8 Nov 2008

Day 3: Friday: Continued Camp

Today; quite busy, seeing the rest of Asian Young Life weekend away. We also helped in the kitchen after breakfast & lunch, before seeing in another weekend away group of about 250 young people, most of who weren’t Christians. The idea was to see a whole weekend of Young Life camp.

Day 2: Thursday: Seeing camp

OK today was a late waking day [jetlag grrr!] & basically had a day to have a look around Lake Champion, taking in their facilities, then went out for a pizza with Randy & the guys. Later on that evening, a group of 50 or so young people came over from Asian Young Life. It was great to see this guy’s ministry & see how he interacts with this young people from Asian descent.

Day 1: Wednesday: Arrival

So it’s Wednesday [OK really it's Saturday teehee!!] & I’ve been up for nearly 24 hours & am totally bushwacked, but here’s the story so far:

Got up at just after 5am & got on the 6:20am bus to Heathrow Terminal 5. With plenty of time I got through check-in & security & had a Starbucks breakfast & chatted to Maddie for a while before I boarded the plane. It was a British Airways 747 flight & nice & comfortable, but maybe not enough legroom for me – my knees properly caned afterwards. Good food on the flight & a couple of good movies kept me occupied for most of the flight, but did sleep [& dribbled!!] for a little while.

When I landed it definitely dawned on me that I’m coming to America [duh!], to meet with some people from Scotland & an American guy called Randy – none of whom I’d met before in my whole life!! Once through the intense security at customs, I got my case & went through the exit door – not know who I was looking for, or even if I could find them! Thankfully when I got through to the terminal, there was a guy asking every person if they were called Simon! This turned out to be Randy Nickel, & waiting for me just outside were 2 Scottish gentlemen - Paul & Graham.

We chatted for a bit & headed into Manhattan [a.k.a. New York], where we took in the sights of Times Square, went up the Empire State building saw the awesome views of the city. Next we had a wicked Chinese banquet & then headed off for a 2 hour drive to Lake Champion. We settled in & went to sleep almost instantly to a great place called Swiss House – the adult guest rooms.