Ardeonaig

Unfortunately despite all our best intentions we were not able to blog daily while at Ardeonaig. Here is a run down of what happened during the the rest of camp.

Wednesday: After a great day doing activities the children were tired. Many people were sun burnt but everyone seemed to have enjoyed their day out. After supper we divided into two teams and enjoyed the bouncy castle or a twister like game that was a quiz????
One girl had been continually disruptive, not sitting down at meal times, constantly disrupting sessions and encouraging others to join her. Despite warnings she was still causing problems so the difficult decision was made to send her home. This was obviously traumatic for the other children and volunteers and the young girl as well. Everyone was exhausted and went to bed quite quickly.

Thursday: Today we did either gorge walking or high ropes in the morning. Big respect to Tony Stevenson who was aparently a complete gentleman, helping all the girls in his group over rocks and trees whilst "gorgeous walking." Also to Michelle, our smallest, youngest camper who was the only person to challenge all of the high ropes course. Even some of the male leaders were too scared to make it to the top of some of the poles! Also hat off to Paula our Reality volunteer who did the first ever cartwheel on a high beam at an Abernethy Centre!
In the Afternoon we went down to the Loch in our teams to construct Rafts for the rafting world cup. I would like to contest the result and say that Team "Crazy C's" most definately did not cheat and were in fact 2nd. The race was quite fun but the real fun was the piracy involved in the sink the rafts challenge which quickly developed into sink all the instructors canoes challenge. Fish boy and mer-girl enjoyed some swimming!
In the evening Andy and Esther gave a really great time out presentation involving rotten eggs on the head and the theme of sacrifice. This was followed by Jamies gross game which involved lots of flour and sour soup on the face...yuck!

Friday: The groups were either involved in High ropes or low ropes and Archery (although our groups archery was abandoned for a game of hide and seek!) After lunch and clean up (there were 5pairs of unclaimed boxer shorts!) we set off back home.
Some of you may already know about the traumatic journey that followed. At aberfeldy one of the mini-buses filled with smoke and a bus full of traumatised children poured out onto the bank of the motorway. Thankfully no one was hurt and the damage was not serious although the bus was put out of action. Richard was no doubt exhausted from 2 midnight trips to take children home during the week, the normal strains of camp and dealing with the bus and the children so God, who is SO good, sent a driver from the hire company to drive around the borders taking children home. We didnt ask but God, who knows our needs, sorted it out.
The other mini bus set off soon after the other bus broke down that at least some of us would get home in time. Another car signalled for us to pull in just outside of perth to let us know that we had lost bags from the top of our mini-bus quite far back. The children started getting stressed out and it turned out we had lost 2bags, one belonging to volunteer Andy and one belonging to Nathan. After a few calls to the police Esther got a phone call from a man who was coming down from Inverness who had picked up the bags, found Andy's mobile and started dialing numbers. Thanks to this kind man the bags have been returned to us and we seem to only be missing one shoe. We finally got home, some of us on time, some of us later than we had hoped.
Isaiah 49: "At just the right time, I will respond to you. On the day of salvation I will help you.I will protect you and give you to the people as my covenant with them."

Although we had our problems it was a good camp. I think of Kirsty from Kinrkintilloch, crying on the first day and very shy, who positively blossomed, or David a volunteer from the borders who built a real friendship with both Emma and Chris, listening to them, working with them closely, or Tony whose first concern when the mini bus broke down was to return to the bus to get one of the girls inhaler...there are many more stories but I think the smiles on the childrens faces in these photos tell them all. Thank you for your prayers.