Sunday came...starting with cruel and unusual punishment

Sunday morning I woke to quiet. When I’d fallen asleep earlier that morning I was sure that I would wake up at around 7:00 on my own. I woke up at 8:00. I lay in my bed and listened. There wasn’t a sound in the entire room or building. It was nice. However, I remembered reading that we had our quiet time in groups at 8:30, which meant that I had about 30 minutes to get ready. I got out of bed, went into the bathroom and changed. I was ready in about 10 minutes. That gave me time to grab my Bible and to try to get worthwhile reading in. Well, that didn’t work very much because I discovered that one of the fellas was awake, and it wasn’t long before he started playing a very loud guitar. Oh well. So much for that. We met in our groups for quiet time. It was a little later than scheduled. We were given small cookie-like things to eat with our tea or coffee. This was because after the quiet time was scheduled “warm ups”. We had to do that before breakfast because it’s bad to do that on a full stomach. However, it is also not so good to do it on an empty stomach.

Quiet time ended. The cruel and unusual punishment began. Anyone that knows me very well knows that I do not exercise. The closest that I come to exercising is playing a game of whatever (lately soccer, which is also my preference) or chasing kids in circles. Stuff like that. As far as intentional exercise goes…FORGET IT!!! I hate to jog and run unless it’s back in forth in a field, chasing a ball, or getting in the way of other players. Unfortunately, warm-ups aren’t a game of soccer. It started out with Nathan rounding everyone up outside. He got us jogging around the soccer field (it was almost like being taunted by the field, “you can’t play on me…ha ha!”). The jogging turned into a lap of running. Then it toned back down to jogging. Then Nathan explained that when he yelled the number one that we had to touch the ground with our left hand while keeping stride. If he yelled the number two then we had to do the same, only with our right hand instead. Well, he started yelling “One!” Five seconds space. “Two!” Five seconds space. After doing that a few times he started yelling “One! Two! One! One! Two! Two! Two! One!” You can imagine what it looked like to see all those guys and girls running around a field and dropping to touch the ground every second. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. LOL Finally, he decided that we’d had enough of that. Of course, he had yet more ideas to lather on us. He then explained that when he yelled “One” that we were to jump into the air while keeping stride. If he yelled “Two” we were supposed to crouch down and then continue running (you can’t crouch and keep stride…trying to do so is a great way to fall flat on your face). Well, the above sequence of shouting out random “ones” and “twos” repeated and I was ready to fall down and play dead or something. There was a large audience of cheaters watching (I say cheaters because everybody was supposed to participate…I was actually wishing to be standing with them). They were laughing. Finally, Nathan was finished with that version of torture. He let us stop running, but then we had to walk around the field once. Coaches always tell you to walk things off when all you want to do is fall down and sleep. Curious. Anyway, I was ready to head into breakfast when Nathan herded us all over to one of the soccer goals. He had us all line up. He walked a distance away from us and told us that when he gave the signal to go that we all had to run as fast as we could to the goal on the other side, touch the ground, and run back. I don’t like running very much and I was already very tired. But I suppose it wasn’t so bad. It was kind of fun to see if I could run faster than the guys. I ran faster than a couple of them. Not many. After that Nathan made us do it again. After THAT he had us line up by the goal again. He then said that at the signal we had to waddle to him like a duck, a sort of crouched walk. Once we reached him we had to run back to the goal and line up. Next time around we had to hop to him like a frog. It was unbelievable. Youth weekends are a great way to be humbled!! Finally, we were able to go inside.

Nathan,

the ultimate torturer

Inside, the youth group’s worship band was practicing for the worship service that would be held later that day. A bunch of the people were inside watching and listening. Of course, all of us tired warm-upers decided to stop and listen too. When Nathan got inside he saw an opportunity that he had to take. He suddenly had us doing aerobics to the worship music, like what you would see on television…all kinds of funny looking people exercising the exact same way at the exact same time, mimicking a guy or girl with funny looking hair. Of course, Nathan doesn’t really have funny looking hair. But we were all funny looking people mimicking him. I hate aerobics more than I hate regular exercise. However, I will say that I enjoyed it this time more than any other time in my entire life, and I’ve had to do it a few times. So, good job Nathan.

