Camp was a great success. We had lots of Thais, a bunch of Chinese, a group of Singaporeans, a handful of Kiwis, a few UKians, two Aussies and a Brazilian. Definitely merited its title as an “international” camp.

We had: silly games… skits and studies about the true meaning of Christmas… coconut palms by the lakeside… crazy games… salty, sticky, ricey “porridge” for brekkie… little thatched-roof huts to sit in and eat the salty, sticky, ricey stuff [see picture]... one very grateful recipient of his first ever bible… energetic games… a whole bunch of people learning about Jesus’ birth for perhaps the first time in their lives… carols… ice-breaking games… nice hard marble floors to sleep on, with the most pathetic excuses for mattresses I have ever encountered in my life… crafts… ba-ba-bo-bo games… punishment dances: the chicken dance and the cockroach dance… “secret Santas”… a fried chicken’s foot from my buddy… and a “creative” - and possibly very historically inaccurate - re-enactment of Samuel Marsden’s preaching of the gospel to the Maori people on Christmas Day, complete with Te Harinui and the haka, which people loved.

Oh, and did I mention we had games?

“Why so many games?” you ask. Thai people love sanuuk – fun – and it’s a great cross-cultural, cross-language, cross-any-other-differences way of building relationships.