Mataremoste! vs. the Ping Pong Warriors

I suppose I go through bouts of posting and not posting, and you've just been witness to one of my non-bouts. I've had an ample alibi for the past two weeks, but before that I'm afraid I'm not quite so innocent.

I've just realized that it's been a little over a year that I've had this blog, and the main catalyst for writing one of my first blogs has reared it's annual head yet again: youth camp.

I'm not penning a production like I did for my last outing, but I'll try not to spare too many details. A lot has happened these past few weeks and I don't know if I can or am motivated enough to capture it all, but here it is.

In comparison with last year's, not a lot has remained the same. The group of intrepid youth shrunk from over a hundred to a mere sixteen, but not even entirely because the Thai youngsters didn't join us. We didn't stay in dormitories, we slept in tents. The camp was decidedly grosser than last year's, but on the bright side our auditorium had air conditioning, and the resort came with access to a swimming pool.

This was the first youth camp that I've been in charge of the worship, so I had six worship sessions to plan for, with me leading two of them. It was a very stressful, but ultimately rewarding experience, and I cannot thank enough the amazing people that helped me do it.

The theme/title of the camp was Fully Loaded, and on this, I have to say that camp delivered. Armpit fruit juice, sardine nose relays, mud baths, cat-fishing with bare hands, pink goo, green goo, condiment twister, and papaya rugby, just to name a few of the activities we partook in. Not only that, but the theme carried over into spiritual times as well, with the general topic study of the Holy Spirit.

I know I haven't given a whole lot of information, but I think that that summation pretty nicely wraps it up.

After a few hard days of camp, all you want to do is go home, right? Well, even if I wanted to stay home, I couldn't. I had to drag my suitcase home, spend a few hours with the family, attempting to re-pack some of my nicer clothes, and then my parents sent me away for yet another week.

This time, I was heading off for a week away with the family of my best friend. We drove a croaking van through some Thai mountains to arrive at a place aptly named Cave Lodge. No, it's not as cool to be in an actual cave, but nonetheless, the cool-factor is still there. The lodge is, well, a lodge on stilts, and made entirely up of wood and bamboo. The reason that it's called Cave Lodge is because there are over two hundred caves in the immediate area.

The week was, more or less, a recuperation from youth camp. Despite there not being any fans much less air conditioners, I slept fantastically every single night. And what was there waiting for me when I got up? Well, a humble breakfast and a non-biological little brother to challenge me to a game of ping pong.

So, in retrospect, I ate a lot of muesli and played a lot of ping pong. We also did the requisite cave exploring and family time with a board game as the centerpiece. The thing was, it wasn't important for us to do anything, and so we didn't. The result was a relaxing week to soothe my aching bones, and a breaking in of the homesickness to come.

I said I wasn't going to write much, so even though this post took a while to get out there, I'm just trying to get it out there.

There should be more blogfood coming your way relatively soon, I think a lot of the stress I've suffered over the past week is slowly abating.

Thank you for you time, and remember, keep on truckin'.

- Ben

P.S. The time frame mentioned at the beginning of this post is a little outdated but I'm too lazy to change it, so keep that in mind.