The TRAC Methodist Seniors Fellowship held their 18th Annual Camp from 10th – 13th March, 2009 at the Bayu Beach Resort, Port Dickson. The Seremban MSF chapter was selected to host this camp because it was the only MSF chapter in the southern district that had yet to host such an event. Coincidentally, it might interest you to know that the first such camp was held in 1992 at the Port Dickson Methodist Centre, as we were informed by Mr. Peter Fung, a former TRAC MSF President. So holding this camp once again in Port Dickson was a homecoming of sorts for the MSF. In choosing the venue the Local Planning Committee had to bear in mind the cost in relation to food and accommodation as well as its suitability for seniors.

The Local Planning Committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Michael Goh and his team did a splendid job of organizing this camp, which in my view was by far the most challenging and difficult to organize, in terms of logistics, program and participation by chapters. A total of 12 chapters participated in this camp. Our Singapore counterpart from the Glowing Years Ministry (GYM) also sent a delegation of 22 people. In the past, they used to come in one or two busloads. The smallest chapter was from Taiping with 1 participant and the largest was, of course the host chapter, Seremban, 36 participants. We were also pleasantly surprised with the participation of 8 seniors from Johor Baru Wesley Methodist Church, which has yet to form an MSF chapter. It has been the hope of TRAC MSF to see a new chapter being formed in J.B. Wesley. As usual there were more new faces each time around and this speaks well for our camps. We had
approximately 170 participants this year although at our recent camps the attendance had never fallen below 250. Perhaps the global economic down-turn might have also taken a toll on our annual camp.

Since Port Dickson had practically no tourist spots of interest the organizers had to plan for activities such as ‘telematches’ and ‘karaoke’ sessions and line dancing to keep the participants occupied. As it turned out, these activities proved to be very entertaining to all who participated in them. Our seniors really showed their hidden talents at the Karaoke and Fellowship nights.

Besides the fun and fellowship there was also a talk on Diabetes, a panel discussion on “Road Map of the Methodist Church in Malaysia for the next 20 years” and also a promotional presentation on the work of “Persatuan Berdikari Seremban Negeri Sembilan”. One of the most important activity at the Camp was the AGM as well as the election of office bearers for TRAC MSF which proceeded very smoothly, under the supervision of Rev Hwa Jen. We welcome the re-election of brother Daniel Chan for the post of President and also other members, including some new faces, to the new Board of Management.

The theme speaker for the camp was Rev Khoo Cheng Hoot, pastor of the Hakka Methodist Church, Singapore. He spoke at the opening worship service led by the chapter from KL Wesley and also at the following two morning worship services. Judging from the results of the evaluation of the camp, it was without a doubt that his three messages were well received by all present. His messages for the three days were, “Renewed Day by Day”, “Methodist Covenant Discipleship”, and “The Best Is Yet To Be” in that order. The closing worship was led by the Seremban chapter with the TRAC President, Rev Ong Hwai Teik, bringing the message “The Life That God Blesses”. He also conducted the service of installation of the newly elected MSF Board members and the Holy Communion for all present. The offering taken during the closing service was designated for the Sengoi Kindergarten development in Kampar. With Rev Ong’s closing message, it brought a fitting close to the camp – with all returning home feeling renewed and recharged to take up the challenge to do God’s work among the seniors.

Michael Goh
Chairman, Planning Committee