As my alarm went off at 6:30 am, I wondered what I could possibly need to be doing on a Monday morning in the third week of holidays. Of course! I remembered that today was the first day of the camp we had been waiting for weeks to start. I began the drive up to Winmalee, finally arriving at 8:30, ready for a few things to set up before we began camp!

There was a buzz in the room as we all sat down, waiting for Mr Noble to begin the first session. After a few boring details, he mysteriously pulled out a deck of cards and began to hand them out, one by one, until each student has one. It turned out that exactly 52 students had signed up for the camp, so each of us would have our own, individual card. At any given time, whether it was for an answer in a talk or a recap of a recent event, the teachers could call on a card, and one of the students would answer on the spot! It was always nerve-racking hearing “Ace of…” before knowing if the suit would be mine.

There were many awesome events that happened at the camp, and one of these was the bushwalk. After the sun had set, we set out with our headlamps on into the bushes, following the trail that was marked out before us. Near the conclusion of the walk, we stepped to the side of the trail and sat down, turning our headlamps on. Sitting in the open air, with no light or noise to distract, was a surreal experience. It was wonderful to simply sit in God’s creation and take in the vast expanse of nature that he had created.

After the bushwalk, we found ourselves at a campfire, which was helpfully set up by the teachers and some Winmalee staff. Sitting around it, we had time to reflect on camp so far, as well as some good old-fashioned campfire singalong with an Acoustic Guitar.

Another exciting event was the trivia and dress-up night. The theme for the dress-up was ‘Dress up as your favourite bible verse!’ Seeing some creative costume ideas, including the Year 12 girls’ dramatic entrance to dinner as ‘The Fruits of the Spirit’ was hilarious. The trivia ranged from bible themed, to WCC themed, to some plain old General Knowledge, but it was fantastic to collaborate with the various students in each team to try and win. A shoutout to “Anson does not Liu’s”, who did in fact “not lose”, but came out as champions of the night.

There were many great opportunities for service and kindness on camp, and one of these was helping out with meals. For every meal, one or two cabins would be assigned to help set up or pack up the meal. As the saying goes, many hands make light work, and the participation in this from all of the students made it a breeze. Additionally, there was a “thankfulness wall” in the main hall, where you could drop an anonymous letter into a labelled envelope. At the end of camp, each student took home their envelope and could reflect on all of the things that their peers were thankful for about them.

One of the best parts of camp was the incredibly supportive, engaged and at times humorous presence of the teachers on camp. A massive thank you to Mr Noble, Mr Arthur, Mr Fitzgerald, Mr Burton, and Mrs Murray for coordinating and leading on this camp.

Overall, the camp was a fantastic experience, where we got to grow in our understanding of God and the sacrifice he made for us on the cross.