“I can’t wait to head down to Rotorua for men’s camp!!” This weekend I was going down to Rotorua with friends from church. Every year there’s a men’s camp and this year was my first time going. If you don’t know I attend Equippers Manukau Church and we also have a church in the city.Unfortunately I had to hop into my friends, dad’s van along with two other guys and four adults plus all our gear. The whole trip down my friends and I were crammed at the back of a car like sardines in a can. I could feel my legs slowly losing circulation. As we headed down to Rotorua there was a detour which made our trip longer so we stopped and ate K.F.C in Paeroa . By the time we got to Rotorua it was 10:30pm so instead of heading to our first session of the conference which started at 9:30, we headed to a place called Crank backpackers thats where we slept for the night.
Mornings are the worst thing ever. I woke up and quickly got changed while I was half asleep and I was one of the last people to wake up, only because I heard a voice it was my friend Danny. After that I decided to wake up my other friend Noah. He told me that he was going to have a little power nap before getting up. As soon as all of us were ready we headed to McDonalds for breakfast. We finally arrived at the convention center for the first service to begin. Once we were in there, we were seated and praise and worship begun. Pastor Sam Monk talked about something I couldn’t quite remember and I fell asleep. I woke up at the end feeling refreshed.
The next session I stayed awake this time but my mate Tremaine fell asleep. In this session Pastor Ian Wright spoke about how some men can get bored because they were not satisfied and they are tempted by pornography. It made me feel a little bit uncomfortable but it is a real life issue that some men struggle with. He talked about how to pray over temptation if it does affect you and to share and not hide it. I remember how he talked about how Adam knew he was naked and he hid from God. Throughout his message I didn’t really listen but I picked up some valid points.
So during our break time we headed to a park where all the men went to play games and activities. These activities included Touch, Rugby and Volleyball. I took part in a game of rugby but not with the adults just some of my friends, all around my age. After the rugby game we all headed to the playground to play tiggy.
My highlight for the whole camp was when they had this challenge in our 2 service where they had to chose one person from each church had a challenge to try as many push ups as they can. The most that one person did was 62 all in one go. But out of the whole camp I really enjoyed hanging out with my church friends.
