Since I don't do 'youth club' anymore (it's still very much my hubby's thing tho') there has been a whole new generation of kids - many I've heard mentioned but never really spent time with or gotten to know. The generation of kids from my time at youth group are now gone, some just finishing university, some even married so a few years have passed since my time with them.
The best thing about camp for me was getting to know the kids, to hang out with them - I forgot how much fun it was to hang out with teens - seriously! I didn't feel old at all LOL! It was also a real blessing to have the chance to share my faith (& life) experiences with them and to listen when they shared stuff too. It felt good to hang out with the other youth leaders as well since I have been missing everyone of late and of course I got to spend the entire week with my eldest grandson Zacheriah and my darling hubby Dave.
Here he is handing out the special edition Soul Survivor 'Bible in a Year' books to the kids (kindly donated by one of the leaders) which many of the guys were looking forward to reading. We had to stop one or two from buying them themselves so as not to spoil the surprise which wasn't easy! Although you can't see it in the photo they had cool doodling all over the covers inside and out so I can see many of these being 'added to' with coloured pens. Even I wanted one to doodle one up!
We had group 'hoodies' which were very much appreciated especially in the evenings when it cooled off and we hung out and 'chilled' over hot chocolate with the 'works' - squirty cream, marshmallows, chocolate flakes, sprinkles etc. Boy - I'm missin that already - and the 'eggy bread' that Tracey and her hubby cooked every morning - I'm sure I've come back way heavier than I went!
Here's a shot of Zach (minus his 'hoody' cos he wouldn't go put it on for the photo - shame) with 'Sam' - one of the kids that he looked up to - literally! Sam is soooooooo tall. We were all convinced he had hollow legs LOL!
For Zach it was just like having an older brother (and a younger one for Sam) and it was heart warming and a real privilege to see these guys together throughout the week. All the kids are great, some very unique, some maybe a little shall we say 'individual' as in God 'broke the mould' after He made em' LOL! (love ya Jess) - but it was easy to see why Zach liked Sam so much. He was a super nice guy and I would've missed getting to know him if I hadn't gone along at the last minute.
And finally here's a shot of some of the gang right before they headed onto the coach for the long trip home. These guys had a 6 am wake up call so we could get tents down and clear camp by 9.30 am so I'm pleased to say they were mostly all smiling. Bear in mind many of them didn't 'hit the hay' until the early hours of the morning - last night of camp is ALWAYS a late night cos nobody wants it to end! Hubby and I drew the short straw for the last night and had to stay up to chase em' all to bed! See why I say I am only now beginning to feel more like normal? The thought of 'happy campers' spontaineously strumming guitars and singing worship songs sounds lovely - until you have several days of it lasting into the wee hours til eventually one of the leaders from our group (or even another group) finally tell them to 'SHUT UP AND GO TO BED' - usually around the 3 am mark!
Soul Survivor has been running for 13 or 14 years now with about 30,000 kids at camp this year alone! I had forgotten how much fun it was being around these guys. Of course it involves many late nights, lack of sleep, cold & damp mornings - early ones if you want to get a shower (many of them cold) without having to stand in line but even so - something tells me I just might be at camp with them again next year - I SURE hope so!
I WOULDN'T WANT TO MISS OUT ON ALL THAT FUN!
2 comments:
Suezie, Welcome Back! Thanks for sharing your camping adventure with us. Looks like fun.
so glad you all had a great time :) what a joy to be able to share Christ with the youth.
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