Staff Conference Extravaganza

For the last two days we've had something called, "Staff Conference." It's a quarterly event where we go over rules, regulations and procedures, as well as bond as a staff. Yesterday we sat through about 3 1/2 hours of presentation on our base's rules, support raising, YWAM International, our base's statistics and more. Luckily most of it was pretty interesting. Then after we had lunch, we were divided into three teams to compete in a serious of relays. It reminded me a bit of Young Life and I was prepared since I was wearing my Young Life shirt.

I was on a team with Joey, Fritz, Daena, Larry, Timi and Simon. We only had two girls, which is a bit of an advantage in physical competition, I have to admit. The relays were old favorites like wheelbarrow race, crab walk, dizzy bat, egg toss, etc. It was nice to see people in a different environment. I didn't realize some people were hiding such mad crab walking skills. I knew that I was competitive but I didn't realize how many others on staff are very competitive as well. At one point we attempted to play this really bizarre game. I don't remember what it was called, but I will describe it.

My team formed a circle holding hands. At this point we'd lost the other girl as she had to go prepare dinner. So it was just me and the boys. Timi had egg all over his hands so it was pretty disgusting to hold his hand. The egg goo did make them stick together a bit, which was good for the objective of the game. As my team stood in a circle holding hands, someone from the other team had to say some sort of cheesy line I can't recall and they were allowed in the circle. Then, they had to say another cheesy line and attempt to leave the circle. The game was chaos! As the only girl, I was an obvious target for escape. Apparently they hadn't factored in my years of boxing out for a rebound in basketball coupled with my fierce competitive nature. I honestly don't remember what actually happened, but my teammates were very impressed. The problem with the game is that the person trying to escape always ended up in a tangled heap that consisted of me and my teammates. There seemed to be no time limit for their escape and we turned into a giant writhing pile of bodies until someone said stop. At one point my wrist started to twist the wrong way. I decided a broken wrist was not worth it and decided to let go. The game was funny to watch, I am sure but painful to be a part of. I never really did get the point.

The last event was something we often subject our students to. It's a relay where you have to eat foods that other cultures like but we often think are gross. It is good preparation for outreach where you often have to eat food you wouldn't choose to eat. I am not the best at this sort of game. In this version, each team member had to choose something out of the bag and eat it. Everyone had to go at least once but there were three "lifelines" where someone could help their teammate eat. Some of the items were gross and some just difficult or time-consuming to eat. I went first and got some disgusting fried seaweed. I hate seaweed but I couldn't let my team down. I almost puked but I got it down. Later I helped a teammate eat a Snickers so I could get the seaweed taste out of my mouth. In the end my team dominated and won the grand prize- 30 candy bars.

Today we had more meetings about the DTS and SFMI- our Surfer's for Missions program. Then we had a beach day. We went to Kihei, which is almost always sunny. Today was one of the few exceptions. We even changed beaches midway to escape the blowing sand. We ended up in a grassy park next to the beach. It was fun but extremely windy. Overall it was a good staff conference. I feel more informed and more bonded. I am pretty sure that was the whole point.