me a model?

A funny thing happened the other day. I was walking down Orchard Road when someone stopped me and offered me a modelling contract. Not strange enough? It gets weirder, let me rewind a bit to the beginning.

The theme for my Youth Camp this year was "Strangers in the World". It was inspired by the verses 1 Peter 2: 11 & 12: "Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of wrong doing, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." Simply put, it explore the theme of how Christians are suppose to lead lives markedly different from everybody else.

So in line with the theme, we did a recap of last year's highly successful Amazing Race with a twist - we called it the Strangest Race and instead of giving participants physical challenges to overcome on Pulau Ubin, we instead gave them emotional challenges by giving them tasks that involved puclic humiliation along Orchard Road. And as one of the organisers, I was tour guide to one of the teams.

And so it was that walking past Orchard MRT in our glaring attention-grabbing-and-utterly-embarrassing red t-shirts, we were approached by one of the many bystanders. He said, "would you all like to sign up with us for a modelling contract?"

I was speechless for a moment. The oldest of us was 29 and the youngest was 12, and none of us was particularly good looking. And after we had brushed him off, it led me to contemplate seriously, how desperate do these people get? I knew all about the scam: they approach you to be a model, and sell you a makeover package in the hope that some agency will pick you up. No guarantees. My fiancee gets approached all the time, and now I'm not impressed anymore. Seriously, how desperate do these people get, just to meet a quota?