Enrolment Service 2013! :D

Enrolment Service 2013 was held at Kampong Kapor Methodist Church (KKMC) on 21 April 2013. The Y1 recruits finally became privates and the Y2-4s got promoted too!

waiting in a back alley~

The Y1s also practised their enrolment item with the Levites leading the way.

And the ever-hardworking Shirim practising their tunes.

An hour later, we entered the church with high spirits. The marching in of the colours was done by Angeline, Isabel and Amy.

Eileen led worship where we sang ‘Refiner’s Fire’ and ‘Power of Your Love’.

Afterwards we watched a video on 45th’s activities in 2012, before Mrs Lee gave her report.

The officers, adult volunteers and us GB girls then renewed our pledges and dedicated ourselves to the company once again (except for the Y1s, who officially became GB girls!)

the officers and the adult volunteers saying their pledge

and the Y1s :)

The Y1s presented their enrollment item/offertory ‘One Way’ in front of the congregation.

After listening to the sermon by Rev Gabriel Liew and a word of prayer, we sang the hymns ‘Help Us Accept Each Other’. Remember that God will always love us :)

And of course, the marching out of the colours!~

The pipe organ then signalled a close to the service.

Now for the company photo…!

We returned to the back alley and sang our vesper to officially end our time together. But surely we can’t leave out all the crazy little pictures we take that make us 45th <3

seniors came back to visit!

levites

heralds

trinity 13~

batch 13 :o

oh? whozzat x)

Enrolment service was certainly meaningful and special for all of us, especially for the new privates. The memories will definitely last forever <3

Photo credit to:

• Jonathan Loh (Angeline’s brother)
• Chua Ying Xuan
• Winnie Chan
• Desiree Tay

Awards Day

The annual Girls’ Brigade Awards Day was held this year on 13 April in far-flung Anglican High. 12 of us represented 45th, mingling with representatives from the many other Singapore companies.

Members of the Girls’ Brigade were united in song as we sang the GB Hymn as well as other songs. It was an enjoyable and joyous occasion as many companies received awards and commendation for their hard work and service to community in 2012.

It was a proud moment for all of us as, up on stage, Mrs Lee received a bright shiny plaque - the Gold company award!

Bling! It’s so shiny you may get blinded.

Additionally, our five opportunistic Lance Corporals didn’t hesitate to fill themselves! Though it wasn’t exactly Daily Bread, it was good enough.

Last but not least, we were given the opportunity to see Le Ruth Lee in all her photographic beauty…! (; (her beauty may even be more dazzling than our company award)

Photo credit to:
Isabel See
Clara Keng

GB COMMUNITY QUEST 2013

This year, the Girls’ Brigade Headquarters organised a Community Quest for its annual competition. This event was held on 6 April at Temasek Polytechnic. Ten girls from our company volunteered to go. Later, five girls from Henry Park Primary School (43rd Company) joined our group as we embarked on a journey to learn more about the unfortunate in Singapore.

The aim of the Community Quest was for GB girls to learn more about the LENS (Lonely, Elderly, Needy, Special Needs) in Singapore by understanding their needs and difficulties they face and hence be able to empathise with them.

The general learning outcomes of these stations were:

Every Girl a Leader

• Each of us should take the responsibility and initiative to step up and lead when necessar are all leaders, but we will take up different roles at different times.

Teamwork is Important

• Even if we are leaders in our own right, we have to remember that we cannot do things on our own and need to work together to achieve any group task.
• Everyone is different and we have different strengths and weaknesses, we need to encourage the strengths and make the weaknesses redundant.

Choices have Consequences

• We all need to make choices and each choice has a consequence. Doing one thing may mean forgoing something else.
• We need to understands that the choices we make have an impact on other people.

Indeed, after participating in the activities, we have learnt these values and how we can apply them in future situations after completing the Community Quest.

One hour was set aside for the registration of the different companies, where different companies were possibly split up and placed into different groups. All ten of 45th Company, alongside five girls from 43rd Company (as mentioned earlier) formed Group 31

The event officially began at 9am with a briefing by the officers and an opening prayer. ‘Zones’ of ten groups were deployed to different stations. Descriptions of the six stations which our group attended are as follows.

Serve You Right highlighted the importance of healthy eating habits Using the Food Pyramid and a list of suggested foods, we had to plan a menu of all three meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) for a camp. Of course, we could not opt to put that tempting packet of fries in the menu! This planning skill would help somewhat when it comes to planning the meals in 45th’s camps; we should aim to provide nutritious meals.

