The Maylong Study Weekend 2017

The annual Fraser Valley Young Peoples League's Maylong Study Weekend took place last weekend.

It was a much smaller turnout this year than last, but it made for a better time in my opinion. There were less trouble makers and smaller groups which made for better discussions.

Will and I arrived a tad bit late because he was unable to get off work early, but that was alright.

Our group.

I got to go as a camper this year, instead of a rep. It was very different!

It was nice to get to sleep in instead of getting up for 7:00am meetings, or having to stay awake for middle of the night for patrols. I found myself cleaning things up quite often and Will had to remind me that it wasn't my responsibility.

I was quick to participate in discussions, but it was nice to not have to worry about leading them.

Pastor Doug was the speaker for the weekend.

The topic he spoke on was Bringing Light to the Darkness.

His first speech was on The Darkness: Signs of Depression

The second was on Bringing Light: Dealing with Depression

and his final speech was on Enlightenment: Gender Dysphoria

His sermon on Sunday morning was based on Psalm 88 which ends with the verse, "Darkness is my only friend."

He showed us this short film from the World Health Organization,

I Had a Black Dog, His Name Was Depression.

Pastor Doug's speeches were the best, in my opinion, of the past 3 years.

I spoke with a few campers about what they thought of what he had to say and I heard no complaints, only positive comments and much appreciation for his honesty and bluntness.

Catching up with old friends

These guys seemed to think it was a camping trip. They had a whole circle of reclining lawn chairs and barbecued steaks and chicken wings throughout the weekend. 😛

Karaoke night.

Esther and I even got up there.

It wasn't exactly our brightest idea ever, but being exhausted from lack of sleep on an already late night and the adrenaline caused from singing along with other performances gives you the courage to do weird things.

These guys performed three songs and really got into every one. 😛 They left everyone in stitches.

I got some time with my girlfriends to wedding plan!

The wheel of misfortune

On Saturday and Sunday we played a bunch of team games together and would battle against other teams.

We were given 10 minutes to come up with something that would make the judge of this challenge laugh. We wrote a skit about her, and how she broke her toe the week before.