The Weekend Away

This weekend just gone was our 7PM congregation's weekend away. It was a great weekend with fun and shannanigans for all, including a damaged ankle for Shaggy. :(
Friday night got home from work at 5:30, packed my bag and car and headed off to the church carpark where we all met before going down to Foo's Golden Inn for some Chinese dinner goodness. After that we piled into cars and drove down to the Kaloona conference centre in Nowra.
When we got there, we were met with the bad news that the previously mentioned sleep in and late breakfast was not going to be possible due to fixed meal times at the conference centre. With this in mind, I chose to go to bed at around 12:15. However, Eltham soon came in and we chatted for 45 mins or so, then Matt and Josh came in and, suprise suprise, Josh was up for a conversation. I am not sure how long we talked but I seem to think 2:30 was an expected sleep time.
Next day was really good with a few people coming down for the day and 2 great talks from Sandy. The main focus of the talks was evangelism. The 4 talks were on the topics of: Pray (for our non-christian friends and family, for opportunities and that we would take them), Love (really love people, dont see them as 'targets' or things like that. Get involved in their lives and love them like Jesus loved the 'tax collectors and sinners'), Share (share the good news of Jesus death and Resurrection with them as opportunities come up for the time is short), Invite (invite them along to church events and evangelistic services etc.).
Free time was cool with some ultimate frisbee being played. It was a good game with good involvement by all. After that stopped, I joined the volleyball game that was going on, it was fun with Sandy playing it up and smashing the ball down in my face in a DOMINATING type way. Lots of fun. Played a little red butt with the guys and found out later that Shaggy had damaged himself during the game. After that a few of us went for a walk down along the river. Apart from not looking where I was going and stepping in a cow pat it was pretty enjoyable...
After dinner we had the standard 'compulsary fun' that goes along with camps of this nature. We played 'capture the flag' which was kind of like tip but with objectives and so on. It didnt go for too long either so we were able to have a game of 'Settlers' afterwards. Finished off the night by sitting with Johnny and chatting whilst also reading the article in 'The Australian' about Peter Jensen. It was a hatchet job and was pretty harsh. However, I couldnt help but laugh out loud when I read lines like "He is too busy saving souls instead of looking after people's real needs".
Sunday was also good with the 3rd and 4th talks by Sandy. Sunday lunch and then home time. Drove Mark and Genno home and then went home myself for about an hour before having to go back to church for JBS. Shaggy was in emergancy waiting to get his foot looked at so I had the boys to myself. We went down to the EQ and got Squishies because Tim remembered the memory verse. The study was on 'Overseers and Deacons' from 1 Timothy but I was having trouble applying it to the kids so they were pretty restless.
Church was good but by this time I was ultra tired and had to leave pretty early after it finished. Rob did the first talk in our series on Isiah. He overviewed the first 39 chapters about God's warnings to the Jews saying if they do not repent they will be punished. They did not repent and were taken into exile for 70 years. However, God brought them back and let them start again and that is kind of where Chapter 40 came in. The sermon was good but, like I said, I was tired. Thankfully, during most of the service I was round the corner behind the drum kit so no one could see me yawning.
Now I'm at work and in desperate need of sleep. I have a day of checking drawings today which is pretty dull but I did get to go on an excursion to site this morning which was fairly interesting.
All in all, not bad...