the truth about camp or how awesome is cottage cheese?

I went to camp:

• My feet smelled BAD once released from the confines of the sneakers.  
• I ate cottage cheese. every. single. day. 
• I met a bunch of new people (80% of them were junior high age. Seeing as this was a junior high camp with 450+ junior high students, this is ok!)
• I waved my amazing YELLOW blow up 'foam' finger.... (and consequently lost it. Note to self: Do not lend foam fingers to junior high boys)
• I had a mohawk for 'mohawk day'. 
• I spent half a day on the ground waiting for someone to rescue me, because someone had the great idea to have 'attack day' where everybody shoots (pretend) blow darts at you and I just plain out suck at that game and got hit a lot.
• I got wet while kayaking, coz I didn't want to sit in the back. Instead I sat in the middle and almost SUNK the freaking boat. Not a boost for self esteem, but funny nevertheless. 
• I slept in a cabin and was surrounded by lots of dirt, rocks and trees. Some would call it beautiful. I call it nature. 
• I was part of the yellow team. We didn't win. 

It sounds ok, doesn't it? Not great (apart from the cottage cheese) but just ok...

But then you add the God factor. The God factor happens when you present these 450+ junior high students with truth.
The truth about self esteem and what they might see in the mirror (ugly, fat, etc) and how God sees them (beautiful, created with love).
The truth about not having to do everything on your own. Giving up the struggle and trusting God to take it. Surrendering things like drug use or addiction, family problems, peer pressure, alcoholism and more completely to God. (yes, those are all real problems junior high kids struggle with. I suggest you start talking with your kid!)
And the truth about community. The answer to the question of what comes after camp? What happens when I fall back? What happens when I get abused again? 

When you add the God factor to camp it takes camp from ok to mind blowingly great. It makes cottage cheese fade into the background and helps me see the students for who they are. And it gives me hope for this next generation. They can change the world. They will tell others about Jesus. As long as I will tell them! 

Borthwick - May he rest in peace... Part 4

We rode back into town and delivered Borthwick to the mechanic. He promptly pronounced him dead. The whole floor underneath the driver's seat and steering column had disappeared. Apparently Borthwick had a bit of a rust problem, so when we collided with the cow we left half the van in rust on the street.


The time in this town was interesting. The bad thing: no rental car company at all. The good thing: everybody knows everybody. So the cousin called his wife, who knew a friend who had a van and nothing to do that day. So he said he would take us the several hundred kilometer trip to Katherine.


You see, we kind of were scheduled to appear in church that day. Since that wasn't gonna happen, we cancelled that day's performance and said we'd definitely be there the next day in the morning. (This is generally known as a faith statement)


Couple things you might not have considered:

• We didn't really have much money
• Most of that non existent money went to the tow truck and our new van driver (who also had to drive several hundred kilometers back)
• Borthwick was dead and not really our car. It belonged to the YWAM base, which meant several phone calls with them just to sort that thing out right. Not like we wanted to come back to this town.
• We were 8 people with one piece of luggage each, plus guitar, plus camping gear for 8, plus food. I think the van we were taking to Katherine was maybe a 12 seater without a roof rack???

To read about the next part of the 'Borthwick - may he rest in peace' adventure check back tomorrow.

Borthwick - may he rest in peace... Part 2

So you see... Borthwick was important. And we were on our way back up to Darwin to catch our plane to Indonesia. We stopped on the way to overnight at Devil's marbles. It's this really amazing rock formation in the middle of nowhere.
We fought the BILLIONS of flies that night, slept on picnic benches and then started driving again at around 4ish in the morning.
Remember? Borthwick had trouble with the whole overheating thing and we were trying to give it a break from driving in the dessert heat during the day.


The plan seemed to work. Although it's hard to tell because about half an hour into the trip the accident happened.
Lisa was driving along Stuart Highway, we are still in the middle of nowhere and it's freaking dark outside. So.... We kind of hit a cow!

Yes, that's right. We hit a cow. She just never had a chance. (the cow AND Lisa). There was a big bang, we all scrambled all over the place and one of our students ended up with liquid something all over her (Borthwich wasn't airconditioned, so the windows were open)
At first she was shrieking because we thought it was blood. Turns out it was poop... Not sure what's worse...

We didn't see a sign like this!

We all got out with torches (flashlights) and some tried to find chase away the cow. Some of us tried to move Borthwick off the road. It was kind of in the middle of a dark highway. No biggie....


Well, we didn't find the cow or were able to move Borthwick. So we tried to light it up as well as we could and then stationed people up and down the road to warn any cars or ROAD TRAINS (those are scary and huge) about Borthwick in the middle of the road.


To read part 3 of 'Borthwick - may he rest in peace' come back tomorrow.

Black Friday Yearly Challenge (aka Black Friday Insanity)

The Black Friday insanity...
Every year I decide to do something stupid on Black Friday. When I talk about it before it doesn't sound so stupid. But during the execution it usually dawns on me that this indeed was stupid ... Again... Let me recap:

The beginning - still smiling

Year one: Climbing some hill at Red Rock. This was probably one of the more uneventful ones. I only about died 3 times by sliding down the hill (ROCKS) on my bottom...

Year two: Decided to do the same hill, but this time I got lost ON THE WAY DOWN... Who does that? How is that even possible. I spent some time sliding down the wrong side of the hill (ROCKS again) and climbing said wrong side again to try and find my way. Well, I'm typing this, so I found it...

Year three: Walk the 13 mile loop at Red Rock... Let's just say I made life harder than it had to be. Started too late, got bored by mile two, decided to try and find a short cut, which resulted in me getting lost in the bushes for a couple hours.

Found my way again and because I learn so well, decided to try another short cut which wasn't one and actually added about a mile to my endeavor.

Still all good during mile 2

Then it got dark when I was still 5 miles out from my car. I was freezing coz I hadn't packed a sweater and thirsty, coz I only took one water bottle. Battled for a mile with my pride and then asked some strangers for a 2 mile ride. They asked if I wanted more, but pride won and I walked back to my car in utter darkness. No fun.

Year four: Booooooring!  Not even worth the mention. Didn't die. Nothing happened.

Year five: This would be last week. Decided to try the loop again. This time for real. You know, start earlier, pack better, finish it. No short cuts....

Nice view eh?

Messing with the camera

Well, I got bored by mile 4 and started looking for a short cut, which I took by mile 6. This 'short cut', which of course got me lost again, took maybe a mile off the total. So not worth it.Plus I kept on running into weird cactussy plant things. Really not a fan of nature...

The final distance... 

Thought I should stick to the road. But I got bored. Then my feet started really hurting, because I'd kind been in denial about my plantar fasciitis. Walked the last 4 miles in huge pain, but pride kept me  from asking for a ride. Made it back though..





Now that I can walk straight again I am wondering what I shall do next year. Thoughts?