absoloutely refreshing

there's nothing quite like spending 4 days 3 days surrounded by people who are so passionate,who have their own reflection space and are so open to being vulnerable in the sharing of their thoughts and things close to their heart.
Camp howqua with the expeditioners and arrow students was a church camp that broke all the traditional boundaries and definitions of what a church camp is. i dont even think calling that a church camp represents it well. Camp howqua then.
I remember when arrow first started its wednesday neighbourhood night dinners and there was just a small group of us. I havent been for dinner since semester started, but looking at how a third of the campers were from the nieghbourhood, seems like the dinner group has really exploded, and that amazes me.

i admire t for his leadership and courage to challenge the status quo. he has huge ideas and hopes that some find difficult to understand - thus write him off as being fluffy. but i see the fruit of his faithfulness and labour, how he, ellie, doreen and other people who journey with him have put their ideas into action. God's been so good, and i see His blessings.

our time-keeping devices were taken away from us the moment we set in. some chose to sneak away from surrender, but the rest of us probably experienced something quite foreign to us, which was really good. we had no sense of time. we didn't know what time we woke up or what time we slept. we didn't know how much time we spent over the dinner table. it was just engaging with people and living in the moment. we had no clue to when the next activity was or what it was. almost like all the things we would like to control are not in our control, and that for me was such a great time to have some of the best conversations, with nothing nagging at the back of my head telling me that it's time to do something else.

quite a few of the memorable activities at camp were those that people came up with on the spot. on the second (or maybe first) night, a group of us gathered round a space near the fire place to cheer as we watched one guy tackle another to stop him from getting a ball across the space. one of the first few rounds i saw was tim half dragging half carrying georgie (a rather big-sized fella) across the room - that just stunned me man. the whole thing was so full on i ended up going for one round with mandy.

another was a game that had elements of AFL and NFL with the scrum, the funny passing of the ball, the running for your life and full on tackling. a few of us irls got in the game too but we didn't get into the tackling. i'd love to have gotten involved in a scrum though. so much energy! that was such a good game really. i think it was also because there was such a good mix of people from expedition and people from arrow.

of course there was the hide&seek/chasing flag game we came up with on the last night where we were all scattered across the campsite in the pitch darkness with only the moonlight to guide us (and a coule of lights from the cabins). so stealthy, so exhilarating, such good fun.

the planned activities were fantastic too. i thought the waterslide from up the hill was the best fun i'd had with water..(ok well that's debatable cause i really enjoy those water bomb games as well). fantastic way to get a wedgie if you ever want one though. just as i thought things couldn't get any better, i went horse-riding and was taken across the river and into the beaitiful mountain bush along the river where thre were a couple of families setting up camp, and one guy fishing. absolutely amazing sights (and horse). as a result, i'm entertaining thoughts of gathering a group of people to go horseriding with again.

conversations with chris willis, chris ong, vong, tim, sue-lee, you tiong, vernon and so many others.. so refreshing. some made you wanna go out and try stuff, some lifted your spirit, others made you listen with awe, (some with horror too)and still others made you crack up.

i didn't quite want camp to end - and i havent felt this way since i was perhaps about 13? but when we finally got back to the city, a bunch of us met for dinner after returning home for an hour (or two)'s worth of rest. wai hong cooked up his famous beer-battered fish and chips. tim, gav, mandy, melanie, abi, michelle, sihua and waihong gathered round chris' dining table as we ate and chatted till well past 1am. by the time i got home it was past 2.

that felt like a good respite. no regrets.
alright. 6.30am and i've gotta wake up in half an hour to prepare for my 8am meeting. better catch some sleep.