GUIDANCE - MYC 2007

(You'd think all that studying and the furthering of my intellectual-ness at uni would have helped me to think of a more creative title but... I'm tired)

Wow! What a weekend. I just don't think I could fully describe the past week at CBS' annual Mid-Year Conference and do it justice! But.. I will try my best to make things simple (basically to stop myself from babbling too much, which is a tendency of mine). I don't wanna share the past week with you guys only because it was an awesome week (which it was).. but hopefully so that you might be able to get something out of what i've learnt and been challenged by.

At MYC, we like to summarise things in nifty little sentences... so i'm gonna attempt to do something similar with the aid of subtitles and dot points.... so let's have it!

Highlights

- Getting to know people in my faculty

- Awesome fellowship with people in my bible study group

- Community feel of living at Merroo for 5 days

- Sharing a bathroom with the girls

- Practical, jam-packed seminars

- Convicting, challenging, and heart-transforming talks from God's word

- Praying together with bible study group

- Being crammed together in a tarago with bible study group

- Reflection time/Personal prayer

- Playing mixed basketball and netball during free time

- Eating together

- Newspaper fashion "catwalk" (plus commentaries)

- Guy-Dance competition ("Guy" as in the gender-neutral version of the word =P)

- Playing "Bartok" (the card game with no rules... except that there are)

- Worshipping God together through song

- Elective on appropriately dressing and relating to guys as women of God

Things I was especially challenged by, from..

Talk 1. The Guidance of the Sovereign God. Why do we need guidance?

- God is God... we are not

- The questions we have for God, aren't as important as the questions He has to ask us

- we need guidance because of sin; because we don't want to listen to what God wants

- if you ask God for guidance, be prepared to accept and obey His answer; don't just ask in hopes to find the answer that you want

Talk 2. God's Guidance for Marriage. What is God's plan for us?

- Marriage to Jesus is at the heart of God's plan for us (marriage in the sense that we become one with Him, sharing in His death and resurrection)

- Cling to Jesus, prepare yourself for the day of the LORD; God is a holy God, and He wants us to be holy too

Talk 3. God's Guidance for Guidance. Where do I find the specifics of guidance? (Wisdom or Signs?)

- our decisions should be driven by God's agenda, not our own

- God's main means of guidance and his key promises come to us through his word in the gospel

- scripture is all we need; we are fully equipped (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

- grow in wisdom and godliness; through this, you may discern God's will (signs are ambiguous.. not a good resource for guidance)

- if you seek God's will earnestly, wisely, and whole-heartedly, prayerfully thinking over your decisions, you need not be afraid that you will somehow stray from His will

Talk 4. The Freedom of God's Guidance. How do we exercise wisdom in decision-making?

- God has freed us from our bondage to sin, through His son, Jesus

- True freedom is found in serving one another and living as a servant of God (this is being free to be what God intended us to be)

- What are you afraid of letting go, so that you may be a witness and follow Jesus?

- There is nothing you can lose that is worth more than what God gives us

- Our biggest problem in exercising our freedom is in being afraid that we'll miss out; we want to be comfortable, but at the same time, do God's will

- What is stopping you from working out how to live your life in full service to God?

Talk 5. Praying for Guidance.

- though the christian fellowship that we have at MYC has been like a little slice of heaven, we know that Heaven will be far greater than this

- pray we will use our newly learned knowledge with love - knowledge alone puffs up, but love builds up

- what we learn from MYC (and any other conference for that matter) means nothing, if it doesn't continue to mean something for the rest of our lives - so put it into practice!

The Seminars..

- seek guidance only from God

- God guides His people anywhere He wants; He is sovereign

- Jesus fulfils the OT promises - we have all we need in Him

- We know the Bible is true, not because we have any concrete evidence to prove it, but because the Holy Spirit works in us, helping us to believe

- We need to read the Bible prayerfully, obediently, and contextually to understand it the way God intended it to be understood

Bible study on 2 Thessalonians.

