Youth Vision Camps

Youth Vision Camps
The saviour of my soul... quit literally.
It's what made me the person I am today.
They taught me how to be me...
and how to have fun doing it.
The showed me how to be real.

I don't think I have ever appreciated those camps and those leaders more than I do now that there are no more.
And it makes me so sad knowing that people who are just like how I was won't get the opportunity that I did to spend time with such an amazing group of people.
I miss them,
I miss the lack of rules that looking back should probably have been there,
I miss leaders who know where 'the line' was, how to balance along it and how far they could step over before they got themselves into trouble,
I miss the simple things like sitting around chatting with people and meal times,
I miss having a morning song,
I miss leaders who knew how to "lead by example and only if necessary use words",
I miss messy games,
I miss finding bits of blue cornflower inside my ear 6 months after camp and knowing where it was from,
I miss giant homemade water slides,
I miss dancing down the main street of halls gap,
I miss the aim for some games being to make as many campers chuck up as possible,
I miss camp inside jokes.. anyone remember Piablo Fernandez? or IG is BIG,
I miss the atmosphere you could only find on a youth vision camp,
I miss the acceptance and unconditional love,
I miss "Big Day Out", drive in movies on a bus and the indoor playground,
I miss camp directors not knowing what was meant to be happening
I miss study groups
I miss the swap at halls gap
I miss wrapping leaders in glad wrap and chucking them in the swap
I miss leaders going "missing" and stuff getting "stolen" *cough* and then it turning into a party or a joke,
I miss going to bed with the most painful stomach ache ever from laughing so much,
but most of all I miss the feeling that I got weeks before camp whenever anyone mentioned or I thought about camp and my stomach would quite literally pull itself apart and by the time you got to the bus or the bottom the the stairs at Monbulk you wanted to scream as load as you could cos you were finally there.
And I love that even now when I'm reminded of camps I get that feeling in my stomach.

There is so much more I could add to that list but then I would be here for like ever any yeah no.
But yeah... I'm so glad I have the memories I do, and hopefully one day I'll be as gooder leader as the people who lead me..

So these holidays I'll be off on another CYC camp... which is kinda weird because I was only ever able to do 8 youth vision camps.. just cos that's how many anyone can do.
And because I lead at CYC I can do as many as I want, so I have done 7 since last September.. this next one these holidays will be my 8th.. and I have to say, I love CYC camps they are fantastic, but with youth vision my heart will always be.

So really that's all from me today... hopefully reading my memories of camp have made your tummy turn just like mine always does when I think about these things.
Peace out.