| 8:45p |
"What I Did at Beachmission", by Carla Gee, Beachmission Cheerleader
I arrived back from Beachmission yesterday afternoon. Beachmission was such a blast! I learnt heaps and grew a lot as a Christian, which I didn't expect to happen.
I arrived at Tuggerah station a little before 7pm. My friend Sharon and my new friend Russell picked me up. Once we got to the Beachmission site (Berkley Vale High School), I was like, "So, this is Beachmission. Where's the beach?" I didn't actually get to see the beach the whole time that I was there, for reasons you will find out soon. Being on a mission where I only knew 4 people out of 50 was more difficult than I expected. Everyone was really lovely to me, but I still felt strange. I missed all of my FEVA friends- I missed being with people who knew me. But by the next day, I was good buddies with everyone, and we were getting on capitally! God is so awesome, how He bonds people together so quickly. I was in a team of leaders for a group called the Mini Mites. The kids we were leading were from kindy to year one. I think that God is so cool how He has given us so many creative ways to teach people about Him. The Mini Mites leaders had decorated this section of Berkley Vale High School to look like a library, with posters of books on the walls, beanbags and bookshelves. My friend Rebecca was this character called Miss Ziggy, and we also had a puppet theatre with this puppet called Billy (he looked SO amazing, like something out of Sesame Street!) and another puppet called Pages (who was a giant soft and felty book). I loved watching my new friends teach the little kids- this gentle and fun side came out of everyone. A few of the little girls took a liking to me, and they wanted to hold my hands and sit next to me all the time! They were so cute!
God answered my prayers, and I really grew to love the Beachmission team. I met this girl called Jane, and can you believe it, no-one had called her "Jungle Jane" before I had! She is the coolest chick- very bubbly and enthusiastic. We have a big thing in common- we're both the sort of girls who are always dancing alone next to the stereo at parties! We did a bit of dancing together at Beachmission to Kylie's "Greatest Hits" album, much to the dismay of all of the metal lovers there. There was also this lady there called Rhonda who I thought was just so amazing. She was probably a little younger than my mum, and she'd been a Christian since she was seven. She would have known so much about the Bible, yet she was so humble all the time. Rhonda always had a big grin on her face, and she was my mum during the time I was on Beachmission! I also met this boy called Russell who said that he'd teach me Karate! That is so cool! He's very funny- he jumps up and grabs onto poles and does thirty spontaneous chin-ups. I'm lucky if I can do one!
Here are three other things that I learnt:
1. I don't like camping that much.
2. I don't like bugs that much anymore.
3. The gypsy thing might not really be a good idea.
You see, gypsies don't wear contact lenses, which are a bit of a pain on camp, and also, their immune systems are probably pretty tough from all of that roaming about that they do. My time at Beachmission ended a little dramatically, with me getting really sick and having to leave early. I got really sick all of a sudden on Tuesday night- it was probably from sleeping in front of the windy tent opening the night before. I ended up having to be driven to one of the leader's houses so that I could stay the night there. I missed out on a lot of the program the next day. Then I kept feeling sick and then better, sick and then better, so finally I decided to leave early. Which is why I didn't get to go to the beach, which is what we were going to do on the afternoon after I left. I'm really glad to be home, though- I didn't realise how much I missed my family and my home. I think that I do like sleeping in a real bed, and being prissy and wearing nail polish and stuff. Getting sick while on a mission was a bit of a wake-up call. I think that I've been living too fast for too long- it seems that I never sleep enough, and I don't ever get much time to myself. I'm always rushing around, working and going out and being busy. I really need to slow down.
One night on Beachmission, there was a bushfire really close to the school. I've never seen a bushfire that close before! My new friend Sally was from the Central Coast, and she says that it's really common for kids to light fires during the holidays. I was so scared, though! A couple nights later, all of the girls woke up in the middle of the night, because there was a huge storm going on. We were so scared! There were about ten of us in there, and we didn't know what to do. This girl called Jenny started praying out loud for us, asking God to keep us and our possessions safe. The thunder was so loud, and the rain was so heavy. Water started creeping into our tent. I felt so sorry for the boys next door, because their tent had only a roof and no walls. I called out and asked them if they wanted any help or if they wanted to come into our tent. I couldn't hear what they said because of all the rain and thunder, but I saw Russell give the thumbs-up. The boys all looked so relaxed, lying there, while all of us girls were standing up and making a fuss! In the end, the storm died down, and everyone had a funny story to tell the next day.
One other really cool thing about Beachmission was that I got to bond a lot with people from my new church. It's going to be so great to see them at church every week, now!
Oh and by the way- the big tents we were staying in looked like circus tents, and I did more somersaults than usual. Maybe I did join the circus after all! |