Money Not Enough emphasised the differences between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’. We were presented scenarios of people from all walks of life, and we had to decide what they needed and did not need based on these scenarios. Identifying ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ allow for better prioritization of the use of money and is especially applicable to teenagers who have to save efficiently, as parents entrust more pocket money to them.

Wheel You Wheel Me? This station allowed us to understand the difficulties of moving around in a wheelchair. Some of us were asked to hold a tray of cups filled to the brim with water and sit on a wheelchair while being wheeled by our friends. Even though sitting in a wheelchair seems easy (and fun to some of us), it turned out to be a lot harder than expected. The drinks kept spilling and we had a hard time ensuring the cups were balanced.

VIPs stands for ‘Visually Impaired Persons’. With the information provided, we completed a quiz on the different states of visual impairment, and how Singapore is working towards being an inclusive society for these people. An example would be the special features on our currency notes. At the top right of the front of the note, the Braille code is printed in raised ink so visually handicapped users can recognise the different denominations by touch.

Dialect 101 taught us very basic dialect (Malay, Cantonese and Hokkien) so we could talk to the elderly much more effectively in the future, even without a common language. Indeed, the Community Quest was a prelude to ‘GB Friendship Day’, where GB befriends and serves the community, which the elderly is an integral part of. We played a game of ‘Telephone’; people in the line would recite the line in dialect, and the last person would write the English translation on a sheet of paper.

Misunderstood Minds helped us in understanding what people who has autism and dyslexia go through in daily life. Of Groups 31 to 40, the first half participated in the station about dyslexia while the second half participated in that of autism. We watched a video about the trouble dyslexics had in reading, which affected their learning, and proceeded to answer a quiz. Later, we read a passage the way dyslexics would read it. Different group members memorized different lines. We attempted to decipher the passage from there.

H! This station sought to highlight the larger numbers of foreign students in Singapore, with the ever-growing globalised world, to participants. These participants learnt basic Vietnamese and Tagalog. Group 31 did not participate in this activity due to time constraints.

Aside from the game stations, we could complete optional activities for bonus points. Such activities included looking for stickers in hidden spots and collecting a specific number of various items, like five pairs of spectacles and fifteen food wrappers, from fellow group mates.

After completing the tasks at the various stations, we had lunch, courtesy of the GBHQ. We were also given ‘blessing bags’ as souvenirs. These bags included a book titled ‘Have We Lost It? — Gracious Living’ by Mr Kevin Foo.

Mr Foo himself appeared to do a sharing of the book. He explained that there are many times when we do things without realising that others around us are affected by it. For example, for those who play a musical instrument, we often forget that others might be disturbed by the sound of it, and that we should shut our windows and door to minimise the sound that travels to other people’s houses.

Afterwards, everyone welcomed Mrs Tay Poh Imm, Guest of Honour of Community Quest 2013, which was the first of its kind. Mrs Tay gave a speech as per the customs of a GOH. She expressed her thanks to those who planned and executed the activity as “Without them, none of this would have been possible.”

The last part of the whole programme was the prize-giving ceremony, where every group was given prizes ranging from Bronze to Gold, based on the amount of points accumulated. Two groups won the ‘Champions’ prize for this year’s Community Quest, having accumulated the greatest amount of points (which was undisclosed to us). We closed Community Quest 2013 with the vespers, a custom for the end of every GB event.

It is God’s blessing that Group 31 won Gold, and that the members (including us representatives of 45th Company) got to pin badges of pink against gold on their our haversacks to mark this achievement. It is also God’s blessing that we were able to interact well with the five girls from Henry Park Primary School. They warmed up to us in no time at all and we were able to work together to complete the various tasks assigned to us.

We have learnt much from Community Quest 2013 and we hope GBHQ holds more of such events in the future. Our achievement aside, we also had takeaways from the event, and such takeaways would enrich our experiences in the future.

cute stickers the 45th girls got as souvenirs 

Photo credit to:
Chan Wei Ting

TGIGF 2013!

Thank God It’s Good Friday (TGIGF) 2013 was held on 30th March, Saturday at RGS. Organised by the Youth Ministry from Kampong Kapor Methodist Church, it was a time of much fun, with games such as soccer and captains’ ball. :)

The Year 2s and some Year 3s from 45th came together with Boys’ Brigade members from Raffles Institution and Victoria School for this event. The event commemorated Good Friday (which fell on 29th March) as we gathered to mark the occasion. It was certainly a fun and meaningful time for all of us! :)

batch’15 at TGIGF :)

Photo credit to:
Hannah Tan

March Camp 2013

45th GB’s March Camp was held on 18 - 20 March 2013 at Praisehaven Salvation Army. It was a great time of fellowship and fun, as all camps are, and all of us really enjoyed ourselves. The place holds fond memories for the Year 4s, who were the organizers of the camp, since they had their very first camp at the exact same place.

