Some time ago, I mentioned that I was busy with an event. The event happened just yesterday and its called "The Food Trail". "The Food Trail" is inspired by our love for Singaporean food. And who doesn't love food? In my church, we have 3 youth leaders (including me) who is in charge of overseeing the event. We work together with different youths in my church in the planning of this event. The purpose of this event is to be able to bring friends to join us to have fun and to hear about the hope we have in Jesus.
Altogether we had 6 friends and approximately 30 SFers (the youths in my church) including the youth leaders who attended the event. This event is considered as one that is not very well attended as opposed to the events that my church had in the past. But that's okay, because I believe that God is the one who brings in the people. The event was well-enjoyed by everyone who attended the event and the food was amazing. The event looks good but beneath it were many lessons that I had to learn.
The event was still in the midst of getting firmed up one day before the event and I knew of some loopholes to the planning the night before and tried to settle it as calmly and as wisely as I could, getting to and fro with another youth leader in the planning with me. I thought, everything should go on okay. On the day itself, I found out the decision I made the night before with regards to the Emcee is not the wisest and immediately took in action to choose another Emcee. The problem with this is that the new Emcee would be extremely unprepared and I thank God for his willing heart as he did it without complains though he was not fond of Emceeing.
It seems fine right? I found a new Emcee and got my younger girl (Program IC) to look to the rest of the details of the event. Well, in actual fact, it is not. I was extremely conflicted in my heart. I realized I took on most of the job of what the Program IC is doing and I am not sure if it is the best when guiding her. Also, I was upset with the fact that I did not have a tighter control of the details of the event with her. If I did, I would have seen the loopholes earlier. It makes it worse that I am a perfectionist and wanted to have a conclusion to the mistakes made and I ended up blaming myself for 90% of the things that went wrongly in the event.
As the event went on, I found out that I could have linked the event program better as the order of the prize presentation, the sharing and the video were not in the most thoughtful manner possible. In all honesty, I never knew that the sequence played so much of an importance in one's receptivity to the listening of the sharing. I missed that out and instructions were confusing and all over the place. The perfectionist in me blamed myself again for the confusion that was caused. Again, another loophole that I did not work out with the Program IC. Once again, I took on her role and acted on her behalf. But that's not her fault as I have discussed with the other youth leader and both of us agreed to let her participate in the activity. However, I found out that it was a lot wiser to get her to stay behind and learn what it means to be the IC on the actual day.
I did not know how to feel after the event. I knew to trust in God and I knew some of my friends prayed for me during the event. But I did not feel okay and I did not know why. Perhaps, I was taking too much of the blame of all the faults upon myself. I had to talk to someone and I talked to my Youth Pastor and I am so thankful for what he told me. He told me that we all learn from the mistakes we made, he told me that even during the event, he was learning and we are a team of youth leaders that grow and learn together. I called Alice last night as I was still conflicted and she told me one thing that I needed to hear most, if you had to blame, you have to blame all of us (the youth leaders) as we are all in this together.
I forgotten that I was not planning this alone, that it is not about me. It is about God, it is about our friends that we have brought and we (the christians in my church) were all in this together. Thank you to the people who has prayed for this event too!
Today, I am feeling a lot better and I know deep in my heart that God is still Good and the event went exactly to God's Plan. And you know something? 3 friends wanted to leave before the sharing but they stayed on and listened to the sharing in the end. There is still so much to give thanks for and I didn't remember that.
Making mistakes makes you feel so bad but when you do, its okay. These mistakes made would teach us deeper lessons than not having made any. And at the end of the day, we can only grow stronger and more mature from this. I take so much encouragement in James 1:2-4 and if you are going through difficulties today, know that there are many who are struggling alongside you today.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
-James 1:2-4
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