America’s famous business entrepreneur and philosopher, Jim Rohn, says Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Week in week out, many ask our Boys what do they learn at the Boys’ Brigade. What keeps our Boys coming to regular Saturday activities ever since 1954?
Here’s an account by CPL Siow Cheng Liang, LCPL Au Kar Fei and PTE Wong Jin Weng on yet another meaning Saturday that was successfully carried out with the efforts of both Members and the Officers:
After a restless week of schooling day, here comes the Saturday that every Boy is longing for – to meet friends, to learn music, to have fun with the brothers and nonetheless, to learn more about His word!
At sharp 12:30pm, everyone fall-in under LCPL Yong Zhi Hui to do headcount and some briefing about the band. After that, everyone prepared and get ready for band and we did some warm up before our instructor arrives. At about one o’clock, our instructor came and he took over the band. With his guidance, we get to master some skills in music and we also get to master 50% of the new song that he has just handed to us few weeks ago.
When the clock strikes half-past-two, everyone got ready and fall-in under CPL Johnny Tham at the parade ground. The parade call was sounded and we began our required routine. Squad leaders and NCOs took the attendance and did the uniform inspection. Our officer of the day, WO Jason Tham opened a word of prayer for the members. We prayed for strength and attentiveness throughout the day and keep us safe from any harm through the day of activities.
In the meantime, when the seniors fall in for their parade , the juniors had their band at the canteen. LT Leong with some help from the squad leaders of the juniors sections and some boys from the senior section get those junior sited and handed them over to our instructor.
The programme then proceeded with Praise & Worship session. Everyone moved to the classroom for worship. The session was led by LCPL Au Kar Fei, with a back-up singer, PTE Kelvin Tham, a Cajon player, PTE Shane Teh and 2 guitarists, LCPL Leong Rong Fei and LT Jonathan Chan. We sang 3 songs: Blessed Be Your Name, Mengenal-Mu and How Great Is our God. We also sang the song: How Great Is Our God in mandarin version. It was a meaningful worship session after all.
After that, we proceed to our Bible study class. We were split into groups. Form 1s, 2s and 3s go into Mr. Yong Chang Hong’s class while the Form 4s and 5s go into CAPT Yee Mun Theam’s class.
In CAPT Yee’s class, he taught us about Pride and Humility. He taught us not to be proud negatively even when we achieve success in our life. Instead, we should be humble at all times. We went through quite some Bible verses in the bible about what God said about Pride and being Humble. For example, Proverbs 8:13, Proverbs 26:12, Romans 12:3, Matthew 20:20-28 and last but not least, our memory verse of the day:
James 4:6 – But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
Then, we separate everyone again to their respective Badgework Classes. Unfortunately, our CPL Wong Jin Zhao was absent that Saturday, Target Badge class was cancel. But, fortunately, the Form 1s, those who are in CPL Wong’s class went over to see our PTE Loi Kit Hoe’s Gold Award Presentation about ‘Recycling’. Meanwhile, the Communication Class for basics and advance is still going on as usual. LT Jonathan Chan took over the Basic’s class and the Advance Class was took over by WO Jason Tham. WO Jason Tham invited one of our ex-BB Officers, Mr. Terence Yap to give us a lesson on encoding and decoding special codes for the Advance Class. We find it very interesting and we’ve definitely learnt a lot from his class.
For the juniors, after they had ended their band. They proceed to Bible study after they pack the instrument and keep it back to the band room. At here junior with some guidance from officers and helper learned how to work together effectively and ensure effective communication in between as it is not an easy task to pack all the instrument for the junior.
After the Badgework Classes, all of us proceeded to the Basketball Court for Drill Session. The Drill Session was led by our Drill Officer, LT Jonathan Chan. The main purpose of this week’s Drill Session is to train up our alertness and concentration. The whole company was fall-in into a squad, and we do drill together. Our commander, CPL Johnny gave several commands on direction, marching and stopping. It included some wrong commands. We are to be alert and not to move if a wrong command is given. Half way through our drill session, the sky starts to rain. Despite it was a bad weather, we still do drill in the rain. LT Jonathan told us this: “Rain or shine, we will still continue.” We believe that this is a real good training for us to train up our concentration, alertness, physical endurance and true Christian Manliness. We absolutely get to improve a little from this training.
At 5:15pm, LT Jonathan ended our drill and let us go to change for games. This is certainly the best time in our weekly BB meetings. We changed quickly and proceed to our Games time. Auspiciously, the rain stopped! We get to go for outdoor games! 3 games were offered for us to play, either Football, Volleyball or Basketball. We had great fellowship time with our brothers playing together.
Finally at 6pm sharp, it’s time for us to be dismissed, all of us were fall-in under CPL Siow Cheng Liang’s command. A number of announcements were made by NCOs and Officers. We then proceeded with a final speech and announcement of the day by our captain, CAPT Yee. He once again encouraged us to sign-up and join the KL State ‘Bowl for Fund’ (Bowling Fund Raising Event) and encouraged us to bring our families and friends. He reminded us to clean the premises before we leave and also study well and do not spend too much time on entertainments. Captain then closed us with a word of prayer and we ended with the BB Vesper.
Every member had a fun and fruitful day after all. Finally, everyone packed up and go back to their respective home with a smiley face.
Our story doesn’t end here. Much more exciting activities are installed for the faithful Brigadiers coming Saturdays. And we want you to be part of this wonderful story! Join us this week at 12:30pm, Parish Hall.
See you there!