Liv’It
Liv’It is an annual camp held at Hollybush Farm near Thirsk, North Yorkshire. Around about 80 young people from various youth groups in and around the Manchester Area. Ran from Sat night-Thurs Morning. Main co-ordinator is John Rothwell.
Camping
So my first true camping experience. I had a 4man tent, two bedrooms and a central area that was standing height. We were pitched on a slight hill and it was quite windy. I got a bit frustrated with the whole tent putting up process, wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing so in the end the boys took over for me! Apart from one day of heavy which ran into the central section of the tent and i got a puddle outside my bedroom door, it remained dry. None of my stuff got wet, I didn’t get wet so that kept me happy. A large number of spiders congragated in the roof of the central section and made those wispy webs from floor to ceiling. Not nice walking in at midnight to a faceful of web. Got the boys to clear it out a couple of times. Showers were ok, forgot my flip flops one day which was a major mistake. About 6 hours sleep a night…up at 6.20am. Slightly deflated airbed and a few mystery bruises appeared on my legs and arms but other than that survived pretty well I thought!
Mealtimes
Breakfast, lunch and dinner (well up north they call it tea…sillyness) were all together in the canteen. I made sure I got matching cup, bowl, plate and cutlery every day. One day SammyJ’s combination matched my dress…was a good day! We sang grace together, either ‘God Is Great’ or ‘O Fill My Cup’, the later becoming a tune to get well and truly stuck in your head late at night and incredibly annoying when trying to sleep! The food was good, especially porridge in the morning!
Morning Sessions
The morning sessions were at 9.30am for approx 1 1/2 hours. They consisted of The Mix Dance, GMLC (Good Morning Liv’It Camp, a largely improvised slot myself and Andrew as Jenny and Jerry. We did items of news (provided by the young people, for example James Benson does an amazing impression of a pig, It’s Andrew Cox’s Birthday and Josh sat on the Electric Fence), the weather (told by Matt’s hair), Today In History and Who’s Been a Naughty Leader. It was generally a bit of fun, and in the last session Jenny declared her undying love for Jerry who whisked her off the stage in his arms.), sung worship and a talk with group work. Myself and Keel had a small group called Millionaires (all the small groups were lion themed). We had some good conversations and times of prayer with the group and it was good getting to know them. Talks were on prayer, worship, and friendship.
Academies
11.30ish-1ish were the Academies. Options included Craft, Music, Sports, Technical and Drama. So three 1.5 hour sessions to create something wonderful. Myself and Andrew Dimon headed up the Drama Academy. We did some games and character related exercises then gave the group of 6 the task of creating a piece of Theatre In Education. The end result, performed in the Wednesday evening session was a piece on Peer Pressure and looked at the consequences of actions. Was very good!
Q&A
Each afternoon we split into younger/older groups for a Q&A session. Sunday’s was theological questions, Monday’s was Boy/Girl questions (split up into same sex groups) and Wednesday’s was general questions on being a Christian. There was a whole range of stuff including Why is the Bible so big, why do boys have big heads, do all Christians read the Bible and how old is God. Was a really good oppurtunity to chat and hear their opinions as well as share our views.
Evening Sessions
Evening sessions were from 7.30pm til 9.30pm ish. These included sung worship, small group games, Jammin’ (awesome games of throwing inflatables through hoops), a talk, response time and an episode of the Story of Daniel performed by myself, Andrew and various volunteers! (A fairly relaxed performance with the catchphrase ‘But you’re a girl’. Many a hilarious rehearsal and generally good fun to perform. A highlight would have to be slapping Andrew on the last one! Also managed to get in lots of bad jokes!) The evening sessions were fantastic, awesome times of worship, had the priviledge of praying with some girls and seeing one guy become a Christian. The themes we looked at were making a stand, miraculous intervention, rescue from difficult situations, humility and influence.
Liv’It Up L8
Liv’It Up L8 happened from around 10ish til 11ish…very flexible timing! First night was a Taste gig and then the next 3 nights a combination of silly games, Liv’It’s Got Talent, Lady Starburst and Dim’ll Fix It. Dim’ll Fix It is basically where the young people write in their wishes and Dim (Andrew), with his sidekick Miss Nabraincel (Me) tries to make their dreams come true. So we helped Jonny English fulfil his dream of catching a criminal by rescuing Miss Nabraincel from Him’ll Break It (La Roche) who had kidnapped her. Claire provided the special agent, and a stuffed toy the informant. We also helped Elliott achieve his dreams of being a ghost busting bunny rabbit by dressing him up and providing him with a voice activated hoover to get rid of the ghosts (voiced by Keel – La Roche, the phantom of the opera; SammyJ, the ghost of the car park and Claire, the headless ghost). Was all much fun! Then after Liv’It Up L8 we headed over to the Halo Bar for non alcoholic cocktails and chill and chat until midnight before bed!
Light Water Valley
Tuesday was Light Water Valley Theme Park Day. Claimed to be Yorkshire’s finest theme park, with Europe’s Longest Rollercoaster. It was a great day…though mainly for the company, not the quality of theme park! We were there from 11-4, spent most of the day wandering round, dodging the rain. My back was sore so decided not to go on any of the bigger rides. Did go on the dodgems however…never getting in a car with Keel driving! I got held hostage for 10seconds by a pirate, scary experience. The funniest thing was probably the conservation area which boasted over 20 bird boxes, 2 butterfly boxes and a hedgehog box. We saw one butterfly. And they had screwed speakers to the trees and were playing 80s music…to the plants!
Highlights
It was such a good week at Liv’It, i pretty much loved every minute! There were lots of laughs and fun times, bust most of all it was great to see the young people engaging with God. To watch them change over the week and to hear their questions and pray with them was such an honour. We won’t fully know the extent of God’s work in people’s lives but we have heard one story of a guy who God really spoke to and is planning to get baptised. Just so rewarding! In one word…Brilliant!!
Tags: Academies, Baptism, Brilliant, Camping, Christians, Dim'll Fix It, Dodgems, GMLC, Halo Bar, Hollybush Farm, Jammin, Lady Starbust, Light Water Valley, Liv'It, Millionaires, Mix Dance, Peer Pressure, Porridge, Rain, Spiders, Story of Daniel, Theology