With the theme “TRANSFORM: Becoming Disciples, Making Disciples”, Harborlight Church had our first church camp in five years.
The last time the church set aside four days to spend together was five years ago in June 2018. That was the very last time we had a Church Camp.
And so, with expectant hearts, we looked forward to coming together once again for Church Camp this June.
The Church Coming Together
From June 12 to 15, about 140 of our church members gathered at Le Meridien Hotel, Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur for Church Camp. It was a week of great fun and bonding, especially since this was the first camp for many of our newer members that have joined us over the past three years.
It was also a time of refreshing for many of us, having to put aside all distractions and devote four days to be in community with fellow believers; coming together to worship as one body and hearing the Word of God; and receiving ministry from God Himself.
Camp Theme: TRANSFORM
This year’s camp theme was TRANSFORM: Becoming Disciples, Making Disciples. This theme came about because we wanted to align every member to the prophetic word given to the church of what our focus is to be this year.
Our camp speaker, Ps Benny Ho from Faith Community Church in Perth, Australia brought us the Word at both our morning and evening services, teaching, and preaching about what living our lives as a true disciple of Jesus Christ looks like.
The thrust of the Word given to us through Ps Benny dealt greatly with the practical aspects of living our lives as a disciple of Jesus Christ—persevering under trials, overcoming temptations and managing conflicts. However, in his last message, Ps Benny was prompted by the Holy Spirit to release a different Word from what he had prepared.
He spoke about the phases of revival. Preaching from Malachi 3:1-7, Ps Benny encouraged the church to prepare and expect revival to take place first in our own personal lives. He highlighted the cost of revival and the importance of our willingness to go through the inner work of purification through the Spirit.
He shared from his heart how he felt the Holy Spirit tugging him to talk about revival because whilst Singapore experienced revival in 1972 that saw the powerful move of the Holy Spirit sweeping through our schools, churches and workplaces fifty-one years ago; it was in 1973 that revival came upon Malaysia, starting first in the city of Bario, Sarawak Malaysia.
This year would commemorate the 50th year of revival taking place in Malaysia – and it was significant how many Singaporean churches are gathering across Malaysia in June for their family camps. Ps Benny called upon the church to trust that “if God could do it before, then He can do it again.”
The altar place was filled with cries for the Holy Spirit to “do it again, Lord!” as we saw different generations desiring for the move of God in their lives and making new commitments to desire revival to take place wherever God has placed them.
For one of our first-time campers, Geraldine, who was also serving in the Camp Committee, she said, “During the church camp, I felt the presence of God among all of us. Indeed, I sensed such great unity, faith and faithfulness during worship and hearing God’s Word. It is an awesome experience!”
Community Time
Camp was not only a great time of encountering the presence of God and being revitalized by the Word; we also spent our afternoons having community time with one another in between services! Thanks to the camp committee, we could choose between having an afternoon of fun sweating it out doing bouldering or enjoy a buffet of the king of the fruits!
Everyone also looked forward to our Finale Night! This year’s theme was “Disney”, and it was so delightful to see everyone putting in effort to dress-up. One of the cell groups came as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”; another came dressed as the “101 Dalmatians”; and another came as the characters of “Toy Story”! What a joy it was to see families and friends coming together to have an evening of fun and laughter.
Prophetic Ministry
We concluded the camp with a time of prophetic ministry where we mobilized our prayer leaders who have been preparing to minister prophetically, to release words of prophecy to every camper. We witnessed the grace of God and the powerful move of the Holy Spirit overflow as many were so ministered by the personal words of God, bringing affirmation, revelation, encouragement, and healing into their hearts.
Said one of our youths, 14-year-old Ashlynn, who was also at her first church camp, “With this being my first church camp, I didn’t really know what to expect… but it was right here that God truly revealed His overwhelming love for me and spoke to me in ways I never knew He could! I’m just feeling so thankful about the whole experience!”
For Deborah, one of our young adults who has also just started attending Harborlight in the past one year, God showed up in the most unexpected way for her. She said, “Entering camp, I didn’t know what to expect. But God showed up so strongly during services and brought about healing from wounds I’ve buried even from myself. He poured out His Spirit, fresh anointing and encountered us anew. Through the post camp blues, I really feel a burning passion and heavy burden to spread the good news of Jesus. God is real!”
Indeed, God has been so faithful to us, demonstrating so personally His love and manifested presence. We are excited to see how God will continue moving and stirring up revival in the hearts of our members and in our church in this next season! May it continue to echo in all our hearts the cry for revival – “Lord, you have done it before, won’t You do it again!”
