I am now a rebel with a cause.

I made a little space for writing a new blog, because I knew that I would be partaking in a church youth camp the following week. And with that, I bring you the subject of blog numero tres.

I woke up that Monday morning and went through the usual preparation routine: frantically stuffing my bags to fill out the specifications of requisite items, forcing my parents to sign the permission slip and give me the money, and shaving my head.

Whoah, whoah, back up there. That wasn't the original plan. But that's how it all went down, and my stomach had to leave the house deprived of its precious cornflakes and my head deprived of its curly mop and possibly its sanity.

The camp was located in a small village on Doi (meaning mountain) Inthanon, the tallest lump of dirt in Thailand. This was a relief because right now we're nearing the peak of the hot season in Chiang Mai (with which comes Songkran, which I'll explain later) and it's obviously much cooler up there. What was not so cool was having to get up at seven o'clock in the morning and having to exercise after staying awake until at least one the night (morning) before.

The camp games progressed in familiar nonsensical hilarity: People got scared, sick, tired, and all with hefty amounts of goo. It's an unfortunate connection that I shaved my head on the day that I got put on the white team, meaning I could not shout 'white pride!' without any sense of guilt. Not that there was much pride to be had, as our team lost every single game. Every one. The problem was that no one on our team was the competetive type at all, and we ended up remaining fairly apathetic throughout the whole thing. It's not that we didn't like the games, but we always had fun whether we won or lost, which the latter we did quite a bit of.

The good thing was was that while points were adding for winning games, the major points to be won were in other categories such as teamwork, selflessness, and willingness to help out. And because of that, the white team won the day (as in, four), at the last minute.

Unfortunately with youth camps, I usually go in with the expectant attitude that God can and will do something major with my life, I'll have an amazing time with worship, fellowship, and prayer, and then after that everything will go back to normal. For the most part, that's held true. But not this time, and I don't think I'm on a God-high (stoned on Jesus, folks) because the last few weeks I've felt a little out of touch.

As I briefly mentioned in my last post, I struggle so much to maintain my own voice when I'm the creator, and this was exactly the message that I've been praying for. As per the title, the theme was Rebel With a Cause and dealt mainly with identity. I don't want to get you guys too overwhelmed with personal struggles, but there was much release in getting rid of all self-consciousness, and some not-so-pretty emotions that I'd been dealing with.

I've decided that I'm going to catch the ball for my generation, and God is going to be behind me. That's the teaser trailer, and you guys are going to have to wait for the final production. :)

The other interesting thing about youth camp, and this is where cultural differences come into play, was that we were mixed with some Thais from some of the boys and girls home that our church foundation runs. And despite barely speaking a few sentences of Thai, I find that although their outlooks are completely different, these Thais were shy, but on the whole incredibly friendly, and I'm glad that they were able to take part in it.

On a final note, I know that the Lord has a sense of humor because I made the mistake of not taking a shower (it wasn't so much of a shower as it was a sponge bath with water you might find at a glacial lake) after some of the games, in which I got completely soaked. I didn't get changed and was absolutely freezing, so I must have looked pretty pathetic in the evening service shivering and kneeling before the feet of God.

There's so much more that went on that I could tell you, but I feel that this right here is enough. I'm getting over my sleep deprivation, I'm finally clean, and it's good to have Mom's good home cooking.

Until next time,
Ben

P.S. There really is so much more to say here, so don't hesitate to ask questions and I'll be happy to expand