The body ache was a result of a full-day activity on last Friday. It was a public holiday in Malaysia and our church held a holiday camp at a primary school. It was a full-day event (8am to 6pm) at the school with the aim to have the school students to know God and to learn the right values in life. Our church organises this camp every year and has been receiving such good review that the number of yearly participants increases every year, as the students who have participated in the previous year's event would join again and recommend it to their school mates too.
This year, we had the largest group ever, with over 500 kids from primary 3 to 6. We had over 100 volunteers from the church helping out in the event, and most of the volunteers were from the youth ministry, which means they are youngsters who can get along well with the kids. The students were divided into teams and each team was assigned with 4 or 5 volunteers as "teachers" to lead the team. I was one of the teachers for a team and also the oldest teachers out of the three in the team. The other three were from the youth ministry, who are students from secondary 3, 4 and college.
It was an event filled with activities, with a lot of games, singing, dancing and running around. The kids were also very energetic and difficult to control. Some were so naughty that they weren't afraid of the teachers at all and would intentionally did the opposite of what we told them to do. It was really energy draining to lead these kids. I also found it hard to mingle with them, probably because of generation gap or maybe due to my less active (read: nerdy) personality. I did not know what to say to them at all, as i was never good in doing kiddy or childish talk or acts. The other three volunteers in my team, on the other hand, got along very well with the kids and were like friends to them by by mid-day.
As the volunteers gotta gather earlier at 7am and stayed till 8pm (for dinner), i was totally bushed after i got home on Friday night. Then on Saturday, i found myself aching all over and am still aching today. I guess all the dancing and jumping (and sitting on the floor) are considered excessive exercising for me.
Nonetheless, the pain is all worthwhile as we were doing God's work. It was definitely a purposeful day than any other days when i just idled at home doing nothing meaningful.
Labels: Christianity, volunteering
