Serengeti Trek Camp

Serengeti Trek Camp, 12-14 March 2010.

Pre-arrival
The group of ladies from our fellowship, are amazing.
They (Shawna, Lynda, SoMin, my wife and others), put in massive amounts of work, for months, to organize our yearly Children's Bible camp.
The guys, well, we work, take leave on Friday, and show up.

So my story starts on Friday after lunch.
We all meet at the "Crossroads" compound (4 out of 12 residents attend our fellowship).
The registration table is set up, with bag tags, name tags, fruit/snack ready.
All the "counselors" (group leaders), are given a pack - registration forms of all the kids in our groups (I got 5 kids from 10-12 yrs of age), schedule, pens, and a clip board (oh.. i always wanted one of those!) - we prayed, and off we went!

55 kids arriving later, we loaded up into 2 big buses and off we went to Mango Garden resort in DongNai. We had to think up of our own group name and cheer, and my kids (Garrett, Jackson, Tim, Ben & Eric) agreed on Serengeti Penguins, and the following cheer:

We are the Serengeti Penguins!
We can't fly, coz we're scared of the sky
We are the best, better than the rest
We KILL Fish!

Arriving at Mango Garden
We get a warm reception from the folks who went in the morning to set up.
The room are all set up, decorated, bags in place.

Ok, some highlights of the camp:
1. Food.
The food was fabulous. I over-ate - both coz we used up so much energy, and it was just quite yummy.
And I also found out that we had so many problems in the kitchen, the cooler broke down, food was attacked by an ARMY of ants, hygiene standards were questionable - it is just amazing that no one got sick, and the rest of us were none the wiser.
Thanks to Lulu, Victor, Cally & gang! You guys are precious.

2. Accommodation.
Oh, my group had a blast! We had pillow fights, Uno games, and then more pillow fights.
I got my boys to bathe and brush their teeth, before I allowed them 1 last pillow fight on Sat nite, 9pm. They all got to it pronto, and when I ended the fight at abt 9.30pm, I suddenly realized... that it probably wasn't so smart to get the boys all pumped up with adrenaline, just before bedtime... d'oh! Ok, so just 1 Uno game, before lights out.
You know what? 5 min later, everyone was asleep! well.... I was anyway.

3. Amazing G-race
The games were planned by my wife, and helped by Wendy. Now, my wife is a person who doesn't like games; and both of them hadn't watched Amazing Race on TV at all.
And you know what, it was THE highlight of the camp.

Friday nite: we played "catch the tail" in the dark.
we all were in the tennis courts (kids can't get lost?), and the kids were given strips of clothe painted with glow-in-the-dark paint. Run, grab a tail, and try to avoid getting yours grabbed.
Everyone could take part, it was great fun for all, except my team who came in 2nd from last...

Sat morning: 3 parts
1st part, count squares within a black rectangle in lobby were we started, multiply and go to the room number. The problem is, only 1 kid really counted, and got it wrong. We all ran off, with the wrong room number. and so, we got a bit lost.
B, who saw other kids running in diff direction, got all excited, insisting that we go that way. Then he saw other kids running to station #2 and #3, and insisted we follow them too! But we havn't even got to 1st station.
When we finally found a games master (Theresa, God bless her heart), she finally directed us to station 2, and so we dashed off, being really really last.

When we got to the restaurant, guess what? I lost B.
He ran off in a different direction altogether! I left my group to do the challenge (eat diff kinds of food like wild boar, croc meat, liver concoction & ostrich), to go hunt him down.
I finally found him, and he was unhappy, and I was unhappy - but we finally joined the group with him crying his eyes out.

Well, God sent an angel in SoMin. She "happened" to be at the restaurant, and gave comfort to B, whilst allowing my group to head off to the next challenge.
Next challenge was at the swimming pool, kids had to find a clue in the pool, and on the the "island" in the middle of the pool. Well, all of my remaining kids jumped in anyway, fully clothed.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time, and had to end - not completing challenge #2 and not even smelling challenge #3.

Saturday afternoon, the Amazing GRace continued.
I am so thankful that SoMin agreed to come alongside, and in case B wanted to head off, she'll "shadow" him.

