Irish Arura 2010

over 260 campers and 200 Leaders/workers came pouring through the Limavardy School gates on the 24th of July ready for a week of full on fun, games, laughter, food, singing and time spent learning about having a relationship with God. A good number were not associated with rally but had been invited by friends and churches.

We were bowled over with the number of people prepared to sacrifice their time and money to come to Arura and serve the Lord. There were lots of young leaders, plenty of "middle aged" as well as some much more senior ladies (well over 70) ready and willing to do anything necessary to make the week run smoothly so that the campers could be challenged about their relationship with God. Many churches really support the Arura and this was clearly shown by the number of leaders attending.

With few camp sites able to accommodate a group of this size, the Arura committee hire a school and turn it into a camp for the week. That means setting up hundreds of camp stretchers and bringing in all the food for the week as well as providing all the kitchen staff. Quite an undertaking!

The first night started off with an outside fair, with games of skill as well as street performers who taught the campers juggling, plate spinning and stilt walking. There was a special "bouncy castle" that had a suspended ball that you used to knock campers off their feet.

There were five speakers for the week, with each group having a speaker for a session during the day and then Mark from Scotland who spoke most evenings and challenged us all about our relationship with God. A good number of campers were counseled over the week and some great discussions took place as well.

The groups were named after dogs, Gromits, Plutos, Snoopys and Scooby Doos as the name of the town of Limavardy had something to do with dogs.

The activities were many and varied with a fabulous display of Irish dancing one night, trips to the beach and the historic town of Londonderry, the Arura award competition and some community assistance activities.

Optional activities included swimming, rock climbing, abseiling, orienteering, laser strike, fencing (the sword kind), exercise sessions and a cooking class with a contestant from the Master Chef TV competition.

Most night sessions finished about 10:30pm for the younger campers, with a staggered breakfast starting about 8am.

The Irish Arura is always awesome fun, the people are warm and welcoming and they really know how to work hard and have a good time - but - they did feel that New Zealand had set a new high standard with our Arura Flash Mob 2010! So on the second night of Arura the campers were shown the You-tube movie of the NZ flash mob and challenged to produce something even better! The campers (and some brave leaders) worked really hard that night and produced a great dance number that was videoed and should be on You-tube by now. When the whole camp went to Londonderry later in the week, they performed the dance in the main square to the amazement of the bystanders. All the campers had been given grey hoodies and the leaders had burgundy ones so it looked great. (Google – Arura 2010 Londonderry Flash Mob)

So, once again Arura has brought together a group of strangers and within a week has united them through fun, activity, laughter and most of all the love of Jesus shown through the lives of leaders and the spoken word. Although we had to leave early on the last morning and sadly missed the final session together and the farewells, we left as usual wishing we had more time to spend with these lovely people.

For great viewing of some Irish Arura videos – go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjH-20zs-SI