A Weekend Away

DTI (Dreaming the Impossible) is the UK Vineyard youth gathering held every year in May, 3 hours NE of Oxford.  Both Olivia and Luke left last Friday for this amazing weekend away, returning Monday night with endless stories of their experience.  This was the first time either one of them had gone to some youth event without either Jeff or myself being a part of it in some way, and we were excited for them to have the opportunity to get away from us and just be themselves in the wild and wacky world of teenagers.  Although the kids packed sleeping bags and air mattresses, it wasn't until arriving on the campgrounds that Luke realized he would actually be camping.... like in a tent.  Until that point he'd thought he was camping in a cabin.   Since we have had record rainfall this past month, it was a miracle that the rain held off for the weekend. Still it was pretty brisk and in Olivia's words, "I honestly don't ever remember being colder in my whole life."  In spite of freezing all weekend, Olivia and Luke both had great fun.

What youth camp would be complete without something really disgusting being fed, dumped or otherwise forced upon the youth leaders?  But these people took it to a whole new level.  Several youth leaders names were drawn for the ultimate camp challenge.  Eating things like hot peppers, baby food and dog food..... I've seen it all before... But then they were fed mealworms on toast, live locusts and pig snout, ear and heart!!!  And what's more, they got buckets of maggots thrown on their heads.  It's almost too much for me to write..... Maggots are one of the nastiest things on earth. I find them so repulsive that if I find them in the trash can, I'd rather buy a new one than clean them out.

Needless to say, the kids were exhausted after their camping adventure.  Tuesday morning I woke the kids up for school and was met with moans all around.  When Max heard me discussing with Luke the possibility of him staying home from school, Max's head sprang from the pillow and he looked at me and said, "WHAT? I never get to stay home from school."  He tried to come up with some quick and valid reasons why He should also be allowed to skip school (or skive, as they call it here). At the end of listing his reasons, he said "PLUS, Tuesdays are my worst day for school.  I just don't like the word and we have to do so much literacy on Tuesdays!"  I quickly buried my head in his pillow so he wouldn't see me laugh.  I have heard lots of excuses for not wanting to go to school, but not liking the word Tuesday has never been one of them. Max scored some points for creativity.

Every group participating in DTI made a video representing their group that would be shown and voted on at camp.  Below is the video that the Oxford Vineyard group created.  Much fun and well done!

Some of the youth working on the first phase of the video

*To watch in full screen click the YouTube icon in the bottom right hand corner