CF Lunch 2009

18th of September proved to be a very much anticipated day. And there were no disappointments. That day, which was a Friday and a holiday, was boiling with excitement with the prospect that organizers have chosen it for THE CF Lunch. And I was there to witness it ALL.

On that sweet, sweet day I woke up at 9.30a.m. Thinking it was another boring day, I went back to sleep but merely moments after that, I jumped out bed like someone had transfigured my mattress into a crocodile. (So sorry for the exaggeration.)
"I have to go to Weng Hiong at 10.30!!!" screamed my conscience. I would be ushering later during the Lunch on this fine, sunny day. So, as were the same with many CF members, I was told to come for a little “briefing” and preparation at 10.30a.m.
Immediately I put on my glasses to see my room come into focus. I rushed to the toilet and did the things I normally did. Let’s skip this part.

My sister and I arrived not all that happy but well, to see people leaning on the balcony outside the restaurant. Apparently, nothing serious was taking place. Still, we rushed upstairs, to find the AJKs huddled together, discussing nothing else but the lunch due later.

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Everyone is busy preparing

It rained earlier, but thanks to the prayers of the CF members and God, it stopped.

The lunch was going to start half an hour from now. The worship team were rehearsing and several people were had arrived. A few people were taking the opportunity to take some before-lunch-photos. So far, so good. Though the LCD had some problems with the spelling, and people were having headaches over the attendance, we still had time…

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I was holding my own list of attendees when people started coming in.

“Welcome to CF Lunch 2009, what is your name?”

I must have looked weird. With pen and paper in hand to tick the names of the arrivals, and my camera stuck in my pocket while I kept pulling my slightly loose pants up, I don’t want to know what he was thinking then.

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Finally I went back to my table (table 8) that had exchanged places with table 23 earlier for some reason. Chatted with some friends and snap a few photos. Okay, out of my world. Time to tell what happened.

First, it started off with the worship which I missed due to the constant flow of people arriving. Next were the speeches by Mr Wong Kam Piew (of course), Jonathan the former president of Christian Fellowship and finally Pn. Choo. She gave a good speech and I hope that there were people listening for the seed to be planted in them because I know quite a few people who weren’t. Then Mr Leong, the former headmaster of Bukit Mewah prayed for the food.

At long last, the food came. Not with the dull munching sounds of food being consume, of course. There were games and activities carried out to accompany the food. And the masters of ceremony were very good. Stephanie Liew and Gopinath Nambiar, who had been preparing for weeks, went up the stage and lightened up the place straight away. Well, there were quite a few activities. First, the hosts asked questions regarding the pictures that were shown by the LCD, for example: “What was so and so wearing in the picture?” or “How many people are there in this picture?” The pictures were of course, not shown when these questions were asked. There was another fun game called “How big is your hand?” Don’t get the expression that they were going to measure your hand. It was pretty much similar to earlier game - asking questions and whoever answers correctly gets to grab with ONE hand as many sweets and snacks from a big box full of that rubbish. So, many people came and went taking as much as they can with one hand. Then Praveen who had thought outside the “box” come and gave it a shot. He answered the question correctly and instead of inserting a hand into the box, he just grabbed the whole box. Problem is, he had to use both hands. Bad luck, Praveen. Anyway, at least he wasn’t disqualified, but had a nice share of sweets and snacks thanks to his big hand. The hosts continued asking all kinds of questions as the prizes kept on changing with the people answering. There was also two prizes that were cakes shaped to be a dresses with a plastic doll planted in. Mr. Wong got a cake him self, too. One of the cakes unfortunately, went to a different use. I’ll come to that soon. Well, one table among more than 30 tables was livelier. This table, which seated Andrew, Carolyn, Aravinthan, James, Hannah, Clement, Shakilun and other fun people had sparkling wine (special thanks to one of them who brought it) and did a loud “ Yam Seng”. Remember the cake? This was the table which put the doll cake to another “use”. Well, James actually started it by putting some cream on Andrew’s face and I think you can guess what happened next. Their faces were not full of cream though (how thoughtful…), though each went to the toilet to clean the innocent cream off their faces.

The happy and eventful lunch finally ended. The CF members had a nice, oversize-family-like photo taken together before everyone went home.

I want to thank everyone who helped in the lunch. Your efforts are really appreciated. I just cannot wait till the next lunch a year later…it is a really wonderful feeling for different people from different religions to come together to fellowship and hopefully, learn about God. Thanks to everyone who attended CF Lunch, you made it HOT!!