Curch Camp Activities....

I spent this week Monday through Friday at a CCV church camp. I had a BLAST!!! I will never forget my experience there, especially the activities we had to do..... some that I will share made me laugh and made me ever so slightly concerned....

Now, I'm sure they're doing everything to keep the camp fun and safe so that no one gets hurt, but some of the rules and activities made me question it.

On Monday, our first day, they gave us a list of the activities we were assigned. Our activity that Monday was to go paint balling. I have never in my life gone paint balling but decided to try it. When we made the long trek to the paint ball station I realized I was wearing shorts and not pants. I had seen people who had huge welts that turned into bruises that they wore proudly and called them 'battle wounds' but cried every time you touched them. I wasn't about to get huge discolored welts covering my legs. But then I decided I wasn't about to let scars stop me.

I began to listen to the man running the station who explained the rules to us before we started. He began to tell us how we should NEVER take our masks off. He said that if you took it off and got shot in the head that because the paint ball came out with such force and speed, that it could knock your eyes out of the socket. He said they would have to take you to the hospital and you will either live with holes for eyes or glass eyes. All the time he said that he kept an extremely serious face and I had no idea of knowing weather he was kidding or not. It didn't matter, I would just never under ANY circumstances, take the mask off.

He went on to say that we would be against the boys, who showed no mercy in this "game of fun", he explained. He said if you wanted to leave at any time, just raise your gun over your head and yell "surrender, I surrender" over and over until you're at your base. He forewarned us that sometimes the boys shoot us anyway, and that you can only shoot from at least 20 feet away.

I decided that I would pass the first round to see how some of my friends liked it. It wasn't long before my friend came back out with a welt on her shoulder. She had used all her ammo and had surrendered. She stood up from the rock she had been hiding behind and put her gun up above her head, yelled surrender, and turned around. The boy 6 feet away stood up and took the chance to shoot her. She came back and sat next to me with a bright red, puffy welt and an hour later it was black and blue and gross. All the wounds were grossing me out so I walked down the hill with a friend and got a Frappachino. The harmless "game of fun" seemed more like a "game of life or death" to me.

On Tuesday we had something called the Leap Of Faith. You were put in a harness and had to climb up a 30 foot high pole and jump and try to grab a bar dangling from a wire above your head. This seemed pretty harmless and the thing that made me uncertain was how we were held up. On the other end of the rope that was holding you, as you climbed up and fell down, was a man. He was a skinny, small (like a 5 feet tall) man who was holding on to it and gently lowering you down. All I could think about is him loosing his footing or dropping the rope and the person tied to the other end, crashing to the ground. Oh, yah, the pole was probably 6 inches wide and would literally shake when you stood on top of it.  So along with the unstable pole, my life depended on a scrawny man at the other end.  I decided not to take the chance.

On Wednesday, it was zip line. This, I knew, was the only exception to not safe. It may look scary, but I REALLY wanted to go on this and was so excited. It was the one thing I wanted to do out of all the choices. I wanted to go last year but the line was broken. The only thing I didn't know was that we had to rock climb up the side to get up to the platform of the zip line. "Anything but rock climbing, I'd even go on a ladder," I remember telling myself. But I decided I would do it. The right side looked easy enough. There were two rows of rock climbing walls. On the right they were closer together, and had grooves in them for your hand and feet to hold on to. On the left they were spread farther apart and the rocks were round and almost flat up against the wall. They gave your fingers and feet absolutely NO hold on the wall. And of course, with my luck, when I reached first in line, I had to go on the left side. The lady running it came over to me and said I was up on the left side. I explained politely that I really wanted the right side. She look my arm and practically drug me over to the left rock wall. She hooked me up and said, "they are the same kid," and she left me there to struggle to the top. I was doing okay until I was practically 4 feet from the top when there was like 2 feet from the rock I held on to desperately and the next one. My toes were pressed in between the centimeter from the rock and the wall, and I was literally digging my fingernails into the rock as I tried desperately to stay on.

I then used my legs and stretched as far as I could to the rock above me and barley had my fingertips on. So I'm up like 45 feet in the air with my arms way above me and my feet way below me when my feet slip off. I felt like screaming but instead bit my lip. Sure, I could drop and the cord that was tied to me would lower me down, or I could try to regain my hold. I dug my fingernails into the hard rubber rocks and tried to put my feet on the rocks they slipped from. All I wanted to do was get up there and do the zip line. I became upset at the fact that we had to rock climb while the people who worked up on the platform took stairs up. I was dangling 45 feet up in the air by my fingernails. My fingers were white and I felt defeated. I refused to let go because I knew they only let us get one try because of the number of people who wanted to do it. I was trying desperately, frantically, trying to get a hold on the round rocks as I watch the person on the right side breeze up over the platform and I wanted to scream for help before I fell, and tell the lady who claimed it was "easy" to let me take the stairs. But just then I slipped and for 10 feet I fell fast. I screamed and my stomach seemed in my throat. Then the cord holding me stopped and slowly lowered me down to earth. I felt discouraged and defeated as I took off my harness and hung it up. I felt hot tears brim my eyes but I took a deep breath and blinked repetitively, willing myself not to cry. I tried to tell myself there would be other times I could go and that certainly, I would get another chance to zip line sometime in my future.

Church camp, overall, was a great experience and I was so happy I went again this year. I will allways remember it and cherish the memories. I am so grateful I was able to go and have a fun time!!

Audra

Comments

[chris]

This church camp sounded a lot like the one I went to. Was it in a forest type gronds with only a furnace and windows for heating and cooling. If its the same camp dont feel bad about not going on the zip line because i didnt eathier. And about paint balling getting hit only hurts for about 5 min. I would know. i got shot buy my own team...TWICE!!! Any way i have to go hope your well bye.

Chris

P.S. If theres any spelling errors sorry its summer and im forgetting every thing I learned.

[Randall]

Hi Audra,

When I saw that you were blogging about your experiences at CCV’s church camp, I was totally excited. I have been waiting for a long time for someone to write an article that shares their personal experience about our church camp, and now you have done it. Thanks so much!! I am hoping to use your blog article to help inspire other junior high kids to come to CCV’s stupendous church camp next year. What do you think? As I read through the blog, I found your writing to be wonderfully descriptive, and the raw emotion you felt during some of the activities comes through very clearly. However, I must mention that I might have to edit your blog slightly, since there appears to be a hint of cynicism running through several of the paragraphs. Originally I was thinking we could hand out a 2-page flyer containing the detailed description of your church camp activities, but after doing a little editing, now I’m thinking a 3 x 5 note card will work just fine. After editing, here is my final version:

Audra Pettit’s Personal CCV Church Camp Testimony:
I spent Monday through Friday at a CCV church camp. I had a BLAST!!! I will never forget my experience there, especially the activities we had to do. Church camp, overall, was a great experience and I was so happy I went again this year. I will always remember it and cherish the memories. I am so grateful I was able to go and have a fun time!!

There, that should do it. As for all the fun activities you described, we’ll just let everyone find out about them when they get to camp next year. :-) Randall