30 Apr & 1 May: Momentum 2014

Last week, we had 1 public holiday - Labour Day on 1 May. However, it wasn't much of a public holiday for me because it felt like I was still at work! Why? We attended the Momentum 2014 conference organised by Love Singapore. It was held at Suntec Convention Centre Level 6, on Friday evening 7:30 to 10pm and Saturday 9am to 6pm.

I was stuck at work on Friday evening and rushed to meet Eliz and Shu at Suntec. We gobbled down the yummy mushroom swiss burger and Hershey's sundae pie at Burger King - 2 things I REEEAAALLLY like.

It was all the more delicious because Burger King is difficult to find in places I frequent in Singapore (i.e. home, church, work, heh heh). So it was a little rushed, but I was soooo happy to get to eat the sundae pie after such a loooong time.

We were fashionably late, entering the auditorium at about 8pm, half an hour late. Worship had ended and the first speaker, Dr Jennifer Moore, was already into her message.

After Dr Moore came US pastor and speaker Jim Garlow. I really liked the pace at which he went, giving us the history of the development in US of LGBT activism and how he approached it. 

Basically, I really appreciated how the 2 US speakers were so honourable in honouring our time and keeping strictly to their time slots. They couldn't start on time, but they made it a point to end on time.

The next day, He Li fetched Joanne, Eliz, Shu and myself to Suntec. We parked at Raffles Hotel because it was parking at $6 per entry as compared to Suntec's public holiday rates of something like $1.60 per hour (I think I've stated Suntec's charges wrongly, but it's around there). By the time we entered the auditorium after meeting up with Bernice, Amanda and Randy, again, we were fashionably late by half an hour.

Pastor Khong was way too longwinded and completely ate into the time of Jim Garlow, to my great anguish and disappointment. And what made it worse was that the sound system chose to give problems at that point in time, so Jim Garlow ended up speaking only for 15 minutes. FIFTEEN MINUTES?! Seriously.

Of course, Jim Garlow ended on time. Dr Moore also ended on time. The pastor from Hong Kong was short and succinct. But the pastor from Taiwan went on and on and on, WAY too long such that he was losing the impact he had on people, eating into the lunch hour (1 miserable hour) by half an hour.

By the time we were seated with our food at Carl's Junior (Randy's request), it was 2pm. The next session was supposed to start at 2:15.

By the time we were done eating and got back to the auditorium, it was about 2:50pm. The afternoon sessions were only just beginning.

I was most impressed with this first session of the afternoon - a discussion led by Prof Thio Li-Ann with 4 of her present/former Law students from NUS who are Christians. As my peers, they were impressive with their confidence and conviction as they spoke out the Word of God and shared their testimonies on dealing with LGBT and all issues that stemmed out of or were related to it. It was great inspiration to me - that I can stand up like that too, be grounded in the Word and move in the Holy Spirit to speak His truth into this world of carnality.

The next few sessions were interesting but... still disappointing. Because they robbed time from Jim Garlow. I think our US speakers Jim Garlow and Jennifer Moore should have been given afternoon slots too. They flew aaaaallll the way from the US!!! How often do we get to hear them???!!! Grrr... This is a REALLY sore point with me... haha.

We left early - before the Q&A session between Lawrence Khong, Jim Garlow and Jennifer Moore ended, before communion or declaration - we decided to leave. We ended up taking group shots in an open area of Raffles Hotel that had a water fountain that Eliz wanted a photo with.

We left Raffles Hotel and headed to Serangoon Nex for dinner. He Li dropped us off before heading home to do work. The 4 of us wanted to eat at Din Tai Fung but ended up at this Chinese retaurant named Hong Guo or something like that when we saw the huuuuuge crowd waiting to enter Din Tai Fung. It was a fun time eating very Chinese Chinese food.

We then ended the night with Anderson's ice-cream where the conversation was mainly focused on the youth ministry and I basically just listened in just as a chance to keep somewhat in touch with what was going on in the youth ministry, in particular, the tertiary zone.

Then I took the bus home. And it was time to wash up, sleep, and wake up the next day for work:/