Everything changes when you go to an Encounter to show who you are or to share some things about yourself. On the first week of March 2018, I went on an Encounter for three days. Many boys went on the trip including some Senior leaders. I was nervous to go on a three day Encounter with other people.Then I thought, “I don’t think it’s going to be that bad. We’re just going to hang out, do activities, and maybe go to the beach.” But no, it was life changing.
I wondered what it was going to be like when we got there. Would there be campfires and stories. This was my first time going to a camp. I heard a lot of things about last year’s Encounter. I trusted the teachers and leaders were going to make it an unforgettable experiece.
Mr. Chambers was in charge of Encounter. He’s a cool person that everyone knows. He even convinced me to go on Encounter and see how I’d like it, and I did.
The camp was better than I expected. It had a basketball court, a huge field, a pool, a beach, and a chapel where we had meetings and prayer.
I started the day off playing basketball with my friends going neck and neck winning/losing, all-in-all just having fun. The rest of the boys played football. Others just walked around the place.
After that, we went to see who we were rooming with. Then, we all met up at the chapel, did prayers, and shared some feelings with one another telling stories.
We talked about life and our feelings on the trip. We chilled out and just talked. The leaders were great. We were like a family, a very strange one. We’re brothers and we have one another’s back to help out each other when in need.
I was able to really open up and talk about things that I’m going through that I had to deal with in my life, which was hard for me to say these things during Encounter. Driving back to school, I wondered “what’s going to happen now.” I went home, hugged and called my family and friends telling them thank you for everything.
Encounter was amazing to see. It was fun and eye-opening. I would go again, maybe next time as a leader.
