Royal Rangers Selangor 7

Written by Renee Koo

The Expedition Rangers which consists of 9 expedition rangers (7 girls and 2 guys) and 5 commanders went on a retreat on 8th June 2007. Its venue – our historical state, Malacca! We were all hyped up and ready to have a blast there, despite the small number of us going! This is my first retreat as an expedition too! Woo-hoo! We gathered at church in the morning and by 9:20 am, we squashed ourselves in the Mercedes van and off we went! Malacca! Here we come!!

It was quite a long journey there but we had fun fellowshipping and chit-chatting. Along the way, we stopped by at an old coffee shop for lunch. After that, we headed to the water theme park! We had a great time there, screaming our heads off when we’re coming down from the slide, “syok-sendiring” and just being childish all over again! The body slide was super scary! I was too afraid to open my eyes because I thought I was going to fly off any moment, but thank God I landed safely! The family tube ride was very cool too. The childish-ness in us was exposed when we played at the playground and Aladdin land! =p It felt great being young again. After 3 hours of fun, it was time to check in to our ‘hotel’-Cmdr. Herbert’s banglo. We washed up and prepared for service. I was given the opportunity to worship lead during this retreat. It went well even though we didn’t have a guitar (one of the strings broke). Cmdr. Jeffrey Goh shared on the theme of this retreat, which is stewardship. We did learn many new things.

Right after service it was barbeque time! Chicken, lamb, potato, sausages, burger patties, salad and bread, we did what rangers love best – EAT! We fellowshipped and practiced for the next service and the next thing? We were all sleeping soundly on the bed!

The next day, we had breakfast then we played Taboo! It was a superb time! Tears of laughter came rolling down our cheeks as we tried to guess the ‘taboo’ word! We headed to town about 1pm.

Malacca town is a really “happening” place, with so many things everywhere and so many people. We went to ‘Jalan Gereja’ and took photos as remembrance.

It was as if we just had breakfast, but our stomach started growling. Our next stop was-famous chicken rice ball shop! We ate balls of rice, lots of chicken, pork, otak-otak, fish balls and bean sprouts (is this a makan retreat or what?). We did some window shopping and next place? Dessert shop! Cmdr. Darren bought us ais kacang and cendols. Sweet!

We continued exploring the town, girls doing what’s best-shopping! We took a group photo at the Portugese settlement. I touched an iguana there! We went to the Dataran Mall for some shopping. Last but not least, we went to Jonker street! It’s something like our pasar malam but just that there is so much more things there and the stuff there is cheap! Interesting! It was indeed a long and tiring day (leg muscles aching), but we had a great time exploring Malacca and really enjoyed ourselves!

We went back with plastics and bags of ‘barang’, wash up and it was time for our second service. The praise and worship that night was just superb! (we had 2 guitars now) When we were singing ‘how great is our God’, I could just feel God’s presence there in that hall with us, it was truly an awesome time of worship. My 2 guitarist were Sayfryil and Jhun Hoe! *applause* Cmdr.Darren shared that night. He spoke about many things, teaching us to have a servant’s heart, love God and be passionate about Royal Rangers.

We had supper and after that the rangers decided to play war game! It was 1.30am by then. We split ourselves into 2 groups and we started the game. Our ‘war game’ is a ‘little’ different from the normal war game we play, we played indoor, and it was just ‘different’. We were laughing our heads off when we played, the place was quite restricted so we didn’t have much space to run around and our rounds never lasted more than 5 minutes! We played taboo for a while, this time with punishment! Each card skipped would mean one push up! It’s like we’re in military training camp at 2.30am!

The next day was our last day of the retreat. Time really does fly when we are having fun. The service that morning was great too. This time the sibling power-May and Jhun Hoe played the guitar. Cmdr. Shamita shared about being a steward in money. I learned through her personal testimony that it is never too early to start giving tithes! We had a special session after that, Cmdr. Petrina gave us a task to do the day before, that is to observe everyone in the retreat and write the characteristics and personalities that you admire about them. It was like a ‘testimony’ time. Everyone read out what they thought and feel about that person. It was an uplifting session, you feel loved and good about yourself, it is very encouraging indeed. Praise God for that session. We had a talk about our current expedition rangers. We talked about the ways we can improve it and make it better for the enlargement of His kingdom!

Finally, it was time to check out and back to home. So long Malacca! Another camp, another experience, and a better me! This retreat has hit me, reminded me and urged me to get out of my comfort zone, to be the change I want to see. We have to apply stewardship into our daily lives, to be willing to serve, and be humble. I truly praise Him for this wonderful retreat, though only a few went, we were still blessed and touched, too bad for those that didn’t went, it’s their lost! Haha. Go expedition!!

More Reports on the Expedition Website, click here.