Breathing Easy

Eggcellent Weekend…

I couldn’t resist the title, please forgive me later. My goodness I’m exhausted, I’ve realized that too many good time moments can wear a guy down, but it was all worth it.

Quick house keeping Nathan Frank has joined this incredible blogging experiment, as well as my close friend Nathan Densley from Estavan, both links can be found on my other page, ‘Your Thoughts’.

So the weekend, and while it wasn’t what I thought it might have been it was great in everyway. I thought the canteen would still have at least one can of Tahiti Treat left for me, but alas I was mistaken. We took off early Friday morning, taking a few wrong turns as we headed out toward my childhood playground, Kedleston Camp. Now for a quick note, we discovered the worst road in Saskatchewan and perhaps Canada as we decided to try the back roads. This road literally had treads in it to the left and right from the broken pavement, it looked more like a dirt road that had gone to mud, but some how after bottoming out twice the trustee ol’ Windstar found it’s way there an back.

We arrived at Last Mountain Lake and it was almost just as I left it. I found Danny Delong setting up a Teepee next to the ‘Big Tab’ as I was introduced to the theme of the weekend; Cowboys and Indians. This theme although being very controversial at frist glance was actually a lot of fun as we saw countless people play ‘scalp tag’, ‘bull riding – which involved being pulled by a boat on a tube while only being granted the use of one hand – ‘ and good ol’ cowboy standoff where we saw a close range paintball war. In previous years the admissions teams had been worked really hard at these retreats – which is our purpose, we’re there to serve wherever needed – but this year was more than bearable. I was involved in setting up the sanctuary and digging some holes under the trampoline, hardly anything to complain about. Around 7 everyone started showing up as we got ready for some activities and then finally service. It was so nice to see people we haven’t seen in a while, to hang out and catch up, definitely a good time. It was so wonderful to once again be in a worship service, a place that it seems I long to get lost in. The worship was exciting as we were exposed to some new songs and the speaking was just was terrific. Perhaps they couldn’t have been anything but that because they were glorifying the Lord…regardless they were used to impact me and many others. That night we hung out as always, and I was introduced to a bunch of wonderful people mainly from Regina and Moose Jaw, two cities that seem to be jam packed with wonderful people. Seems the game of Rook is a Moose Jaw city favorite as I watched a whole room full of guys explain not only their passion for the game, but I kid you not, they swapped stories and strategies for a good 15-20 minutes. It really was neat to see everyone get excited about something I know so little about. What about Phase Ten?

The next morning I woke up at 6 to go wake boarding for the first time - which was a mistake as I found out that 6 seems to be just as ridiculous a time to those driving the boats as it was to me – so needless to say it never happened. The afternoon was filled with a beach volleyball tournament that proved to be an overall success, yet a personal disaster. I once again found myself playing on a team doomed to failure – were would I have lived that out before…is that a Storm in the distance? - And still there was joy and hope present, something I was thankful followed us to the beach that afternoon. I enjoyed yelling the scores and giving yellow cards to everyone as well, its kinda fun having that kind of power as I got to be the head referee.

The evening was once again filled with an impacting encounter with out Maker, which was preceded by what can only be described as the following: countless water balloons, 250 bags of flour, and 70 eggs. It was absolute mayhem as around 9 campers found there way into a war that will not soon be forgotten. As eggs were thrown with immeasurable force and flour was dumped in hair creating a very sticky mess, there were a few accidents, as some eggs found there way into the crowd (which vanished so quickly for some reason)…although no one was seriously injured. The war was one of the camp highlights for sure, if only we had people brave enough to take pictures, seeing them as a reward enough to live through the skin crushing force of an egg introducing it’s calcium to your thigh. It was so close to perfection.

The next morning wakeboarding did happen, twice actually and as it turns out the sport is oh so fun; it’s easier than snowboarding and no need to wait in line for a lift, a definite bonus. Although falling on your face still hurts just as bad, I had to discover this the hard way.

We as the recruitment team left the ‘1832’ retreat with a lot of new friends, stronger friendships and many memories that will hopefully never be forgotten. There are many stories I didn’t share, if we ever hang out I’m sure we’ll have a good laugh as we hear how I discovered that I just might be lactose intolerant. All I can say is oh my.

I could write about this weekend all night, but alas there is another adventure on the horizon, looks to be…Veteran Camp. And with that we’re off to more adventures and hopefully a little bit less mayhem, but who am I kidding, bring it on!

posted by Greg Roberts @ 3:26 PM