The camp was about how God’s grace is always sufficient for us, even in times of weakness. An amazing coincidence (or maybe not so after all) was that the entire camp was really put together and run by God’s grace! On both days only right after we stepped into the confines of Salvation Army, did it start pouring!

Dividing our camp into 3 sections for each day:

Day 1 ( Monday 18 March )

We started off the camp with icebreakers (surprise surprise) where everyone got to know each other better through silly games like chicken fight where we had steadied ourselves on one leg and went around trying to make the other campers lose their balance - may the best ‘chicken’ win.

We also played the Name game where we had to form an object in a category using the first letter of our name with other campers. Obviously, when it came to ‘colours’, many ‘red’ groups surfaced.

Of course, with any game comes forfeits. Below is the circle of poor souls who couldn’t find others to form a word with and thus ended up being melted the ultimate punishment of being tickled for 30 seconds.

After which, we got to know our groups a bit better, laughed over our weird group names together (cordycep, lingzhi, ginseng and abalone to name a few) and shared our expectations for this camp.


group games: playing blow wind blow with shoes as markers

Following which, our J1 seniors came back to teach us the GB hymn, “Comrades are we in the Girls’ Brigade” while Levites taught the company the theme verse song for the year! Now we’re sure we will be able to memorize the theme verse by heart, won’t we? (the answer is of course a resounding yes).

We then had lunch and our amazing race at a secret location: Hortpark! Although the park was as hot as its name suggested, the campers all kept up their spirits and participated in the station games enthusiastically, amusing all the station mistresses with funny group cheers (as you would expect with the funny group names) and earning points for their efforts


bowling blindfolded


stacking cans blindfolded


bird’s nest’s group cheer


royal jelly’s group cheer


our teachers joining in the fun too


abalone posing for bonus points


looking for the zoomed-in objects as a group

Our night programme was watching the movie: Letters to God. It was really sad (as we could tell from everyone sniffling away) and inspiring at the same time how a boy stricken with cancer could trust so much in God! Our chaplain, Ms Sandra, kindly provided us with popcorn and potato chips to add to the movie atmosphere. But of course, some people only had eyes for Ben (the main character’s brother).

Day 2 ( Tuesday 19 March )

The day started with a hike down to Dairy Farm Quarry! For our little juniors, it was definitely an eye-opener as many of them have never been to the quarry before. The magnificent rock structure and the closeness to nature set the atmosphere for a wonderful time of worship as we sang praises to the Lord for all his creation.


off to the quarry!

“Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing, power and majesty, praise to the King. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of your name.” “Saviour, he can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save; he is mighty to save!”

Pastor Gabriel from KKMC also came down for a short time of sharing and some magic tricks to illustrate how we need God’s grace in our lives.

We had a picnic at the quarry with our squads and it was a wonderful time of bonding over bread and tuna (and baked beans and lettuce and cheese and ants), as we took many photos to remember the occasion.

As the weather was getting really hot, we changed schedule and 45th found themselves in a story: they have a new ruler who wants to count a census of her people and thus they have to make their way to a castle (Salvation Army) (which they were supposed to pretend they lost the way to), with many arduous tasks organized by the evil subordinates (the group leaders). And thus we began the hike back


counting beans: a test of patience (~1000 of them)


oolong tea station which people were supposed to find bitter. supposed

After that, we split up into our squads for Squad time:


phileo in their dorm.

Then came the event everyone looks forward to - Night Surprise! The Year 4s dressed up as dolls from Cluedo tasking the company to find out who the culprits of a horrible crime were. The company went around the dorms to visit the characters who all put up a short act and set them tasks. This ranged from picking up nice-smelling items or dangerous weapons (some people actually picked up plastic bags) to ballroom dancing (some more even attempted the Gangnam Style as a ballroom dance) and we’re sure everyone had a whale of a time being scared at one moment and the next moment breaking out in a fit of laughter.


stars of the show

Day 3 ( Wednesday 20 March )

We started off the last day of camp with an unique activity led by Ms Sandra during devotions: one brave and fearless volunteer from each group had to spend a considerably long amount of time wrapped up - blindfolded and body-bound - in a sleeping bag. It was indeed comical to see 8 jumping caterpillars rolling all over the floor. Meanwhile, the rest of the group designed butterfly wings for their (un)fortunate groupmate.

