Teen Camp 2005...

...the full story!

Naomi Foster and Ruth Farrell were at Teen Camp for the first time this summer. Here’s what they thought of it:

Teen camp has once again been a great success with a vast number of young people and counsellors occupying Seaview in the last week of August.

We arrived on Saturday night ready for a full week, jam-packed with a huge variety of activities. We kicked off with a few team games before we headed into the meeting room for our first praise time together. This continued each evening throughout the week, ending with a short epilogue from one of the counsellors.

On Sunday morning our speaker, Adrian Moffet, spoke for the first time, using The Lord’s Prayer to highlight many Bible truths. During the week we learnt a lot from Adrian’s talks. He also did a book review each morning from the camp bookstall; this was especially helpful and led to many a good purchase!

Sunday morning saw the first of the dorm inspections. This year the categories included: originality, aura ambience, tidiness and of course smell (which led to some very interesting results).

In the afternoon we took part in a whistle stop tour, each stop proving to be original. We found ourselves making playdough parables and building the tower of Babel out of plastic cups. (This wasn’t helped by our unusual communication skills – peep!)

By Monday morning the pace had started to pick up as we tackled the challenge of Slieve Binnian. We enjoyed our lunch together at the bottom of the mountain before setting off on our expedition. However, while approximately 65 campers and counsellors made it to the top, there were a few who opted for a stroll to the Blue Lough. In the evening we took part in different activities around the house, including a giant Sudoku and dressing up as pandas!!

After a well deserved night’s rest and a much needed shower (for those who bothered, ugh!), the boys (and a few brave girls) headed off to the local leisure centre to play some footy, while the rest stayed at the house taking part in the craft and some interesting games of volleyball. Public participation was essential in the afternoon activity as passers by stood and marvelled at the heroic events taking place in lowly Kilkeel. The evening saw the annual teen camp social with some very competitive campers taking part in musical chairs.

Wednesday afternoon brought the much anticipated sports day, which obviously didn’t lead to a water fight! As the fun and frolics faded people tried to sneak off for a quick shower, but the wise stayed out and basked in the glorious sunshine. Gareth was in his glory on Wednesday night as he put on his best clothes to introduce us to a whole new world. The missionary night provided an opportunity for some to discover their hidden talents as marshmallow and spaghetti construction engineers.

Thursday saw the annual competitions, proving more stressful to some than others. But of course Neil managed to keep his cool! The evening activity supplied great entertainment as we watched each others creativity flow in their comic strips and discovered some evil secrets about David and Olivia!!

As the week was coming to an end, on Friday we headed into Newcastle to sing our hearts out in the open air, afterwards heading into the town (i.e. MAUDS!). That night there was great display of genuine talent in the camp concert including a fascinating performance from Dorm nine. Later in the evening the testimony time was a great chance to really get to know each other as we shared our personal experiences. The night ended with a superb bonfire on the beach and afterwards people started saying goodbyes.

Photographs were taken and some tears shed as we parted on Saturday morning, until the next year. All had a great week and many thanks go to counsellors, all who helped in the kitchen and David, Olivia and Angie.