Challenge #4 - make playdough and shape animals
Ok, simple enough to follow recipe, everyone took part in making it, and all made their own animals, mostly snakes, 1 snail, a croc and an Eiffel Tower..... ok, no one made Eiffel Tower.

Challenge #5 -Hoola Hoop
Whilst we were going through the instructions, there I see B, picking up the hoola hoop, and just going at it! So, since we had to pick someone to hoola hoop across the stage, he gamely did it.
And I tell, that moment was priceless. All of us cheered our hearts out, B was so proud of that moment. He was the star.

Challenge #6 - Ostrich Ride
Ok, this one was just for the crew leaders, i.e. adults, aka me.
We were 3rd to reach the station. 1st 2 adults rode on the ostrich, and it looked easy, the ostrich just walked slowly - no problems.
My turn, and after I got on (there is no harness, just sit on the Ostrich's back, and hang on to its wings) - I'm not sure what happened, and but I was out of the stable like a bat out of hell (pardon the saying) - like a rodeo, I gripped its wing for my dear life, and finally after 30-40 meters, I fell off, got trampled by the Ostrich. Dazed, I got out of there, whilst everyone seems to have been amply entertained.
The funny thing was, at night, the kids made up a game, where you can have a soosing ostrich ride. 1 kid would piggy back another, run, then dump the kid into the ground plus the bonus trample.

Challenge #7 - Paddle Boat/Word Challenge
Next up, we got 2 volunteers to get into a paddle boat, and hunt down the games master in the middle of lake for the next clue. The rest of the kids had to do this word puzzle.

Challenge #8 - Water Balloon/fling
We reached this station being 2nd. The idea was for 2 teams, to use towels (each kid grabbed a corner) and throw a water balloon over a net, back and forth. Again, all of us took part, and when we got into a rhythm, we aced it, coming away with highest points.

Challenge #9 - pass the water ball
Last game for sat, pass 5 sponge ball to all members, in sequence.
I was glad that it was over. Being dazed from the fall, my left arm throbbing from the trample. Ostriches are really that light.

Happily, at the end of Saturday's game, from being LAST (after morning's games), we got into 5th (out of 8). My kids were great, B was a real part of each challenge - thanks SoMin for your help, and I am just so thankful to God!

Ok, Sunday had the last Amazing GRace session.
Challenge #10 - Charades
Challenge #11 - M&M challenge, eat a whole bunch of em, without using hands
Challenge #12 - Find letters and make out clue to the next place
Challenge #13 - Pay a resort staff a compliment in Vietnamese, and get them to rate.

The challenges were really well planned, and really covered a whole spectrum of activities, allowing diff kids with diff abilities to shine at diff games. I'm really really proud of my wife and her team for pulling it off!

4. Talks
All the talks were done at interesting and appropriate venues.
Steve's talk on Gideon, was done amongst bamboo trees in the dark; Tracie's talk on Daniel in Lion's den was done at the bear pit; Shawna's talk on Medrach/Meshach/Abednego in Furnace was done at the camp fire pit; Brett's talk on Paul & Silas in jail was done at the tennis courts, with its high fences (like jail?).
Whilst Steve is always a fantastic speaker, my favorite talk was Tracie's talk. So hard to make a familiar story fresh, and she did a great job, presenting it like a newspaper reporter in Babylonian Times. It certainly grabbed me, and I know the story pretty well.

5. Altar Call
This is what it is all about. At the end of the camp, Steve led an altar call. Quite a few kids went up, many responding to accept Jesus for the 1st time!
I noticed one of my cabin boys, Ben, going up too. He had already accepted Jesus, and when asked why he went up, he simply said "I want to know Jesus more".
Even one of the adult helpers, accepted Jesus!

Oh how the heavens rejoice, strain and you can hear the angels going wild with applause and joy.
The camp has really shown me how great and wonderful a God we believe in. Everything was put in place, my stories are just a small part of the miracles God had worked during the camp.
We had a sharing session last night (Tuesday night), and everyone just had praises for God, in how he worked, in our kids, and in us.

This is what life is all about, what it is worth living for.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son - that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.