Camaraderie

https://odb.org/MY/2021/10/06/teaming-up

When my father was posted back to the West Coast after 10 years in the East Coast as a teacher, he took up scouting at the new school. Even though I was very young then, maybe standard two or three, my father will bring me along for his scouting activities although I was studying in a different school. I can’t remember exactly but I think in my own school, you can only join the scouts from standard four or five onwards. What I do recall from scouting during those years (later I also joined the scouts in my own school) was the camaraderie that we had as a unit when doing things together. Whether marching, handling crowd control during sports day, setting up camp or cooking, we all did things together and the sense of togetherness was very strong.

I feel this is what we missed most during the pandemic. Even at work, when a group of us closed a contract to move on to the implementation of a project, even on the successful implementation of that project – the feeling of having achieved something together is there but not as strong. It is different when we are physically present gathered in a room or working together in the field to achieve a certain goal.

Paul taught in 1 Thessalonians 5:15 that as believers we ought to strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. In verse 11, he exhorted us to encourage one another and build each other up. In verse 12, he suggested that we should acknowledge those who work hard among us, who care for us in the Lord and who admonish us. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work and live in peace with each other (verse 13).

I feel the first thing we should all do as a church or cell group is to take on a project together to rebuild the camaraderie among us, to restore the togetherness. This will certainly lead to us encouraging and building us all up, living in peace with one another as we work hard to achieve something meaningful for Christ. It can be a project or activity to help those displaced by the pandemic or just being there with those who had lost someone due to the same or as a result of something else. Let’s all start working together again for the sake of everyone. Let’s all do what is good for each other and for everyone else. It can be an activity to feed the poor or to visit a village in the interior. James had advised faith without works is dead (James 2:26). Let’s start doing good works together as a church and cell group once we have more freedom when the MCO restrictions are lifted as the pandemic turns into an endemic!