- God is faithful, righteous, and just

- God is relational - He gives us hope and comfort, and protects us from the evil one

- God transforms us, making us worthy of His calling

- how important it is to have deep, loving, meaningful, christ-centred relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ, encourageing each other through prayer, conversations, and even behaviour, in the way we treat each other

- idleness ain't good

Elective 1. Secret Women's Business: God's fashion and relationship tips for women from 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

- inside, not outside

- don't dress to draw attention to yourself, but dress yourself in a way that will put the attention on God (i.e. humility, love, gentleness, patience, etc)

- we can't think of 'modesty' with a line mentality; it's more about using wisdom and analysing our motives

- as women participating in mixed bible studies, we need to learn about God's word with a humble heart that is willing to learn, and is teachable, instead of a heart that is rebellious, that wants to drag our brothers down and raise ourselves up

- as sisters in Christ, we need to encourage our brothers to teach and take on leadership roles by being submissive and humble

Ok so this is for those of you who enjoy babble..

I was actually quite reluctant to go to MYC at first. I guess I tried to rationalise my hesitancy but I think I've realised now that... I was actually just making excuses because I'm a creature of habit. I enjoy my routines and find myself feeling very comfortable in them. That then becomes a breeding ground for complacency. I realised that I'd become quite comfortable in being complacent about my spiritual growth, and really not putting in the effort required to grow more. In the end I decided to go to MYC, and I was actually looking forward to it.

When I got there on Monday.. I guess I felt a little disoriented, having just come back from our church retreat, of which I've attended many, and where there are familiar faces everywhere you turn. Getting to Merroo I couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed and ES-sick (get it.. home-sick.. =P) you might call it. Not that I didn't have friends or people that I knew. I guess it just didnt feel the same.

The jam-packed schedule on monday really didnt make me feel any better; it's definately not something I'm used to. Not that our church retreats aren't jam packed.. but I guess the seminars involved a lot more active involvement, rather than just sitting and listening to a talk. They actually required you to discuss in small groups, pray together, and provide input to the rest of the groups - which, being in my comfortable, complacent state, initially made me cringe at the thought of the early morning seminars to come.

Our first bible study session seemed to go well though. We crammed ourselves into one of the girls' tarago (she put down the seats so it was like sitting in a padded van) and that was nice and cosy..... until it got too dark to read and are bodies got too numb. The method of our bible study was 'manuscript discovery' ... so that's like, we got the passage without paragraphs, sub-headings and etc, and there was no specified leader.. we were all just helping each other.

Then after dinner, came the first talk. It was quite a long talk, relatively speaking.. about an hour and a half with a song inbetween. I guess I was still tired from church retreat so it was a struggle to pay attention. Eventually got to bed and fell asleep straight away while the other girls chatted.

The next few days were actually less jam-packed because we had 1.5 hours free time in the afternoon which gave us some time to breathe. The second seminar was difficult once again because I guess I was still getting used to the way it was done. Second bible study was great; we sat outside this time, and seemed to connect well and be able to learn about God's word together, plus have a few laughs here and there. Then we had some personal reflection time which I found extremely useful. It gave me a moment to think about the first talk and, I realised I actually did get something out of it other than the thought.......... long. It's amazing how God can reach out to us.

Things went uphill from then on in my mind. Instead of dreading going to seminars, I was actually looking forward to it. Thankfully God helped me realise how worthwhile they were.

Playing basketball and netball was a good highlight. We had a super mixed netball game going on with about 20 ppl playing half-court. It was great fun! Kinda silly though, but I played wearing only socks.. and got blisters as a result and that was a bit of a lowlight for a while but they've gotten better since.

I also came to Merroo slightly disappointed that the showers and bathrooms were outside but during the week I came to enjoy the idea of meeting the girls in the bathroom and brushing our teeth together and washing our faces and etc etc.. you get the point.... but it felt very family-like. So that's why I included it as a highlight cause I actually really enjoyed it.

Anyhooo.. I can't say enough good things about MYC. It's a week away like no other. It really helped me to realise a lot of things about my walk with God... It was definately an eye-opener but for the heart, and it changed my perspective alot, about the way I value the things in my life and what I value more than others. Please pray that God will continue to work in me and soften my heart so that I will use my time in a godly way, to serve God and to serve others, instead of being idle.