Youth Weekend Away

Hello!

I do hope you've all had a good half-term. I have; though not much happened, which is why I have decided to wait a few weeks until the annual Youth Weekend Away. The Youth Weekend Away is when my church youth group goes away for the weekend, to spend time together, play games and get to know God better. It's always fun, though several people in year 11 couldn't go this year, because bedtimes are quite late (11-12 ish) and they have a practical exam on Monday. To which I say: I hope it went well. I'm talking about the Youth Weekend Away in this post because it's the most interesting thing that's happened to me in a while that isn't private.

Olly, our youth worker, in the flesh.

We left at 6:30 on Friday evening; the place we stayed at was in Gloucestershire, so around 2 hours away. I mostly read on the journey there, using the torch app on my phone. The place we were staying at is an old farm/vicarage. I say that because there is a house, called, rather inventively, the Old Vicarage, and a barn. The older boys, year 11 and up, sleep in the barn because we're all animals. Seriously, though; I'm fairly sure that on Saturday, when I was trying to get to sleep, several boys kicked an (empty) water filter past my sleeping mat.
After arriving and unloading the coach, we were sorted into groups; I was in group 4. On Friday, we played a couple of games in our teams, then ate hot-dogs and drank hot chocolate.

In the mornings, wake-up time isn't usually until 8 or 9 (though given how late people go to bed, this is reasonable). Breakfast is at half past 9; between getting up and eating breakfast, people tend to congregate in the living room area off to the side of the dining room to play table tennis. Or an extremely fun game called "whack each other with plastic sticks". On Saturday morning, I was 'guardian of the doorway'. Meaning that I whacked people (very lightly) with one of the aforementioned sticks as they entered, until it became apparent that it was really quite annoying.

On the defensive...

After breakfast, there are God-related workshops; this weekend's theme was how to experience God. There were 4 workshops (experiencing God through others, experiencing God through nature, experiencing God through the Bible and experiencing God through prayer), though due to time constraints we only did two. I did experiencing God through prayer and through others.

There's also a Cluedo-style murder game during the Youth Weekend Away, where you have to 'kill' someone by making them do something in a particular area, e.g. hold a glove in the chapel. If someone succeeds in killing you, they then have to kill your intended victim. This year, I had to kill a year 7 by getting her to lick her nose in the crate-stacking area. Somewhat difficult, as her activity was archery! The activities are things that people choose to do during the afternoon on Saturday; they are not God-related but are loads of fun. Potential activities include archery, crate-stacking (which I did), mountain-biking or caving.

An impromptu game of footie, taking place during some free time.

Crate-stacking was fun. It is technically crate-stacking and bridge-building, but it's easier to just refer to it as crate-stacking. First up was the bridge-building; this involves tying ropes around the trunks of two trees; to make the experience more exciting, the bridge builders must build it over a dip in the ground - the gap used at the Youth Weekend Away is either a large ditch or a very small crevasse. Once the bridge was finished, we were strapped into harnesses and we crossed the gap; I was one of the first to cross over.

Crossing the bridge

We also removed the support ropes from the bridge, turning it into a zip wire. Quite early on in the bridge-building, the mountain bikers came cycling past. 

After bridge-building, there was a small toilet break, before crate-stacking. Also, one of my friends decided to have play-fights with people, including his sister. I took a video, but I won't share it here, as I don't generally put videos here. Crate-stacking was fun; there's something strangely pleasant about being suspended high in the air, but incapable of falling. I was partnered with my friend (the same one who kept fighting people). 

Crate stacking!

...disaster strikes!

All going well...

Another staple of the Youth Weekend Away is the Night Hike on Saturday evening. It entails trekking through the woods in the dark, wearing thermals and boots, and afterwards is campfire worship and more games. The Night Hike is always very nice, though I get very sleepy after the actual walking.

The roaring bonfire at the end of the hike.

On Sunday morning, the wake-up routine is roughly the same as Saturday, though obviously, people will be tired from the hiking (and, if you were in the barn this year, from kicking empty water canisters around...) There is, however, one major difference; after breakfast comes the church service. This entails all the usual church-stuff; singing, praying and a sermon. Though there is a minor difference; people are often touched by God in a different way to simply feeling a comforting presence; people may start weeping, or shaking. 

After the service there were a few more team games, then we packed our things, added up the scores for the teams, took some last-minute pictures to go on Olly's blog and departed.

Random stats:

Hours slept over the course of the weekend: 11

Current reading book: A People's Tragedy, by Orlando Figes