Unforgettable

I am back from the night trek! It has been a ‘Wow!’ experience!

The youths were divided into 3 groups, namely Pirates of the Griffin, Pirates of the Phoenix and Pirates of the Unicorn (my group). Their mission was to complete their map that will help them sail to “World’s End”.

The walk started from Friday 10pm to Saturday 8am. We began at the West Coast Park (where the 3 groups were to find their gold coins at the ‘Ghost Ship’), and from there proceeded on to Kent Ridge Park (where the youths did their solo walk on the bridge), Labrador Park (where the youths went on a scavenger hunt) and Vivo City (where the debriefing and processing of their experiences were done in the 3 groups).

The “World’s End” was actually Mount Faber. However, as there was lightning when we were about to set off from the Labrador Park, we decided to change our final destination to Vivo City instead, for safety reason.

The purpose of the night trek and its activities is to allow the youths to learn about choice-making. With every choice or decision you make, it comes with a price that you need to pay. If you want to make a better choice, you need to pay a bigger price and make more sacrifices (For example, delayed gratification). What kind of choices would they decide to make in their lives?

They could choose to exchange 2 gold coins for 1 piece of the map, or 5 gold coins for 7 pieces of the map. They could also choose to use the gold coins to exchange for snacks along the way (Hee….I was contemplating to use real coins to exchange for Kit Kat chocolate bars, but of course I was unsuccessful lah, because my beloved colleagues said ‘No!’).

This night trek is an unforgettable and memorable one for me personally. Other than this being my very first time in bringing a group of youths on a night trek expedition, here is also where:

I witnessed an incident where a youth became demon-possessed during the solo walk at Kent Ridge Park but was ultimately delivered;

I learnt that the phrase ‘Wear Shirt’ is a youth lingo which means joining a gang;

I witnessed puppy love blossoming among the youths within such a short time and

I realized that I seemed to have the ‘谈心事’anointing, as the different youths whom I walked with at different places will start sharing with me their ‘心事’ or secrets (A and B like C, but C like only B, A and B become angry with each other, B and C get together, D become very worried for A and at a lost of what to do when A cried over the phone…..their puppy love story is so complicated).

I was also privileged enough to hear a volunteer’s life story as he shared it with the youths in my group. He used to be involved in gang and drugs. He has been beaten up by his gang members before when he decided to leave the gang, and he also realized that these so-called ‘brothers’ never once visited him and were never there for him when he was in trouble. But he is a changed person now, studying in a tertiary institution and having a bright future ahead of him.

I will never forget the words which he said, “That time I find it very irritating, that the social worker who will not know what you are thinking and why you do the things you do, just barged into your life like that and nag nag nag. But when my family gave up on me and my school gave up on me, my social worker she never gave up on me. She fought very hard for me to have a place in school so that I could take my exam. That touched me at that point and I decided to go back to school to take my ‘O’ level exam." His words impacted me.