Love it. Absolutely love it. What an amazing time I'm having out here. If I could stay another month then I would. I'd even miss Soul Survivor for it. And that takes a lot for me to say that!
I tried to type 2 days earlier but I managed to close my laptop and lost all of it before posting! how silly. anyway! it's been an awesome few days and has definately been memorable. It got so desperate that I had to drink my extra can of Guanabana in order to survive - let's hope that there's no more emergencies as I only have one scheduled Guanabana time out left. Talking of Guanabana... someone who was visiting for the day had been in Venezuela for the year and has actually sampled the fruit for real! I was well impressed, until she gave a different pronunciation. That's when I stopped being impressed. She eventually submitted to my way of saying it instead. 1-0.
Had an emotional encoutner with a young person t'other day. On Week 3 Day 1, two campers came in the office to use the phone, one was calling and the other was waiting. She was a pain in the arse and fiddled with everything whilst I was working. I was glad to see the back of her to be honest. During that week, in staff meetings, we prayed as a group for the young people we had met so far and raised their names to God, or just a description. I felt compelled to pray for this girl and did so. Then on Night 5 Liz, the good friend I mentioned weeks ago :), were watching Club, which was the Cross Talk. We were upstairs with 4 other Summer Staff in the leaders lounge listening through the speakers and watching through the glass. The annoying girl from the office came up and sat next to me and Liz. She was on her own, which was strange, listening to this powerful Cross Talk on her own. Liz and I had had a deep conversation earlier about the power of prayer so I leant over to her and suggested that whilst the talk was being delivered that we prayed on our own for this girl. Liz replied back saying that she already was and that her name was Elsie. For Liz to have already met this girl briefly and know her name was awesome and made it all the more powerful that we were both praying for her in our heads. She was clearly moved by the talk. After the talk the whole of the camp has an option, they can either go to one side of the camp and hang out, play games and all that, OR they could go to a torch lit side of the camp and talk to their leaders about what they had just heard. Elsie left the leaders lounge and Liz and I (and the other 4 SS) stayed in the lounge to pray for the campers that they would encounter and accept Christ tonight. We did not know if Elsie had listened, absorbed or believed the talk and to this day we don't know if she went to have organised fun or to talk to her leader.
On Day 7 (the last day) we have the last Club for the campers. They have some worship, some fun moments and a talk from the head guy about what to do now, which applied to both thos who had commited this week and those who had not. After that the campers Are asked to stand, all sing a song, and then sit down, unless you had made that commitment during the week, in which case you would "say so". During this time, the summer staff are present and it moves us each time when kids stay standing. All we can do is pray that they continue the jounrey when they get back home. Elsie remained standing and briefly told (no more than 10 seconds) how she had started her journey during the week. Enough said. The power of prayer and every aspect of God are awesome. GET IN!
Now for something a little lighter... On Night 6 we have the Work Crew/Summer Staff night in which we get up the front in our nice shirts and sing some songs and introduce ourselves (this is normally the part where everyone cheers for me 'cos I'm English. Which surprisingly I don't like.). Anyway! Before we go in to the club room we have to wait for about 20 minutes outside round the back in the pitch black so that we can sneak in and setup quietly. I was sitting on the floor, tightly packed in with other sitting on benches or standing. I saw the outline of Dave looming over me. Dave is a great guy, always up for a laugh and loves to fool around. I beckoned with my finger for Dave to come closer so that I could whisper something to him. As he came closer towards my face, I slapped him. Hilarious thing to do. About 15 people around us saw this and also thought this was funny too. There was one problem though. It wasn't Dave. It was my boss, John. I found this out by the face coming back towards to me saying "Pete, why did you just slap me?" This was when I realised from his voice, that it was in fact, John. Amongst stiffled laughs from others around and deep DEEP embarrassment from me I apologised immediately and tried to explain. He didn't fully understand why I'd slap Dave but saw the funny side. I was, and am, still embarrassed by this. Was quite funny though.
The Summer Staff and Work Crew (ranging from 15-24) were set a challenge for our day off. Beat the Property Staff (20-35) at a game of basketball. The stage was set. The crowds were good in size (about 75), the referee was the Programme Director (dressed as a referee), the SS+WC had 4 appropriately dressed High School Basketball coaches on the touchline, each squad had about 20 each, the music was being pumped out, and the mascot was there. Out of those roles which do you reckon I was? A point guard in the team? back up player? Coach? No! I was the mascot. I was dressed like a 7 foot Lion for an hour and a half. I lead our team out (tail swishing from side to side) through the banner, joined in the warm up, had hundreds (no lie!) of photos taking and excited the crowd. I hope to get some photos soon of that one for you all. We were winning comfortably at the end of the second quarter when all of a sudden the Property Staff brought out there mascot. An 8 foot Star Wars Chubaka. The scenes that proceeded were brilliant. I immediately got up, chased him round the court, through the court and eventually rugby tackled him to the ground whilst the game was going on. A fight occured, which I'm pleased to say I won. Once the anger had simmered, a dance-off took place between The Lion and Chubaka on the sidelines. I really hope that there are photos for that one!
So that's the highlights for the past 4 days. Brilliant. Simply brilliant. I don't want to go home really apart from for the following reason... (see Day 24 = Part Deux!)
