Surf City 2013 - Day 5

It's time to head home and many of our students have insisted that the week has gone by way too fast. In just a few short hours our feet will hit the ground in Pittsburgh and we will be back to the "real world." Nobody wants to leave, but all agree it would be nice to be home.

Yesterday started out with the normal routine of breakfast and seminars. After we heard the current point standings, we were eager to compete in our final competition... the highly anticipated Surf City Regatta! Each team is given some basic building materials and given the challenge to build a boat. Teams decorate their boats and team members and then perform in a parade to flaunt their accomplishments in front of the other teams for the sake of intimidation. Teams then race their boats to bring home the glory. We fought to the end and came in a respectable second place.

After lunch, some of our group went horseback riding and the rest of us spent the day at the waterfront playing in the water, getting last minute tube rides in, and finally mustering up enough courage to let Jordy blob them into oblivion. We almost lost Julianne forever.

That evening was another round of club. We rocked out to the music, cheered on our favorite circus bears as they set out to start their new career as successful rappers, and listened to our speaker Jerry challenge us to do something with our faith.

We ended the night with a huge carnival complete with cotton candy, tons of games and even a dunk tank willed with 50 fish from the lake. Students played different carnival games and earned tickets. They could use their tickets to either win prizes or take a shot at dunking their leader into the fish-filled water. Jenn and Andrew both took one for the team last night and took the plunge. The carnival ended with an incredible firework show. We all went back to the cabins for our final night in camp. Then the boys decided to get even with their leader Andrew. You see, the morning before Andrew thought it would be funny to draw on some faces as students slept in. What he didn't anticipate was them deciding to ban together and revolt against him. The result is the picture below. Classic!

It's been an amazing week. I truly believe we made memories that will last forever... but more importantly I hope our students took to heart the challenge to follow Jesus and do something with their lives that could impact the world around them for good. We are packing up now and getting ready to leave. Looking forward to seeing you tonight!