WARNING: LONG POST! (HARTLEY I BETTER GET SOMETHING FOR THIS! >=O!!!!!jokes :P)

Funny thing? it wont be the first time i've typed this -_________-, power surge just came and completely owned the house (evy knows how i feel XD) and with it? the initial blog post. 3/4 of the way!! *shakes fist* obviously God wasn't too happy with it. I shall try my best to make amends!

CAMP!!! IN summary, an awesome experience, Crosby wrote about it on the church blog and his blog too! So different perspectives, different blogs. I obviously will write one now, but with a bias to the more ....funny incidents, that happened on camp XD. Of course, adding as much detail as possible!! And...i'm saving this as soon as i write the 6th paragraph.

Wednesday the 12th of July. Time to head for camp!! I can remember heading off to blue gum first, where everybody was waiting as a group, we said a massive group prayer (to the wonder of the people playing tennis) and then headed off, as 3 seperate convoys to Orchard Glory!! We were in the last convoy, with Cham's car, Emily's, Tak's , Simon's and our own. I just listened to music the whole way. what? you think i could sleep? XD

Upon arriving, we scurried into the main hall, set everything up...or tried to, got everybody fixed into their chalets, and did singspiration practise. Multi-tasking? no, since it happened at different time intervals XD but i made it sound pro, didn't i? =D (ahahaahaha - no)

Singspiration first session was done by who else? Kenneth Lee. Awesome first session, i think everybody was a bit stoned, but that was to be expected, after all the scurrying around. Personally, that was an awesome worship session, and served to lighten everybody up, smoottth in to the mood of camp. Good work Kenno. Later that night, nothing much happened, although word has it that many people stayed up quite late XD Me? no sleep at all >.>


apparently i wasn't the only one XD

The next day, alot of us woke up at 6!! Cham, Sharon and I took a morning jog, while Nat, Sarah and David took in the view from the lake. The others were probably trying to cook, or still sleeping. It was freezing, Cham and Sharon can testify to that, by the time we finished, i couldn't feel my hands, nor my nose (THE most annoying feeling). But good to get moving again haha! Josh had to wake up at 5 to pick Rachael up!! Go Josh!! We needed Rach at camp anyway XP

The morning devotion/singspiration and message was good, always a good way to start the day. It was Emily, i'm pretty sure, and she did a fantastic job!! First time as well, so round of applause for Em! *applauds* i can remember this was the part of the message on the 'pain' of sharing. That was good, i really learnt alot from that. After the morning service, we went back to our chalets, and there was gonna be a big party at Em's!! (Chalet 20)

So i went back to the girl's chalet just to see what they were cooking (and to err...help Evy make lunch. Rite rite evy??! =D) She made like, some pasta, and i poured in the milk and water! =O!and i think it tasted good, but i never tasted it. Anyway, Caroline and i were having enough trouble as it were trying to rip two chicken breast pieces apart, that was until somebody, (i think it was Rach) told us that it was actually one piece, and all our efforts were in vain. hm anyway XD

The lunch was spectacular, with every chalet bringing a dish, i warn you, if you are hungry, skip the next paragraph. You will not appreciate what you are about to see. Ready?:


Ow man!!!! ow man!!!!! look at all the food!! Cooked by us youth as well!! which makes it even better. LOL i'm so sorry evy, it was the only picture of the food...err guys ignore the bemused stare that Evy's got on XD (which probably just made everyone look up again, ho well XD)

Oh!! Everybody left in a hurry to go play footy and stuff, so poor few of us were left to clean up and everything. It was okai though, there were enough of us to finish off fast!!


Here you have me giving a lecture to people on the heat-retaining properties of glass. A subject, might i add, that i know nothing about, but was just bullshitting. Just realised Nat was there too, she must've been like, "wow. what a loser XD" good to see Leonie was paying attention though! XD Oh, notice, how my right hand is normal. Lol, it's a paramount observation XD

Next, Crosby and Wei K had some Games planned for us!!! Little did we know what was about to happen ><. Everybody went out to the playing field (near the al paca and horsie) and we got into our different groups. People just relaxed there for a bit, playing soccer and footy, waiting for the ever-busy Crosby to arrive.


