First week of camp

Well good evening all... it has been a long while since i've been able to catch up on emails facebook and this! But its so nice to feel in touch again.
I got back from my first camp with a school on friday. We were in Geographe Bay, such a beautiful place south of perth. It was about 4 hour drive, which isn't that far out here cause EVERYTHING is miles away! i was quite scared and not sure at the beginning of the week, but as i got into it and got to know the kids i was working with it was soo much fun. And the Warriuka team i was with as well made it really easy for me to settle in. We played so many silly games and pranks. Sounds strange but i really felt at home on camp because it was so nice to belong to a really tight community.
The most challenging part for me for the whole week was caving. I have never really enjoyed tight spaces or going underground in the dark but i had to lead my group, so me 10 years 7s and the teaching assistant. It was insane and I really cant believe I kept so calm cause inside it was like AHRRAHHHH!!! But once we all made it out of the cave, it was so rewarding and as a team we felt so tight. It was AWESOME as they would say!

Another difficult part was driving there and back. I knew we were taking two four by four cars and one trailor between six of us with all the gear. But i was unfortunately in the car with the trailer, and i had to dive it! It was such a good experience and i would love to do it again, but at the time i wasn't so sure! Never now perhaps one day Dad will let me drive our caravan?! Hint hint dad =D

I am about to go to bed now but its too hot!
Ah today was a really hard working day. I was given the lovely task of packing down and rolling up all 47 tents we used last week! I did them all and had a little celebratory dance when i had finished! I had the worst dirt tan ever. you could see where my shorts were on my leg and my tee shirt. My hand were black and i felt disgusting! Pretty awesome shower when i got back tho.

I got internet this week on my laptop because i am staying with emilys host family before my next camp on tuesday 2nd.
This next camp is a rafting one where we have to build rafts in the school teams (ill be leading a group again) and sail them to each camp site each day. Most days we are covering 5 K... the camp sites have no showers... possibly toilets if we're lucky, if not a whole in the ground! looking forward to my dirt tan after that camp! should be good fun tho.

Emily myself and Brian, the three interns from england. Have been looking at loads of different churches. most weekends getting to two possibly three in two days! We have been to some really good ones that are too difficult to get to. We have also been to a couple in the centre, the 'well known ones' which we have all found hard actually. They are really studenty/ young adults and are a bit like soul survivor style but we found a couple of them just to not be right atall. It has been interesting actually seeing the difference between some.
However we went to the University of Western Australia Church (St Mats UWA church) on sunday night and it was so refreshing. The message was clear and the worship was really good. We had communion too which emily and i both loved because we hadn't had it in australia yet. UWA church is held in a lecture hall. It was the opening night for the students on sunday because their semester starts this week. So it was a good time for us to go. Also I had met quite a few people through various Scripture Union things befire and they all went to the church. A couple i met on the bronze medallion course were the youth ministers there, and two Warriuka people i was on camp with last week were there. Im going to the tuesday HUB groups (small group for all the students- so im guessing not actually that small!) tomorrow! Can't wait.

Oh i need sleep... im going to try write on here more this week before camp.

Crazy week!

Hello to whoever is following this blog!
Been another busy week of preparations training and stressing about lots of stuff to get done before my first camp next week- mon till fri.
Monday and Tuesday just gone I went to a first Aid course in central Perth which was so good. really enjoyed it because I had always wanted to do one because Mum and Ella (both nurses) had inspired me to from when ella started her course. The lady who ran it from St johns ambulance service was so passionate about what she was talking about and it was so infectious. Its such an important skill to learn basic first aid because you never know when you may need it, and there is nothing more rewarding than helping perserving someones life. So I now have Bronze Medallion and First Aid up my sleave!

Wednesday, today and tomorrow we have been preparing ourselves for the camp on monday with a Catholic Primary school from outside of Perth. Its going to be so much fun but So much hard work. The four main activities we are doing are rafting, Caving, Beach olymipics this massive wide game, and a lighthouse walk. We are staying in cabins for the first 3 nights then the last night is a camp out, so we will be pitching tents and cooking round a camp fire. There is also a small gruop time at the end of each day called 'Warriuka time' where each group leader (i am one of them) has to plan a debrief of the day- link what ever we were doing to a topic then depending on the school and christian backgroud you link it to the bible and christian methods. So Caving would be linked to fear, then you could link fear to trusting in god, and jesus being the light of the world. We are trying to bring a fresh perspective of what christianity is to these children so making it exciting and passionate needs to come out through our planned sessions.

This avo (used avo especially for antonia!)we had a planning warriuka time talk by this famous speaker called Geoff Westlake. he was so helpful and made things so much clearer for me.

Tomorrow we are packing the rafts and the 4wd and trailors ready for monday 7 am start!! (aparently that is not too bad!)

Really looking forward to this weekend bevause im going to stay with emily and me her and brain are going to two different churches in perth- The two massive ones that hold like 700 people in the audience! I think they are all Hillsong influenced/ lead. sat eve is Riverview and Sun morn is Victory Life. Hopefully be able to meet more people our age there!
After the camp next week I am mving into emilys house for two weeks (south perth) then after that i have another camp. Then after that camp I am moving back into the people who i was living with in the first 5 days. I am moving around quite alot this month so it will be so nice to feel settled after this month has past.

Hopefully I will be able to write on here before camp on monday. If I dont get round to it I will post how camp went next weekend. =)
Hope everthing in england is good for you all x

What a weekend!

Ah I had a really nice weekend... again! Weekends are so much fun here because everyone just goes down to the beach or heads into town. There is always something that is going on.
Saturday morning I wrote a few letters and postcards to home, then Eleanor (the lady who is was living with last week) picked me up about 1 and we went to meet Linder (her daughter) and had a hot dog! We went for a walk on witfords beach in the afternoon, then she took me to meet Emily and Brian at Hillarys Boat Harbour. us three walked around the shops a bit- had to by a couple of things for my camp next week. Including something called a rashie... it is something which surfers and people who swim outdoors alot use to keep the sun off and to keep them a bit warmer in the sea. We then met up with a friend of a friend emily knows through someone from her church back home (very tenuous link) but she bought us fish and chips and mothered us all a bit which I have to say was really lovely. Emily and I stayed at her house and she really made us feel at home, she made us hot chocolate and everything! BRILLIANT!
We then went to church with her on sunday morning which was lovely.

I just finished a first aid course... sitting in Mc donalds writing this... free wi-fi on my laptop!
Need to check emails and facebook.
will write again this week hopefully before my first camp on monday till friday!