What do you get if you black out the windows of a minibus, fill it with kids and after driving them around for 10 minutes drop them off 200 metres from where you started?

Answer, a load of very confused kids, which made for a great start to our night hike. Everything went of smoothly with no one getting too lost (although a couple of the groups missed one of the leaders check points (note to leader, check you are in the right place )

After a good (if not long) nights sleep we had our annual fry-up for breakfast (normally its cereal or porridge, bread and spreads.

We spent today in Bournemouth, some on the beach, some in the shops and Chris in the coffee shop and as I write this everyone else is washing up after our curry night.

Oh well I better go and help, more soon.

Dave

• Praise God for the great weather so far.
• Thanks for great food.
• Thanks for great worship times and teaching every evening.
• Thanks for quiet time notes that really get discussions going in the the small groups.

Things to pray for for the rest of the week

• That friendships being formed will grow and flourish.
• That God will continue to work in peoples lives.
• For continued safety.
• That over tiredness will not ruin camp for anyone.
• That the weather will remain like it is.

We really appreciate you prayer and support for camp and consider everyone back in Reading as much of the team as those here in the New Forrest

We again woke up to sunshine and another day at camp started with the cries of get out of bed it’s time to get breakfast ready – that’s the leaders shouting to wake up the young people not the young people shouting at the cooks!

Today we had a guest chef in residence with Rob Emmett taking over the cooking duties to give Denise and Claire something of a day off and to produce for us his world famous lasagne.

The activities for the day have included raft building and a ropes course offered by the centre as well as bread making and crafts. Another relaxing day at camp.

well it will be until later as tonight is the night of the night hike. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen as its all top secret (and if I’m honest I don’t know), all I know is that it is at night and involves the blacked out windows of a minibus (not the drivers windows, just the back ones).

I will let you know some the details tomorrow.

By Tuesday morning the weather was improving and it turned into a great day. We had a competition of Tchuke ball in the morning (ask the kids for an explanation of the rules) and in the afternoon we used the site’s swimming pool.

This plus all the usual camp fun made for a relaxing day and a relitivly early night for everyone.

Unfortunately the rain arrived at tea time and continued on and off for most of the evening.

Thankfully it did not stop us doing anything and in fact was quite nice as it meant a drop in temperature which gave everyone more energy.

After our evening service we played a widegame around the campsite before sending a bunch of tired leaders (and youngsters) to bed.

Apologies to everyone in Reading for the lack of updates. Our Camp leader ed has kept my nose to the grindstone so much I just haven’t had time to post anything.

I’m just about to make up for it though so please look forward to a number of posts filling you in.

Don’t worry if you do not see your comments on the blog straight away. So that we do not get lots of spam or unsuitable comments we have to agree to the comments before they go live. This means that nothing happens until I get on line.

They will be read out before they are moderated as they are emailed to my phone when you post them so we get to see them before you do.

Gosh, it’s Monday already. Time is going so fast. The weather is still great although it is very hot and sticky this afternoon.Yesterday afternoon we all went into Ringwood with some disposable cameras and spend the afternoon creating a storyboard for a spy movie. Some of the ideas were great others were ……. well …… interesting!

After dinner (and yes it was a Sunday roast roast potatoes, stuffing and all) we had a crazy night, well I know most nights are crazy at camp but this was organised craziness with lots of wet and messy games. If the screaming and shouting were anything to go by it was a great success.

Today the youngsters are taking part in a number of activities organised by the centre we are staying in so we have young people and leaders all over the place. those that are not involved in the activities are relaxing round our pool.

Dave

Hi everyone.

Well, the sun is still shinning and the swimming pool is very popular. Last evening the team introduced everyone to the theme for the spiritual side of our camp which is God’s Power. after that we played our usual first night wide game – the bird game before trying to get everyone to sleep.

This morning we have spent some time worshiping God and right now everyone is enjoying some free time before lunch.

Internet access is quite slow here (no 3G) so i will post some pics. when I get some better access

Bye for now

Dave

After a long drive we finally arrived at the site at about 1.30. The tents are now up and everyone is chillin in the afternoon sun after sorting out their tents and finding out from Ed just what isand what is not allowed at camp.

More latter.