gain resources from others. The change from using a “p” in “clasp” instead of an “h” in “clash” for the theme is for the purpose of promoting a sense of “unity in diversity”—a spirit of unity among the fellowship-goers without anyone losing their unique character and talent endowed by God. To achieve this, it is necessary for everyone to “be themselves” and exercise his/her talent to serve others selflessly. |
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| On the first day, all participating students of S1-S5 gathered after school and got on a coach together, heading for the campus of YWCA Sydney Leong Holiday Lodge in Lantau Island. Once they arrived, they were first introduced to the staff of Abundant Grace Church (the main organizers of this camp) and teachers who joined the camp. Next, they were introduced to the campus rules and were given keys to their dorms. After settling their things in their rooms and having dinner, everyone gathered at the main hall for the first worship, student sharing, and a lot of fun group games together in the evening! |
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| A group photo of staff of Abundant Grace Church, fellowship teachers and members of the fellowship committee taken on the 1st day. |
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| On the second day, students started the day with a time of spiritual devotion, followed by worship and student sharing at the hall as usual. After worship, students were quickly introduced to their first mission of the day — which is for the 6 groups of students to gather as many ‘energy cards’ as possible. In order to gather these ‘energy cards’, students had to complete different tasks; however, in pairs with their legs tied together! |
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| Students participating in activities of the morning session on the 2nd day. |
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| The final result of the tasks done in the morning session: |
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| Representatives of the group which won 1st place for the morning session activities. |
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| After the morning session, students were introduced to the concept of ‘clans’ and ‘tribes’. They were told that each of them belonged to a unique tribe and had a specialty or field of expert. However, all members of a tribe must seek to learn from other tribes in order to gain resources—the same energy cards as the ones they’ve gathered in the morning (see white board above) for their own community. Therefore, a wide range of activities were held in the afternoon for students to experience the lives, work and knowledge of ancient tribes. It was really quite a lot of new experiences for them as they learn from the wisdom of the past, which certainly broadened their horizons! |
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| A message was shared to explain the purpose and rules of the activities in the afternoon session to everyone in the camp. |
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| Students working at and learning from different ‘tribes’. |
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| After all the hard work during the afternoon, students were simply exhausted and nothing was better than a delicious dinner! |
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| At nighttime, after worship and students’ sharing, students of different tribes were told that with the resources (energy cards) they had gathered from their hard work in the afternoon, they could exchange for ‘real materials’ for each tribe to build a part of a church. Therefore, once all the tribes had received their materials, members of each tribe started building their ‘part’ according to a construction plan they received. |
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| On the morning of the third day, after worship and sharing, there was finally a call for the ‘put together’ of the parts to form a ‘whole’ church. Everyone was happy to witness that parts were being put together to one – The Church. |
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| Nevertheless, having the church alone was not enough; therefore, students were then given the challenge of ‘creating people’ by sewing! Everyone was taught how to sew a doll to represent him/herself using cloths and threads of different colors. Students were then told to put their dolls on the church they had earlier constructed to signify that a grandiose church without people is nothing but a lifeless artifact. Students are thus encouraged to invite friends to join fellowship together after the camp. |
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| Here are 3 samples of ‘people’ created by sewing: |
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| Lastly, with all the camp participants taking a group photo with The Church, the Clasp of Clans had come to a satisfactory close. |
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