Upon his arrival, the first game was tug of war. Now our mighty group leader (who else but Natalie?) was awesome. But we had a team full of girls. Not saying, girls are bad, or anything, you know? Coz i think Sharon disproved that theory in the second stage XD Not ONLY did we have a team full of girls, we had a team full of kids. Which was fun you know? Good to psych each other up for nothing XD. But, obviously, i am biased :P

Ok, so we didn't win any of our tugs, you know? but that's ok. Unfortunately to add insult to injury, while blue team was battling green, and losing; i jumped at the rope, (just to give blue team the extra edge XP) andddddd, as a result, cut up my hand. Lol, at first i didn't know, until somebody pointed and screamed XDDD, then i was like ....oh look! alot of blood. Thennn came the worry squad (my equivalent of the cheer squad XD) and busied about my handd, trying to wash off the blood, wipe off blood that was in fact; a bruise (lol nice Cuz XD) but you know, i was so touched by the amount of concern that others showed me. It was just a cut!! Yet there were people everywhere willing to help out (often against my wishes too ><). Thanks guys, you really made me feel cared for. (i'm being as sincere as i can as well)


There's my dear cuz trying to force me to give up my hand, while Emily searches through her med-kit for bandages. And justin stones. But you know what really hit me? Even though i thought i was fine, and i wrapped my hand up in a tissue (that soon went red ><) and i tried to play another round, basically everybody yelled at me not to (rightfully so XD) but not like< "errr cheater, get off" more like, "NO! idiot! your hand!! dont you dare!!" in a really concerned way. Nat and Cuz in particular, showed some real concern that made me just drop the rope and walk away, somewhat humbled.

The next game was captain ball!! Wow, this was funny. First round, and i think it was green team that was absolutely killing everybody when SUDDENLY, Cham jumped to get the ball or something and Josh elbowed him in ....the wrist? And Cham was pretty badly shaken, and so were we!! We thought it was broken, so while the worry squad gathered around him, i drove back with uncle Dave to get the med-kit and to try and fix him up....for those who want to know, Cham's fine now, it was nothing, just a muscle injury.

Lol, then they did the girls section. Two words :Sharon dominated. Ken, Eddie and i were sitting on the sideline watching, everytime the ball went in the air, Sharon would catch it, she'd score a goal. like 98% possession. XDDDDD it was so bad XDD Her team absolutely killed that section like 5-1.

Then the guys section. This was interesting.....until Wei kee jumped up for the ball, and landed awkwardly on one ankle ><><.

After games, we all settled down, prepared for the evening service. Worship was done by my Cuz!! And it was done great, awesome job cuzzzzzzz!!! =). Before the message. That night alot of stuff happened, alot of people took walks LATE at night around the lake and everything, it was really nice. I actually slept that night >< Ho well!!

Friday morning woke up early at 6, and Cuz, Sharon and myself went walking around the place (Jenny was meant to come too, but she didn't wake up....so was Nat, but she didn't wake up XDDD) REALLY nice to get some fresh air nice and early in the morning. We payed a visit to Nat, who was dreamily staring out of her window until we disturbed her XD. Her excuse, apparently it was warmer inside XD.


The morning session was good fun, Nat did an extremely good job as worship leader, with her song, "seven times a day" getting the whole crowd up and about. My most sincere apologies again, as i couldn't play because of my hand ><. That day was relatively tiresome, and everybody was positively dead because of a lack of sleep, but we soldiered on!! After the morning session came Lunch, which was an assortment of curries and everything that were left over from dinner.

Before games Nat got our group together and we did a run through of our skit!! At first it was meant to be the parting of the red sea with Vincent as Moses LOL! It was funny coz he always looked stoned XDD Buut then we were like, hey wait! WE'll do the parable of the talents!! (which i hope most of you are familiar with....) and that turned out GREAT!! We had the whole counter-personality thing going (basically you act as somebody you aren't) apart from me, i did the evil father, which...lol fitted in perfectly XDD!

The games session was interesting XDDD. Another set of injuries, again, yours truly was involved. This time, i managed, not only to trip over a bucket and get david wet (looked like he did a big pee pee HEHEHE .. sorry Davo ><) buttt i also managed to get my leg stuck in the bucket, broke the bucket, and sprained my ankle. (well done Jon.) And,Terry did in his ankle too. AND Vincent was screwed after the run. = byebye Red team XD (notice how all the injuries are focused to our team?XD)

After returning to the main hall, guess what!!! This sheep dude came in , think he was meant to teach us how to sheer....shear? sheep! And it was ...well i didn't watch, but it looked funny, poor sheep though ><

"baaaa he's chopping off my......."

Back for dinner!! and as our group was practising guess what!!! The aunty in charge of dinner asked me to barbeque the meat!!!!! =D!!!!!! SO i grabbed Jenny and we started up the barbeques and barbequed stuff together!!!!! it was SOOO FUNNY!!! Specially since Jen and I didn't know how to tell if it were cooked. So we'd be standing there having a nice convo when suddenly I'd go:

"i dont think the sausages are meant to be bubbling Jenwen...."
"yeaaa they are...see this one isnt even cooked!"
"....but...it's bubbling.."
"Meh"

LOL! In the end i think we ended up chopping them all up and carefully checking (using Ken) to see if they were rite XD Turns out they were. poor us! burnt ourselves so many times too XDDD. BUT!!!!! In the end we were proud of ourselves, rite Jen? =D!