Finally, it was time. The “caterpillars” were allowed to wriggle out of their cocoons and emerge - as beautiful butterflies! Well, after her groupmates attach the wings they designed ;)

Of course, all good things come to an end and we waved our goodbyes :’( But not before taking a company shot!

This camp would not have been possible without everyone and we would really like to thank them for making this camp amazing.

Ex-GB seniors: Thank you for taking the time off your busy schedules to help chaperone the day activities so we had enough “adult” supervision as well as helping us carry things and teaching us the GB hymn!

Mrs Lee, Ms Ling, Ms Sandra, Pastor Gabriel, Mr Liew: Thank you for facilitating our March Camp and helping vet through the proposals as well as staying up late with March Camp OT for debrief sessions. Thank you for all the food that you have provided for us as well - we appreciate it greatly. Thank you for also accompanying us to the quarry and showing us magic tricks or even helping with the audio system for us to watch a movie!

Sec Fours: Thank you for planning March Camp and making it great and staying up later/waking up earlier to make changes in the schedule! It was an amazing journey and we all really enjoyed March Camp :)

Sec Threes & Twos: Thank you for being good seniors to the rest of the company while the sec fours were busy and teaching them cool group cheers and being so enthusiastic about everything even when it was hot.

Sec Ones: We hope you liked your first 45th GB camp! Thank you for being such a joy to the rest of the company and actively participating in group activities.

And the camp verse which you should all know by (tune) now-

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12: 9

Photo credit to:
Isabel See
Desiree Tay
Ong Yi Wei
Arielle Ngin
Ms Sandra
Selene Ong
Nadine Quah

85th Anniversary Thanksgiving Service

We had our 85th Anniversary Thanksgiving Service together as GB Singapore on the 17th of November 2012, relating to the theme of “Five Loaves and Two Fishes”! Companies from all over Singapore gathered at Jurong East Sports and Recreation Center to give thanks for all we’ve had and done this year. While the rain poured down mercilessly outside, the atmosphere inside the hall was electrifying as we sang songs, watched performances and listened to speeches. The session concluded with us writing notes with our thanksgiving items for the year and singing songs as a big GB Singapore family :D

Farewell Party 2012

Farewell Party 2012 for batch’12 was held on the 1st of November at the Unfailing Light, part of Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. Organised by batch’14 to the theme of “Retro Style”, it was an enjoyable time for all (including some jc seniors who graced the occasion)! :)

The farewell party started promptly at 2pm when batch’12 made their ~grand~ arrival! 

45th has a new pastor for our company! Pastor Liew made his first speech for the company with some very cool magic tricks :D Sadly 45th also had to say goodbye to (another) Mr Liew as he moves on to another church… In this picture, the squad heads for 2013 say a few words to Mr Liew on behalf of all of us.

The first item up was by batch’15! A dance choreographed to a parody of Katy Perry’s Fireworks…

and a video with messages, both made specially for batch’12!

Next up was batch’13’s batch item! Based on High School Musical, it was sure a great laugh with the many faces of batch’12 fitted into the pictures and an ending dance.

Sticking closely to the theme of “Retro Style”, batch’14 put up an item entitled “Disco Party” where they choreographed a dance! The rest of the company then had to follow a step-by-step video guide to learn the dance as well.

After the 3 batch items prepared specially for batch’12, we settled down to food and squad time! Presents for the graduating batch were given out and the different batches got to bond over food :D

After squad time, batch’12 put up a surprise item for the company as they sang, played the keyboard and the guitar! :)

Lastly, pictures were taken to mark this memorable occasion. Nice picture there, batch’12!

While the farewell party may be over, we’ll never forget you, batch’12! :) Thank you for being such wonderful seniors!

gb at national day

Community singing was lead by the sec threes and sec fours this year for RGS’ national day celebrations. Here are some screenshots of their debut:

Also, a good job to the sec twos and threes who formed the national day parade contingent and did 45th proud!

handover 2012

handover from exco’12 to exco’13 was conducted on 23rd of July, with quite a few seniors from jc gracing the occasion. small gifts and words were exchanged with the official passing of the torch of 45th.

trinity ‘12, with faces all solemn, revealing trinity 2013…

Angeline (chair), Isabel and Amy! Also affectionately known as AIA. As you can see, they have rather hilariously provided tiny chairs for their predecessors. There is a weight limit though. Oops.

Trinity ‘13 presents their own photos as a gift. Obviously, they have a not-so-secret desire to be famous one day.

