Now that's what I call a Youth weekend

I got back last night from speaking on an uber-fab weekend away with a top top bunch of young people. I hope you'll forgive a bit of a show-n-tell post, BUT I'm writing it up in case there is 'stuff' you can appropriate and use!

Venue: Legge House near Swindon. Great venue, semi-out in the sticks but also close to Swindon for Ice Skating, Swimming, bowling etc (or a Train museum??!!). The venue itself had a good meeting room, a games room, a couple of lounges. The kitchen was large, the dorms were as you'd expect and the leaders block upstairs was REALLY REALLY nice!

Activities: The team had put a whole bunch of stuff together but there's a few things that may translate really well. There was a whole treasure hunt/photo challenge based around Avebury and Silbury Hill (if you are going to Legge House and want a copy, shout) which led to points for the teams. Later that evening the team used their points in an auction for ingredients for a Ready-steady-cook dessert challenge. This proved hilarious and the auction really added a great dimension to the challenge.
Other quirky challenges over the weekend included who could build the highest tower from spaghetti (uncooked obviously) and marshmallows. We also had a Wii projecting onto the big screen and some hilarious races using Mario and Sonic Olympics.

Spiritual Programme: We explored a whole bunch of stuff but the highlight for me was a late night quiet service. The vicar of the church was a top bloke and lent me the church keys, I'd set up candles and a circle of cushions and put an amplifier and speakers in place ready.
I explained to the teens what we were trying to do (putting a service together from scratch that was creative, participative and experiential) and gave them the challenge of making it happen. I divided the service into 6 sections: Gathering, Confession, Worship, Word, Prayer and Sending and the teens selected the group they would belong to. Needless to say, they really rose to the challenge and forty minutes later we walked over to the church ready to worship and explore together. I'm not going to write up the service itself but it was an extrordinary time and I was really moved/blessed by being part of it. Fab!

Making me laugh: Due to the current configuration of my moustache/beard I became known as "Walrus" which somehow became the "Walrus of Love" but due to the slightly weird sounding aspect of that (and me being the preacher) I became the 'Walrus of Christian Love"
At lunch time on our mammoth walk I broke open the emergecy pack of plasticine (I have a lot of junk in my rucksack) and someone made a Walrus, thus the Purple Walrus of Christian Love became the mascot of the weekend!