There's us going "we're so pro" xD.

After dinner....it was crunch time. All the groups were getting ready for the Final skit presentations. At intervals, we'd have "mega praise" which was Crosby's awesome idea of just praise songs to get the youth moving. My my, what a success. We basically had, even for the first section, the whole youth jumping up and down, and dancing and what have you to the music. Well done all!!

The first two skits were by Ken's team and Leon's team. Leon's team advertising.......a shoe, very effectively, especially as *tada* an anti-boyfriend weapon XD (that's the part when Janet effectively threw the shoe at Josh xD) And Janet had the whole, girl-walk thing...you know how they sway their butt as they move (forgive the bluntness, i'm a guy XD) which made it look pro XDDD!! Had the entire audience captivated (especially Annie :P) OH AND THE INFLATTABLE WEI WEI HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!


The next add was Ken's team, who advertised a pen-light LOL!!!!! To do this Ken had to pretend he was uncool (not too hard xP jokes XD) and roll up his jeans and everything, and then talk to Jade, who was selling the pen. They did the whole Russel Peters "tirty for fifty" thing XDDD with Ken even producing a 34.50 note XD. After he purchased the pen and became 'cool', Sharon led the giggling team (i've never seen my Cuz giggle before LOL) and they all googled and giggled and did their girly thing, while Ken was Macho-ing himself in the limelight XD. Judges were obviously amused:


....sortof.

THen another megapraise session....where the crowd started to move a LITTLE more, started to jump and dance a LITTLE more than usual....but we were still trying to reach them.

After that it was Ken's team doing their bible skit and Rob's team doing their skit. Now a few funny things happened here XD. Ken's team was up first, and they did their story on the prostitute and two spies (dont worry, nothing spicy XD..spicy, wth?) but Jade dressed up in full pink LOL and they acted the story out very well, featuring

1) a voice-over screw up from my Cuz, who did a male voice for a female character
2) Sharon's 'giggles' at the end of Jade's sentences
3) Ken's 'elevator' exit, which got the whole crowd laughing XD


I think just from the photos you can begin to imagine how funny it was XDDD.

Rob's team was hillarious. They did Daniel in the Lion's den, with Wei hua as Daniel. Now, at the beginning, Wei had to say the Lord's prayer, problem? he forgot XXXXXDDDDDD I can remember people in the audience whispering to him, "Lead us not into temptation.....LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION" and he would go, "er um....do not lead us into temptation!!" XXD!! but great effort from him. They had an awesome interval where they had to advertise a scarf!! and....my , did they get creative. I'm gonna show you one picture, and you can judge that statement for yourselves.


Yea those are scarves wrapped around their pelvis.

anyway!

nah lol, but Roy and Tak especially at the end got EVERYBODY roaring with laughter. Soooo good, them trying to act as sumo's XD. Brilliance.

The rest of the play was good too, and their group did very well haha!! Well done Blue XD

The next mega praise session was SO CLOSE to breakthrough, everybody was like, starting to move and get into the whole thing, and you could see it in the way people were moving and singing and clapping and a few people even dancing XDD. It was encouraging to see.


Rob was particularly in the mood. LOL (sorry buddy XD)

Then came our group, (might i add WINNER of the skits!! XP) It was the parable of the talents, and we had the counter-personality thing going, so Nat and i were evil, Anice was a genius (not saying she's stupid XD) , Vincent was an enthusiastic (harhar XD) advertiser, and Wei K was ....a hobo XD. The features? Our automated chair (which vincent sold, with ....colourful dialogue XD) which poor Jenny had to sit in!!!

Now this chair could put lipstick on, could brush your teeth for you, and even make you drink water.....problem? people 'operating the chair' from behind couldn't see Jenny's face. The end result?? XD


A wet, dirty, and lipstick ridden Jenwen XDDDDD Sorry Jenny!!! But GOOD on ya for taking one for the team XD.

We had Wei K (in crutches) playing the part of a hobo (really well XDDD) as the son with the '1 talent' and...he got into a bit of trouble when he decided to go partying with his friends (lillian and the rest XDDD)


Then basically after being a very naughty son, he came back home and.....:


Got owned by me; his dad... ..with a microphone stand/golf club. Lol love the evil look in Nat's eye XDDDD. Yes, it's true, in the end (although we came last in the groups ...COugh... we came first in the skits!! =D!) ANYBODY WHO HAS THE VIDEO, I WANT!!!!!