And now, for your 2013 squad heads…

From left to right: Heralds, Phileo, Levites, Agape, Gideon
Top row: Squad heads 2012 with their new shirts from their successors: Kimberly, Ruthanne, Ruth, Yunwen, Mindy
Bottom row: Squad heads 2013: Desiree, Samantha, Eileen, Arielle, Veronica. There are also known as SAVED (try rearranging their names and you will see!)

Heralds passes the umbrella of past squad heads down, amidst cries of horror of the bad luck it will bring being opened indoors.

Phileo squad heads exchange notes with photos attached!

Ruth (Levites Squad Head 2012) passes a disc of guitar chord sheets to Eileen (Levites Squad Head 2013)…

…who proceeds to clutch it to her chest protectively.

The new queen of ABC (also known as Agape Bimbo Club) is officially promoted to her position with a crown. Nice shades.

The new Gideon squad head is presented with a jar of “everlasting love”. (What Veronica’s thinking: “uh … are you sure …” *laughs uneasily*)

A rather un-subtle hint from the Quarter Mistresses of 2012 for the new QMs, Yiwei and Jessalyn, to make cleaning the GB room their fast task.

Faith, treasurer of 2013, receives chocolate which will simulate her brain to help her count money fast and quick! (hopefully). 

Yiwei’s drum major 2013, who receives the band instructor’s number as her gift. Call me maybe? Text me maybe? She then happily proceeds to tell Zhixin (drum major 2012) that the rest of the gifts are in her… neopets account. On a side note, the pipe major for 2013 is Angeline, as continued from last year.

The event, as you can guess, ended with hugs,
hugs,
 
and even more hugs…

 

We’ll miss Exco’12, you were amazing :( but we all know that Exco’13 will definitely be able to step into their new roles and lead GB as wonderfully as Exco’12 did :)

june discipline camp 2012

From the 19th to the 21st of June, RGS served as the venue of 45th GB’s annual June camp. June camp serves not only as a ‘boot camp’ to instill discipline and maintain standards in 45th, it also acts as a time for us to prepare ourselves for the rigors of the term ahead. In the midst of all this, we also use this time to bond, not forgetting the Ohana love that we have for one another.

This year’s overall camp theme was “Peace in the Storm” and was further divided into “trusting”, “smiling” and “caring” in the storm for each respective day of camp. We learnt that, with Christ in the vessel, we can weather all storms that life throws at us - assurance, comfort and encouragement that strengthened us for the impending semester. Extra cookies for the Year 3s, who made this camp such a success! (8

Day 1 (19th June, Tuesday)

7am, and we were assembled at the school’s parade square, dressed in full uniform and polished boots. Soon after, we got acquainted with our groups, followed by a time of icebreakers and Company Games.

Before the initiation of the chicken butt forfeit, our victims look heavenwards for divine intervention.

In the afternoon, our groups set off on the Amazing Race around the Circle Line.

The Great Eight, caught doing something indeterminate.

Existing bonds were strengthened even as new ones were forged!

Nighttime brought with it Night Surprise… and its seven sins.

The perpetrators - unmasked! It’s the Queens of Greed!

Is our captain scared, too?!
Indeed, Night Surprise surely ended Day 1 with a bang.

Day 2 (20th June, Wednesday)

Excitement was brewing as Day 2 was the day of the inter-squad drill competition.

Early in the morning, Gideon and Levite Year 2s form an informal boot polishing factory.

Hours of drilling and uniform checks within the squads culminated in the inter-squad drill comp. Congratulations to Gideon, Heralds and Levites for coming in first, second and third places respectively! Everyone performed spectacularly.

As dusk approached, the much-awaited Outdoor Cooking took place.

The next activity was the Spiritual Activity, in which we grasped the meaning of “peace in the storm”.

Giving up doesn’t mean losing. It means entrusting all your problems and troubles to God, for His load is easy and His burden light.

Finally, the day ended with much feasting and joy as we celebrated the birthdays of the twins, Ms Sandra, the June babies and our captain herself.

We were very kindly blessed with an apple strudel each per squad, courtesy of Ms Sandra.

In addition, we also had durians - and lots of mischief.

Tired, full, and noisy, we finally retired to our sleeping bags. Day 2 proved to be more than just another day at a discipline camp with all the precious memories we made.

Day 3 (21st June, Thursday)

Unfortunately, good things come to an end and June Camp came to a close with area cleaning and the captain’s debrief.

mildly amusing photos:

No prizes for guessing who the blob in the foreground is.

Group 6’s tribal dance dedicated to June.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 4:7