Summer Madness '08

Pre-script: Check my facebook out for more pics :D

There's a lot to know about Summer Madness, especially if you've never gone to one. It won't really be a smart idea for me to try to explain every single thing that happens at SM, because, honestly, it will just eat up my time and yours.

So let me try to summarize it. Summer Madness if a Christian Camp in which happens in Belfast, Northern Ireland, every year. Youth from many churches come in groups and spend 5 days together at this huge site in the city. Catch: you literally camp there, which means, to all you city slickers like me, tents and all :) which means, to all you bath junkies, 1 pound per bath (although, I think that after 5 days with no shower, the folks there would actually pay for the others to have a shower). Everyday there are two worship services, one in the morning and one at night and, in between these, there are activities of all sorts, including workshops that teach irish and brazilian alike how to salsa!

Worship. There are always differences, things you have to learn how to deal with, things you don't agree with, and things you might even realize that you do agree with. I found all sorts of these points in the worship services. The theme of this year's SM was discipleship, and the main speaker - Phil Collins (not the singer) - talked about several things that involved the making of a true discipleship, including utter (he did love the word "utter") surrender to loving Christ, opening up to the power and work of the Holy Spirit, and the preciousness of the Word of God. I would have personally turned around the order of the talks, placing the Word of God in first place and from this proceeding to the rest. I mean, after all, all those things we see in the Bible usually happened after the people of God heard or read the Word of God, not the other way around. You can't be open to the Holy Spirit if you haven't first read about it and understood it, because it's not just some force that strikes you out of the blue... at least, that is what I believe :)

The talks and worship songs were really uplifting. There were some experiences happenening in the public that apparently happen every year - holy laugh, miraculous healings - , so I don't know how much of it I could take seriously, but I do accept that God works in all ways possible, and I am not in a place to judge personal experiences. I am a bit of a skeptic person when it comes to such things... The laughing was a bit scary, though... Natália told me it's scarier when it's happening right next to you... o_O

There was also a group of brazilians that came over on Euromission to evangelize using their dancing and acting talents. We watched some of them street dance and do capoeira - AMAZING SKILLS. It was really nice to see a bit of our culture shown here.

Ahh, one thing I forgot to mention is that brazilians in foreign lands are like brothers and sisters. If you are brazilian and meet up with someone else around here, it's like you've met someone from the family. There's hugs, excited greetings, - forty-five minute random chats *cough* - and sharing of all sorts.

Okay, but going back to SM, there were thousands of youth attending and a gazillion things to do. I must admit that the most fun I had was in the tent with the flashlights at night, plus some other things I'm sure I'd love to keep in my memory for the rest of my life. Of these adventures, I have some I would like to share:

Pega no pé da Ju! If you have any problems whatsoever, grab Ju's foot! Ju is Fernanda, Natália, and Fabiana's cousin and came along with us to the SM. The first night, we left the flashlight at her foot and made sure everyone knew that, if anything happened, we should grab at Ju's foot, cuz that's where the flashlight would be. But now, everything that happens is a good enough reason to grab at Ju's foot. If you are hungry, "pega no pé da Ju". If you don't have money for a savoury crepe, "pega no pé da Ju". If you are brazilian and can't dance salsa and have to learn it from the Irish instead, "pega no pé da Ju"!!!

Giant Birds. Alright, I admit I have strange dreams, but I just know this wasn't a dream or anything of the sort. I woke up one early dawn (cuz it gets light here really friggin early) and found myself in complete and utter silence. The girls were all sleeping, and there was a faint morning glow outside. Suddenly, I hear strange trills from across the campsite, these strange birdlike noises that, first thing in the morning, sound more like twilight monsters than anything else. So I shrink under the covers. There is suddenly a splatter on our tent, which almost makes me jump in shock and the trill is suddenly alongside our tent!! I sit up and cry, "Girls, what the heck is that??" and no one stirs, which freaks me even more out and I cower back into my covers and eventually fall asleep again. I reported this to them later on in the morning and they told me I must have been dreaming. Later on, however, when we emerged from the tent, sure enough, there was bird poo splattered on one side!! Apparently, the seagulls here are quite friendly with the tents. I am traumatized by my own imagination of giant birds invading the campsite.

Shadows on the Fabric. Just a note, shadows aren't usually what they seem, especially if they are one meter tall and making a knife stabbing motion towards you from outside.

Speaking to People through the Fabric. Not quite a good idea when the other person is not familiar with your language and probably a 16 year old boy with no shame on himself. We made it a habit to shout out "Hello!" to passersby, and this young lad attempted to find some words in his vast collection of gibberish words that would click with portuguese. He resorted to spanish and started enjoying shouting out a cuss word at us - as usual, bad words are the first to be learned.

Latino Quiz. There were 8 teams, and we ended up in 7th place!! Why? 'Cuz the rounds weren't exclusively latino. In fact, the only latino part of the quiz was the few soccer questions (asking in which team some argentinian and peruvian guys played in -- obviously a UK team, and how many times Brazil won the world cup...... WOOOOOOOT), and the spanish talking guy we had to listen to and answer questions about (part we obviously aced) and a memory game. The rest had songs we had to recall... songs I don't really listen to :D but to my delight, they played Coldplay and Snow Patrol! :D

Alright, I am probably forgetting LOADS, but I'm not going to drag on talking about everything we did every day, cuz it would be quite boring for you to read through. So I'll finish with some pictures here and talk more next post!

Cheerio!