FINALLY it was Leon's team, doing the story of ....lol i was about to type Moses XDDDD, i meant Joseph!! And they did it well, highlights? Josh as Pharoah LOL!!!!! ANd Collin's drawing of the dreams LOL! FUNNIEST PART was when Josh, keeping a serious face and everything during the entire skit, turns around to explain his dream to Leon (Joseph) and upon turning around and seeing Collin's drawin on the whiteboard, absolutely bursts out laughing XDDDD!! THAT was funny stuff XDD UNfortunately, i dont have any photographic material of that skit ><><


The final mega praise. What.A.Breakthrough. IT OWNED!! Youth jumping left right and center, people with stitches, holding it in and still jumping, dancing, clapping, yelling, singing haha!! It was SOO MUCH FUN. CONGRATS to the entire audience and singspiration team, you guys rocked!! Amazing how much fun that was.....God was seriously right there when we did that. Like .right.there. And at the end, King of Majesty. What can i say? Woot? XD

After that, we took some AWESOME pictures, with Ken's artwork!!


And the youth haha!! and that's Collin's masterpiece to the left of it. Everybody was screwing around and just taking photos, so why not join the fun? XDDD


Three dear sisters, Jenny, Annie, Evy making me look like a loser/idiot lol XD!! but good fun still xDD. One of the biggest highlights of the camp for me though? The campfire. Right after.

As all of us joined in one voice with 2 guitars and sang sunday school choruses that i ...to be honest, had completely forgotten, ronan keating songs XDDD (when you say nothing at all XD) and even some chinese songs that i didn't understand....but weirdly, i did? They chinese folk songs sounded extremely good, and i found myself yelling along even though i didn't understand XDD. But that was seriously good fun. As people joined hands and swayed together, highlighted by the glow of the firelight.


After that we moved off to Ken's chalet to party!!! But Dad caught us at around 12 and everybody split XDDD. There were a few chalets that stayed up though...not sure which ones =\. (Cough7COUGH) So you can expect that nobody (apart from me) got up for a morning walk. I got up at 5 30 and just stared off into the distance....like a complete loner XD

No, i'm joking. I got quality time by myself, believe it or not, for the first time in those days on camp. It's really nice how you look out over the campsite, and you see the enless mountains, with their lush green and dots of livestock milling around. You hear the sound of birds chirping in the crisp morning air, feel the gentle breeze across your cheek, the sound of running water purveying yet only adding to the silence. And you think. My God, what a wonderful world. Then as you see the sun come up over the horizon and cast a lovely yellow blanket over the blue morning sky, the stars dotting out one-by-one, you go, ...

"bugger it, devotion starts in 10 minutes =_="

lol, but the point was, it's good to spend time with yourself, every now and then. It helps you to clear your thoughts, and you know, even though i was freezing my butt off, it sets you on the right track. (not just to catching a cold XD)

After the morning service and food, Group positionings were given out, Blue first, Green second, Yellow third, Red fourth, but all teams played in good spirit and there were no sore losers amongst the crowd. Yay!! first in the skits =D! ladidada!! (xD)

The pictures and everything were taken on the last day!!! (i'll put the whole group one in the flickr slideshow player) but yea we just screwed around, took pictures with friends and our groups, and it was all good. I especially like this one :


Typical, 2 asians about to completely mug a white tourist LOL. Pity i had to make the stupid face -_-

But you know? there are alot of things i learnt from camp. Sure, the love and the care that people showed not just towards me (with my stupid injury XD) and others throughout the camp...not just the concern that everybody had when somebody wasn't feeling great, not just the fact that almost everybody there could cook something apart from me XDDD.

It was the whole spirit of unity. (forgive me for going nostalgic) I loved it how in the evening, i'd get back from a walk, after a shower, start walking down to the main hall, See Ken and Collin laughing at each other in their chalet, see Leon with his team trying to work out their skit, see Rob milling around with people, look to chalet 7 and have my cuz wave at me from the balcony, feel a nudge and have my 3 sisters join me in my walk, Upon arriving, open the door, have the singspiration team grab me and have a group prayer..... and it was like, this is normal. This is the way life should be.

It wasn't some dysfunctional family sort of thing, only say hi to half the people, you'd say hi to EVERYBODY that was walking around, you'd take care of EVERYBODY that was hurt, you'd love EVERYBODY that was there. and it really really touches you. Now in the real world? Not so much of that...but you know the fact that it does exist, and in our church too?

God, you gotta be proud of that.

Besides, i'm not sure if we'll be going back there for camp next year. I would really like to, just to see all the places and get nostalgic again haha! But i guess memories will always live on, specially some that are created there.

So then....until next time!! It'll be interesting to see how much things have changed...in a years time haha.....


....or even not ;)

Fin~