Following the Green Hunt organised by the Creation Justice Ministry (CJM), a participant has shared a personal testimony reflecting on the experience and the unexpected lessons encountered along the journey.
The testimony is reproduced below in the participant’s own words:
It was really a very strange call when I felt that God was asking me to accompany the Greenfield team during the Treasure Hunt organized by CJM. I did not fully understand why I had been placed with this particular team, but like a lamb, I simply followed the voice. I trusted that if God was asking something of me, there must be a reason, even if I could not comprehend it at that moment.
The team consisted of a young married couple and two elderly people. As we began our journey, I found myself seeing and experiencing many things, although I was not able to understand everything fully. I was waiting at every junction to direct the team towards the next route. They kept asking me whether they were far behind the other teams, and I kept telling them, “Yes, you are.” In reality, I knew that they were actually ahead of many of the other teams, but I did not want to give them that comfort. Perhaps the teacher in me was at work. I wanted them to remain focused and continue doing their best rather than becoming too comfortable.
Then came the part of the journey that was most difficult for me — we had to take the LRT to reach the next route.
I had never travelled to a new place by LRT on my own without Fr Andrew or someone I knew accompanying me. I have always felt uncomfortable inside a moving train, especially when I am unfamiliar with the place. Yet, strangely, that day I did not feel nervous when I entered the train. Perhaps I was so focused on taking photographs and making sure that I did not miss the precious moments God had prepared for me that I simply forgot about my usual fears.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly until something unexpected happened.
When we were approaching Kelana Jaya, the four members of the team did not get down when they were supposed to. They were still standing inside the train, facing the other side, completely unaware that the other teams had already alighted. I was on the opposite side of the train. I immediately began calling, “Father! Father!” but he did not hear me.
It was strange because it seemed almost as though there was a huge echo blocking my voice. I kept trying to reach them and alert them, and eventually I managed to get their attention. We hurried towards the door and managed to get down at the correct station only a few seconds before the doors closed.
It was such a narrow escape.
For a moment, everyone was shaken.
The elderly participant was so grateful that I had noticed what was happening and kept thanking me for alerting the team. The young married couple were also very grateful that the team had managed to avoid the problem. But I did not pay much attention to their gratitude. My mind was elsewhere.
I kept wondering, “Why didn’t Father hear me?”
Perhaps everyone had been so deeply focused on solving the clues that they simply did not notice what was happening around them. Perhaps the noise of the train had drowned out my voice. I do not know.
But what stayed with me was the fact that I had noticed the danger and acted in time.
I also wondered why Father did not say anything afterwards. Perhaps he was still shaken by what had happened. I did not pursue the matter. I simply dropped the whole experience and continued taking photographs.
The journey went on.
As we approached the final destination, the Church of St Ignatius, my steps began to slow down. I was tired, but I continued walking with them. And somewhere along that final stretch, I found myself saying quietly to God:
“God, I have done my best.”
I still did not know why He had placed me there with that particular group. I did not know why I had been asked to accompany them. I did not understand everything that I had seen throughout the journey.
But perhaps I did not need to understand everything.
I had simply followed.
Like a lamb, I had followed the call.
I never thought I would be able to get onto an LRT and travel through an unfamiliar route without Fr Andrew or someone familiar beside me. Yet I did it. I never thought I would be able to remain calm inside the moving train, but I did. I never thought I would be the one to notice that the team was about to miss their station. I never thought I would have the courage and presence of mind to reach them and alert them only seconds before the doors closed.
But I did.
Looking back, perhaps those were the precious moments God had prepared for me.
Maybe the treasure was not simply reaching the final destination or completing the Treasure Hunt. Perhaps the real treasure was discovering something within myself that I had never seen before — that when God asks me to walk with Him, I am capable of much more than I think.
I had entered the journey without knowing why.
I walked through unfamiliar places.
I crossed junctions.
I entered a train that I normally would have been afraid to travel in alone.
I watched over the people entrusted to my care.
I acted when something needed to be done.
And eventually, I arrived at the church.
Perhaps God did not need me to understand the entire journey. Perhaps He only needed me to be willing to take the next step.
At every junction, I was given the next direction.
At every unexpected moment, I was given the grace to respond.
And at the end of it all, I could only say:
“God, I have done my best.”
Maybe that was the treasure.
Not something I found along the route, but something God quietly revealed to me about trust, courage and obedience.
Sometimes God does not explain the journey before we begin. He simply asks us to walk.
And perhaps the precious moments are found precisely there — in those moments when we realise, “I never thought I could do this… but somehow, with God, I did.”
