I just cleared one whole screen of ramblings about the camp planning. When Amanda asked me to share about the preparation for the camp, I couldn't really think of anything interesting to talk about, or worth reading. So I'm going to try as much as possible to focus on the interesting details.
Planning for this year's camp was going to be tough in the first place because we had only 6 people instead of the usual 7. This meant that the workload was shared by less people. But at the beginning, I just thought it was cool how we could fit just nice into a hexagonal table when we joined two of the trapezium tables in Hall 2 together. And I must say, so far, I think we actually managed quite well with 6 people, though we'll really have to wait for the camp to see.
I think the hardest part of the planning is coming up with the camp theme. We took most of the first half of the year just talking about this actually. We had so many ideas (and we only had 6 people). We wanted to focus on different things, like the power of love, relationships, friendships, even revolution! But we settled on what we thought we all struggled with - the reality of God in our lives. So we came up with the theme De-realed. As I've already said before, we came up with the word and it doesn't exist, so don't bother checking up the dictionary. However, I must say that it wasn't entirely our idea as I kind of ripped it off Yen who gave me the idea. Before this we were coming up with things likes "Get Real", "Where God", even "The Real Deal", which we thought were really cheesy. So we landed ourselves with De-realed, which is meant to sound like ‘derailed', which means a train going off the tracks. I know. On hindsight, it does sound a bit morbid. But I think it is a cool way to describe the problem.
Another thing we decided early on in the planning is the type of camp. You might find it interesting to know that at certain points we even thought of having things like a sports camp. We wondered what young people would be interested, and Benji suggested sports. If you know me, you know that wouldn't happen as me as camp chairman. Jim even wanted something with physically strenuous activities, like the Brothers' Retreat. His theory - suffering helps bonding. But don't worry, I have saved you all from all these. The general idea was that we will have something fun. We could all use some fun!
But that is easy to say, hard to plan. I seriously hope that everyone will find it fun and enjoyable. Even if you don't, pretend ok? We had problems coming up with Special Program and ... sort of more Special Programs. We wanted something that has impact, but not too serious. Fun but meaningful. Memorable and not boring. Honestly, we only decided on these activities sometime in October and November, which is quite last minute. Since now you know it took us so long to come up with the idea, try to enjoy it! I can't tell you more; otherwise it won't be special anymore.
We are in out last phase of planning, which is basically to tie down all the loose ends, like who's going to do what and when during the camp. And also things like camp booklet, T-shirts, camp groupings and stuff like that. So do pray for us that we will have discipline as we settle all these things. And above all, the most important thing is that God will be real in our planning. He was the one who gave us the ideas, and He is the one we are doing all these things for. Indeed the whole point of the camp is to discover that God is real, very real in all our lives.
