TDTY - Pursuit '97

11 years of Pursuit... the memories of it still keep coming back...

Pursuit camps were always organized during mid-August to take advantage of the extra-holiday... I can still remember how I reached my school with a bag, and afraid of not knowing none at the camp, and was walking towards the canteen, and soon I was greeted by Peter Banerjee, Venkat Uncle and with introductions, soon everyone was pals...

Ice-breaker, yes, it was there that I heard that word the first time!!! Uncle John Samuel did it for us, it was the rabbits chasing game.. and everyone just loved it... I got to know some really really amazing people, Anita Paul, Benita Paul, Christina Dhas, Peter Banerjee, Abhishek Gier, Corrie Susan, Judy, Alfred Allan, Rajeev, Celestina, Christina Rayalu, Sherry Thomas, Jerry William, Abhy, Moses, Prashanti so many... I can't just forget it!

Thanks to Evangelical Union (EU), I got introduced through Venkat Uncle & Lata Aunty; Mrs. Parrot & Mr. Sahayam few years before that, and that's how I got to do Pursuit '97.

The first day session by Uncle Gier, and the following discussions with Anita, two by twos with Judy, Alfred (our friendship is in the skies), and the last day session where Prasanna Kumar uncle asked us all to share our learnings, and man, everyone was sinking in grace of God, and each could feel the Spirit stirring our hearts...

I still remember how Christina, Myself used to take walk in the night beyond norms, and share how God's helping hand is with us... Throughout the camp, if I could say something it's only that we were soaking in the love of God. No cares of what was outside the school walls, no news from outside world, nothing... And, guess what, we had camp parents... and... at the end of the camp, no one wanted to leave the school campus, no one wanted to leave each other... That's how bonded we got. Perhaps, we got a taste of what heaven is!

But, that's not what God made us for, right? He wanted us to go out and share the love... so we all dispersed from the camp, we again had a camp follow-up meeting at the same place, most turned up, few didn't. A few among them including me, Christina, Jerry, Rajeev, Celestina/Christina, Benita became committee members and led few camps following the same theme Pursuit for couple of years. I even had the opportunity to go for Committee Members Training Camp (CMTC), with Amit Paul Kerketta in Kotagiri where only handful from across India get to go... till I got into graduation and soon I became too (conspicously) busy in other things...

That one camp, was such a gateway to so many opportunities of learning, and most of all to grow in the knowledge of the love of Christ, that I cannot ever forget it! Perhaps, more than my formal education, that's by far, one of the greatest milestones to my life!

What's Pursuit '97?
While still studying at Faith Academy, Prasad Nagar, it was my first Evangelistic Camp I ever attended in my life. I just passed into XII, and had only joined this school a year ago. Haven't really gelled well with the folks around, except for few... My best friends Satish & Vishnu had left Delhi; had it not been for Krishna, I would've been very lonely then...

Thanks to God's abounding grace to provide me more than friends, and worthy purpose to use me in some manner for His glory in those days... Pursuit '97 has been a great blessing in my life! It keeps me amazed, how God, in his grace, keeps me loving a wretch like me... and I just can't help, but fall in love with him over and over and over again!!!