Spring Fellowship 2009 - Pemberton

(Almost) every year, the university-age young people of our church is having Spring Fellowship. As the name implies, it is usually during Spring Time, after the Winter term ends, but before the Summer term starts.

Spring Fellowship is basically the funnest activities for youth. It's kinda like Bible Camp, but with very limited Bible sessions, and a whole lot of free time, games, and sight-seeing. Not to mention BBQ and scavenger hunting. And the weekend is usually spent somewhere far from the ordinary, places you wouldn't visit by yourself, if not for the Spring Fellowship. Youth (and youth at hearts) are usually very excited to go on Spring Fellowship. And this year was no exception.

This year, the Spring Fellowship was at Pemberton during Mother's Day weekend. Pemberton was a small city about 1 hour north of Whistler. The Cottage was in the Valley, surrounded by mountains, farming lands, and grass.

View from the parking lot

Yup, behind the cottage was the cow stall. Moooooooo.....

Friday night started with Rawon Dinner, followed by games. One of the games involving two teams sitting in a straight line facing each other. The last person on the line would flip coin until he/she got a head. Then that person would shake the hand of the people in front of them. The first person on the line would then throw a cup full of baby powder to the opponent's face. Whoever lost would have white face (and t-shirt).

Now let me hold your hands, I want to hold your hands... (The Beatles)

Ivan, one of the victims
(btw, his team won this, so he shouldn't have gotten hit,
but in the heat of the moment, no time for logic... ^_^)

The front-of-the-war-line people... mostly white regardless of victory status

Then we played another game involving throwing a straw-protected egg from high place. Each team had different strategy.

The purple/blue team, using the least amount of scotch tape (wo hoo! extra points)

The orange team -- crack-proofing the egg with scotch tapes

Yellow team -- is that a hand fan?

Green team -- careful with that pod!

Let's just say my team didn't win, and leave it at that.

And that end the night. Mega, Lorensia, and Sylvi were busy vacuuming the floor (noticed the powder?), while some watched TV, played poker, played piano, preparing food for tomorrow (oh.. did I mention that Liong and Hosea were our in-house chef for the weekend?), slept, took photos, etc. Oh, the cows kept on mooing all night (weekend) long, and I kept thinking, "Is somebody's cell phone vibrating? Why don't they pick it up?"

Our cottage under the moonlight

The weather prediction for the weekend was not sunny, but thankfully, it was a bright and cheerful day that greeted us when we opened our eyes Saturday morning. That was a good thing, since we were going on a Scavenger Hunt!

We're going on a scavenger hunt
And we are not afraid
Got my gun on my side
Gonna catch the first prize...

Stop and pose before the bear.., I mean, the scavenger hunt

Start of the hunt was four-person-four-legged race!

The scavenger hunt was a secret ritual, and as such, no photos can be found. No evidence that the hunt ever taken place (except our own memory of the terrifying ordeal). You just had to be in it to feel it!

Next up was BBQ. We were so hungry nobody thought about taking pictures until after all the meat was gone. Ehem ehem.. ^_^ But we did remember to snap some pictures on dinner table.

Chicken with some kind of Liong's special sauce -- very yummy!!

Look! We even got dessert!! Mmmm... strawberry...

We had our first Bible session that night, followed by more Games and Talent Shows from each team. When I find more pictures, I will tell you the stories presented by each group.

And the night ended with fire crackers!!

Cihuyyy!! Pretty fire!!

Jumping up and down! Shout Hosanna!