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Last updated: 04/05/2009
Congratulations
Congratulations to Gemma Gunn on passing her driving test. Gemma, along with her partner in crime Joanne
Pentney, informed the Bandmaster that they were "going cruising" in Bellshill Town
Centre.
Watch out "Crazy-Horse Gemma" is about.
2002 Scottish School
of Music and Drama
On the 3rd of August 2002, eighty young people from all around the Scottish territory, eight of the young people from Bellshill corps, attended the Scottish school of music and drama at the queen Victoria school in Dunblane. Special guests of the school were Bandmaster Brian Burdett from Canada, Nathen Jenkins, Bandmaster at Bristol Easton and Joy Spencer, Deputy Staff Songster Leader. Everyone enjoyed themselves at the Wednesday Festival held in the school chapel. We all had an excellent time on the Friday night at the ceilidh. Everyone was exited about the Saturday afternoon festival, which was held in Stirling Baptist Church in front an audience of family and friends. When it finished everyone was glad to be going home but we were all a bit upset because we had to leave all the great friends we had made a camp.
by Ross Dickie
Joanne Pentney at
Camp Ashmere
This summer I spent 10 weeks in Hinsdale, Massachusetts working at a Christian camp. I applied through camp America and went with no real idea of what it would be like or what I was getting myself into but I had a great time and made some superb friends for life from all over. America, England, Germany and Russia! I’ll tell you a bit about it.
A typical camp day started around 6.30am. We woke up very reluctantly, threw on our swimming costumes and then hopped in the freezing cold lake. This first activity of the day was named ‘Polar Bear’. During polar bear we took part in many silly activities for example, the spasming penguin, pancake spins, bottom boppers. We ended this torture session with the polar bear song that went something like this.
“We are the polar bears, fearless and bold. We never get hot and we never get cold. Because where we live summer never occurs, the rest of the year we wear polar bear furs”
I suppose you had to be there to fully appreciate the comedy of it.
After everyone had dried off we took a stroll up Chapel Hill where we took part in morning exercises. The music was usually pretty funny but the exercises were more often than not fairly painful, especially for those of us who were a little out of shape.
Next came breakfast. That was my favourite part of the day. Donuts, pancakes, muffins, bagels, English muffins, banana bread and a boat load of syrup. Yummy!! The only thing that spoiled it was the impending doom of the next activity. Cabin clean up!
Cabin clean up lasted 30 minutes. There was a staff meeting during it and I always dreaded going back to the cabin to find my teenagers putting on their make up on brushing their hair. Most days they did a good job. Dave, the director inspected all the cabins and gave us a score out of 10. This was very important as the cabin with the most points won a pizza party and a late night on the Saturday night. That’s why we went to polar bear too. You could earn points from it. I was very happy at the end of senior 3 as my cabin won!
Hooha!!!
We then hit morning worship. This was especially good during senior camp 1 & 2 as we had our very own resident band. They were called Daniels Window and they were great. They were upbeat, energetic and enthusiastic about God. What more could you ask for. They were also really cool people and the kids loved them. I wish you could have been there!
After morning worship we had a bible study time. Some of the study material was really powerful. It was all based on stuff that teens want to know about. The guys book was about being a guy and girlfriends and the girls was about being a girl and boyfriends. They loved it.
The time between finishing bible study and dinner consisted of 2 option periods, lunch then two more electives. These ranged for swimming, boating, dance, kickball, volleyball and other such energetic activities to arts and crafts and journaling. Which, I though, was quite a good selection. We managed to throw in store time and a horizontal hour before tea.
Evenings varied a lot. We had special guest concerts and Daniels window did one each week they were around. Saturday was banquet night. There was always a theme. Some themes were Hawaiian, semi-formal and barn dance. They were all great fun and gave us a chance to dress up. Most nights we did all camp recreation, which was a competitive game of some sort. This was occasionally for cabin points. There was always an evening praise time too, just before cabin time.
Back in the cabin we had devotions. This was the time when difficult questions about faith and church were thrown at you. It wasn’t always easy but luckily most of my campers really wanted to learn more about God. It was one of my favourite parts of the day as campers really opened up and shared their experiences.
All in all camp was great fun! In some ways the time flew by, but some days dragged on. Mostly when the campers got cranky. I learned a whole lot of new words (everything in Mass is wicked good) and I taught some Americans a few new ones too. You wouldn’t believe some of the language differences.
During my first week I found it a bit tough. Not all of the counsellors had arrived and there wasn’t much to keep me occupied. One night I was really upset and
Kristie, who became a good friend, gave me some advice. She said “sometimes God brings us to places so we can only rely on him”. That really brought it home to me that this was one of the best opportunities I would have in life. Spending time in another country working for God and finding lots of great new friends.
Before I left, I couldn’t explain to anyone why I wanted to go but now I have a theory. Dave, the director of the camp who is a youth minister believed very strongly that everyone who was working at Camp Ashmere this year had been called there for a purpose. I really believe that too as some really hardened kids came to accept Jesus. God taught me that I had to trust him and give up all the things I had left behind me that bothered me and concentrate only on him. It was great!!
by Joanne Pentney |
