Have You Awakened?

For many of us, faith can quietly become familiar.
Not abandoned, just comfortable.

We still show up, serve, and pray. But slowly, the meaning fades and it turns into another routine. This was something that AWAKENED, this year’s NUS ISCF annual camp, invited us to confront. We gathered in Johor Bahru, Malaysia over four days from 8 to 11 May 2026, for the first time in years, outside of Singapore.

The camp journeyed through five sessions such as identity in Christ and confronting sins that keep us from being AWAKENED. One of the impactful moments was where we sat in C. S. Lewis’ metaphor of the red lizard – a picture of sin we keep bargaining with, making excuses for, refusing to fully surrender. Many of us resonated with that story. But the session reminded us that surrender is not loss; it is the beginning of transformation in Christ.

We also had plenty of fun bonding activities as a community: from team games, thought-provoking discussions, to a night game of Among Us. Many of us ended up talking to people we did not know before. It was heartwarming to see everyone show up intentionally. Some taking time off internships, others crossing the border straight after office hours. In their own small way, it displayed what it looks like when God stirs something in someone’s heart.

We left JB carrying a question worth pondering: do we truly want to be filled by the Holy Spirit? It might sound like an easy yes. But being filled means being displaced. Where we take up less space, and He takes up more. Where our instincts, reactions, preferences, our daily lives are less driven by us and more surrendered to Him. That’s not a small ask. And perhaps that’s the challenge AWAKENED leaves all of us with.

— Laetisha Jane Vanjoo, NUS ISCF, Business, Year 4