Catching Up

Note: Long post about a reunion I managed to organize in the following paragraphs, you may skip this if you're looking for photos instead, because I didn't have any to put up.....yet :D

I'll be the first to say that it's never an easy task to try to organize anything among a bunch of college kids who have totally different timetables and schedules...you can never seem to find that one golden slot in the calendar when everyone is free and can make it for the event that you're planning.

In the last two weeks I took it upon myself that there was gonna be a reunion of sorts for Shirtliff (no, not the cheerleading team) RBS mission team and it was supposed to take place at Aunty Yoke Kheng's place. Aunty Yoke Kheng was the chirpy supervisor for our mission trip and she offered her apartment as the venue. In the process of organizing, after what must've seemed like countless dead-ends and impossibilities, I finally managed to narrow it down to one date, the 26th of April (which was yesterday). And it was going to be a dinner. And after even more negotiation, it was turned into a sleepover. Now there were originally 9 members altogether in the team, and here's the breakdown:

Supervisor: Aunty Yoke Kheng
Asst. Supervisor: Kelvin Tay
Team Leader: Me!
Asst. Team Leader: Ann Sue
Members: Simon Sim, Maggie, Jon Lee and Kit Meng and Jill

Initially it all seemed pretty well and there was hope that we could make it a full-blown gathering with everyone around. At the end of it though, it became like this:

Kelvin Tay: Exam and stayed too far away
Maggie: Cousin leaving for overseas for 5 years, had to attend farewell dinner
Kit Meng: Understandable lah, since he's in NS
Jon Lee: Lazy bum too lazy to make his way to the apartment, and had LAN class on Saturday
Jill: Can come but cannot stay-over at the apartment

Some simple mathematics would suffice to tell you that less than half of the team was actually able to make it for the sleepover event in the end. Haih~

BUT, but but but, it wasn't all doom and gloom because we did manage to catch up on a lot of things, amongst the five of us who were there for the dinner and later the four of us who stayed till the wee hours of the morning chatting away....

What really amazed me though was how the whole thing turned out so so well. SO WELL!! Let me explain what I mean:

On Saturday evening, the plan was for Jill to fetch me and Simon at Lick Hung (hope it's the correct spelling) at about 6. I joined Simon for TRU and when TRU finished, Jill's message came, saying she's on her way. I had thought of walking from the church to the school, but I felt we were gonna be late so I tried to see if we could tumpang somebody's car and we SO HAPPEN managed to hitch a ride with Uncle Chooi Meng and arrived there early. Jill reached about three minutes after we did. *Phew!*

Now, me and Simon are in the car. The plan was to pick Ann Sue up at the Kelana Jaya LRT station at 7. We reached there and got her at 6.50. "Early some more, great!" I thought to myself. Next we were supposed to meet up with Aunty Yoke Kheng at One U because her apartment is nearby, but it turned out that Jill knew how to get there and we reached her apartment earlier than she did, because she went out to buy our dinner. Woohoo, first-part of the journey accomplished successfully!

We ate like crazy and we talked like crazy. Jill left early because she had another place to go to, and we were left to our own devices; me, Aunty Yoke Kheng , Simon and Ann Sue. We went out to Old Town at about 12+ and came back around 2, then slept about two hours later xD

Next morning we woke up later than expected and couldn't have breakfast together, so the three of us (me Simon Ann Sue) were dropped off at Taman Bahagia LRT station and we made our way to Sentral to have our breakfast. Again, we still had time to chit-chat and slowly chow down our Sausage Mc Muffins. Then came the time to leave, and we were kinda late because Simon had to get back to church in time for the Youth Committee meeting (since he's the President and all). The time to beat was 11.30, and we went into the Sentral KTM station at 10.44. Simon walked down the stairs and almost beyond our mortal imagination we saw the train coming BEFORE the time shown on the LED board. Unbelievable, I know ;D And as if that wasn't enough, the train pulled to a stop with one of the doors right smack in front of Simon. Awesome!!! Now that's something that I always look forward to whenever I board the KTM, to have it stop with the doors sliding open in front of you xD

The train didn't make any 'recharging battery' stops and chugged all the way to Subang. We alighted and the time was 11.10. My dad wasn't there yet, so we waited and it did feel like very long, because with every ticking second Simon's chance of being in time for the minute grew slimmer. Finally I called my dad again to check if he's arrived, and he said he had! We rushed to the car and I told Simon that he would make it back just in the nick of time. "You'll be back at 11.30 sharp, Sim". And so it was, 11.30 on his watch and we were outside the church. Like, whoa! It doesn't get much better than this, really.

Truly the LORD was with us all the way, from the time we took off from the church to the very moment we stepped foot into it again the next day. No hiccups, no "oh no" moments, nothing at all. I prayed, and God answered. What more could I have asked for ;D