Aussie Mozzies

We have returned from our weekend of camping with the youth group, quite tired, and relatively unscathed, save the mosquito (mozzy) bites all over my body. I still seem to react quite strongly to them over here. It was suggested to me that taking some extra Vitamin B might help the reactions in the future; I'll have to check that out.

I think we ended up with 10 kids on the trip, plus 6 leaders who were there off and on (Jesse and I had to leave early this morning for him to preach; another leader had to work yesterday and arrived in the evening). The theme for the Bible lessons was the parable of the Good Samaritan, and I was excited by the level of participation in each study from the youth. One such session ended abruptly when the local possum in the tree decided to relieve himself on half the teens. "That's not rain!" will never have the same meaning.

There were certainly trying factors; namely, the kids would not settle down until well after midnight Friday night, and we had not brought earplugs, nor a soundproof tent, so we didn't get to sleep for awhile. I awoke with a start, at 5am Saturday, to one girl screaming to another, "BE QUIET!" Despite the lack of sleep, though, the kids still managed to have fun ;) Jesse got a rousing game of beach cricket going in the morning, as the tide began coming in and slowly overtaking the wicket.

It was quite humid. After lunch, I decided to nap in the tent, and awoke pretty much covered in sweat. All the kids and Jesse were swimming, so I headed for the beach and rowed around in the canoe with Jesse (or let him row ;) . The rest of the evening was enjoyable; the kids were taking turns in the one shower, then working on a skit modernizing the parable for the youth service this evening. We built a fire and cooked potatoes, onions, and sausages on it for dinner. The fire was a great help in prevention of mosquitoes. As the evening wore on, we played a little cricket with the glow-in-the-dark ball Jesse had found (more of a home run derby type idea, with one person batting until s/he was bowled or caught out), a few roasted marshmallows, and we had some good conversations.

Given the previous night's antics, we got them into their tents a bit earlier, and set a lights-out time. We all must have been tired, because not much enforcement was necessary (one boy had to be escorted from his dangerously-close-to-the-fire chair to his tent to ensure he, in his sleep-induced state, did not fall out of the chair/into the fire) at lights-out time, and all was quiet until Jesse and I awoke at 7am. We brought 2 girls back early with us, who needed to be around for dance rehearsals (something every girl in the youth group seems to be involved with) and set them up with the Wii while Jesse and I got ready for church. They were picked up, we finished getting ready, and off to church we went. After church, I had lunch and a nap.

All that to say; this weekend brought to you courtesy of mozzies, teens and naps. We'll head back to the church in a little bit for the youth service, where the teens will hopefully be putting on the skit they wrote for the rest of the church.