Finally, we were able to clean ourselves up and eat breakfast. After that we cleaned up the tables and had some free time. I went and played some ping-pong and took some time to pack up my stuff. The service arrived. We all gathered in the cafeteria. All the tables had been cleared out and chairs had been set up so that we could perform our drama. Before that, though, Sacha called up my zig-zag group from the day before. He’d given us a task where we had to write a gospel song using the melody of a Dutch Christmas song. Our group had done such a good job writing the song that Sacha asked if we’d sing it in front of the entire group. That was pretty cool. I still couldn’t sing, but I was able to get a couple half notes out and lip the rest. LOL.

After that it was time for us to perform the drama. That was fun! What a fun drama! And it came out perfectly. It was the best that we’d ever done it. This drama is a human video done to a (non-Christian) song written by Evanescence. It’s called Bring Me To Life. In this drama you see a girl that has chains put around her neck by two demons. She then rushes at a Bible and searches through the Scriptures for an answer. She doesn’t see one and she gives up, throwing the Bible on the floor, dropping her in her head in despair. Suddenly, in the background you see a girl starting to flail about. She has a chain around her neck and a person playing a demon is holding onto both arms, sort of playing with her helplessness. After a bit of this the demon throws her onto the floor (ouch!). Then the first girl with the Bible stands up and walk over to a friend, shows the chains and the Bible and gives a sign of frustration. She goes to walk away, but the friend pulls her back, takes the chains in one hand and the Bible in the other and sets them in the hands of the girl that’s bound, making it clear that the answer is there in the Bible. She drops to the floor with the Bible. Again in the background you see a second set of flailer/demon repeating the above mentioned process, again ending with the demon throwing the girl onto the floor. That demon then goes to the first girl with the chains and the Bible. He starts to mock her, saying that there’s nowhere that she can hide. The whole time she struggles to pull the chains off on her own. After he mocks her she drops to the floor, opens the Bible, and prays. Jesus comes and takes the chains from around her neck. The begins to thank God emphatically. Suddenly, four angels walk over, surround her, and clothe her with the spiritual armor (this is super coolest part of the whole skit!!). Once she’s suited up, all five put their swords in their sheathes and line up opposite the four demons. They walk against each other, with the angels knocking the demons onto the floor. The girl then runs and pick up the two girls that were also shackled by sin. She brings them to the Bible, they pray, and Jesus takes the chains from around their necks. Suddenly, the demons get back up and there’s a whole spiritual warfare scene where, of course, the angels really win this time. Then the angels stand two on each side of Jesus, backing up the three girls, kind of raising them up a bit. That’s it. It is a very impressive drama. When I first heard the music I was skeptical because I’m not a fan of using non-Christian music. However, after seeing the drama I came to realize that the song works better than any other song on the planet (I also mean the words when I say that). Another thing that I came to realize is that many non-Christians know the song and so are very curious to see what is going on when they hear the music blaring very loudly (something that we did in a mall in Utrecht a few months ago. Of course, we also acted out the drama).

After the drama we had a very nice worship service and then Sacha spoke. He talked about how we need to be willing to serve God even when things go wrong. He used my friend from the Congo as an example. She’s 21 years old, both of her parents were killed before her eyes about two years ago and she had to flee her country. Her sister also had to flee, and my friend doesn’t know where she is or if she is alive. The same is for her brother. She doesn’t know if he made it out alive. But this girl, Meaderice, still loves God with all her heart, even when she’s feeling like she’s all alone in the world. She has no home, no income. She is moved around from place to place throughout Holland. She’s been here a year. She pretty much has no family or home, no income. Nothing. And she still lives to love God with all her heart. Sacha told us that we need to be persistent. He also talked about how we need to step out when God asks us to. After elaborating on that a bit he said that we were going to have a time of quiet with eyes closed and heads bowed. He said that he was gong to leave the microphone open for anyone to take it if they had a word from God or a verse that they felt led to share. Then he ended in a closing prayer.

Next was lunch and then there were some games outside. I didn’t participate right off because I had duty. Afterwards I went to participate. It was a pretty nutty game. I’m not going to elaborate. After that we went inside to pack up and clean up the entire camp area. Everything was cleaned. Then we walked out to the soccer field, made a big circle, prayed, loaded up into the cars, and went home.

And that was it. That ended the youth weekend, which pretty much ends this post. I will say, however, that it will not end the memories of the youth weekend, ever. They will always live on.