My last weekend in Durham I spent packing up my room. There was so much stuff to pack, and on top of it, I had to pack for my travels home! Finally, on Sunday night, I went to bed in a very empty room. I had trouble sleeping as I was really excited--I was off to summer camp the next day! <> As I said, I was really excited. At 4:30 am my alarm went off and I got ready to go to the airport. Malcolm, a friend from church, and I were catching an early flight from Newcastle to Southampton. Disappointingly, 'camp' didn't start at 4:30 am as I felt it would. Nor did it start at 7:00 am when we boarded our flight or 8:30 am when we landed. I was still really excited and just couldn't wait for things to get started!
Finally, we made our way to the town of Lymington where we met all the other leaders and got ready for the onslaught of members (read campers) the next day. The sight was pretty awesome to begin with; it was a boarding school for 5-13 year old children just south of the New Forest. Posh is one word to describe it. Even though it was a boarding school, I found myself sleeping on the floor of a classroom for the whole week. Try waking up next to desks, chairs, and a white board for a surreal experience!
The theme this year was time travel, and the whole site was decorated in style in just 24 hours. Below is a photo from the main hall with an epic exploding clock and a massive Tardis. Going with the theme, I was part of the theme team, which put on sketches every morning to introduce what time period we were in. We were a news team reporting on/in different time periods and it was a real riot! Favourite memories of theme team were dressing up as a different pun every day and being Caesar at the pool party!
During the week, I had the pleasure of leading the dorm of the eldest boys along with three other leaders. It was such a great opportunity to learn about evangelism, share the gospel with young people, and disciple some really great guys. As a dorm, we had Bible studies together and did all sorts of other fun things. On the first day, we competed in what was called Crystal Daze. Essentially an afternoon of egg & spoon type games on steroids. Below is a photo of our dorm striving for points at one of the many stations in the game.
One of my favourite games, and possibly the most ingenious, involved getting as many cheese puffs on a face covered in shaving foam. I wonder if you could tell from below who the 'lucky' victim was for this game?
So, that was only the start of camp, and the rest of it was just as good, if not better. We went bowling, canoeing, and rock climbing. We played games on the site, and off. My favourite afternoon was playing a game in town called Treasure Hunt. The premise was that, in dorms, the members had 10 quid and a leader to dress up in a certain time period. The budget limited them to charity shops and the pound shop in town. Once their leader was dressed up, they had to hide in town from the other members. If found, they were worth 10 points. To act as decoys, all the other leaders and assistant leaders dressed up in fancy dress and went to hide around town. I was in with this lot and spent an afternoon wandering around Lymington high street dressed as a gangster with an empty violin case. I even spent about an hour working at one of the market stalls calling out to customers in my best Italian-American accent.
One of my favourite games, and possibly the most ingenious, involved getting as many cheese puffs on a face covered in shaving foam. I wonder if you could tell from below who the 'lucky' victim was for this game?
So, that was only the start of camp, and the rest of it was just as good, if not better. We went bowling, canoeing, and rock climbing. We played games on the site, and off. My favourite afternoon was playing a game in town called Treasure Hunt. The premise was that, in dorms, the members had 10 quid and a leader to dress up in a certain time period. The budget limited them to charity shops and the pound shop in town. Once their leader was dressed up, they had to hide in town from the other members. If found, they were worth 10 points. To act as decoys, all the other leaders and assistant leaders dressed up in fancy dress and went to hide around town. I was in with this lot and spent an afternoon wandering around Lymington high street dressed as a gangster with an empty violin case. I even spent about an hour working at one of the market stalls calling out to customers in my best Italian-American accent.All in all, it was a great time in the English sun, and it was a real privilege to work with so many amazing people. On top of it, it was great to hear and proclaim the gospel day in and day out and encourage so many other people. I really hope I'll be able to come back next year!
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