Lance is Pretty Much the Best Spotter Ever

This weekend, quite a few people in the Wedgwood college and young adult department went for an overnighter at Camp El Har (which is Hebrew for "the mountain of God", although it was really just a large hill). The purpose of the retreat was to help build relationships and teamwork within the group. Let me just say right away that we had a blast!

Friday night we unloaded our stuff and gathered together for a friendly night game of capture the flag. It was the college group verses the young adult group. Nick and I decided to play guard at our base's jail. Since people get caught pretty easily and sent to jail, Style (one of the camp staff) would ring a bell three times to free everyone in jail on both sides. It got to the point where Nick and I just started releasing our prisoners for the fun of it. The college group ended up winning with one flag.

After that we met around a campfire (which Super Dave had to light) and sang praises to God led by Tommy and Jesse. Lance also gave a devotion about being busy about the Lord's work. Don't get caught standing around looking into the sky (Acts 1). While we were out there a raccoon decided to join us. I guess he smelled the hotdogs and smores that we had; either that or he wanted to sing. I consumed four hotdogs, two smores, some more graham crackers and chocolate, a few marshmellows, and a coke. Yeah, I was pretty hungry. Super Dave gave us a little magic show which I thought was quite humorous. In fact, he even did his own music. He's multi-talented.

When we finally got into our bunks, some of us stayed up talking and laughing. Josh was quite the entertainer, and Richard...well, he's just Richard. Shannon's snoring got so loud that Josh kicked the bottom of his bed. He got quite for a little while anyway. At one point, Jesse crawled over to where I was and told us to be quiet, which only encouraged me to laugh more. Then there was this mysterious chant music...we couldn't quite figure that one out.

After breakfast the next morning, we walked down to the ropes area where we would spend the remainder of the day (excluding lunch time of course). During the time spent before lunch, we broke up into two groups and worked on some activities (some were quite the challenge) designed to help us work together as a team.

After lunch, we headed back down for the personal challenges (the high ropes). A few of us started out on the climbing wall. Oh yeah, just so that you know, we had to learn a few commands for everyone's safety. Each challenge started like this (we'll use Coach and Norman as an example):

Norman: "On belay?"

Coach: "Belay on."

Norman: "Spotters ready?"

Bob and Lance (very enthusiasticly): "Ready."

Norman: "Climbing."

Coach: "Climb on."

Style told Lance that he was pretty much the best spotter ever. I have to admit that he was pretty good. Lance and I worked as a team for the rest of the day. It was during this time that he started calling me Raz'r (not really sure why, but it's cool).

All of the high ropes challenges were fun. It was great getting to know my friends a little better and getting to know some people for the first time.