Survivor Aganoa 2006

The Next Generation (our young adult group at church) planned a camping trip to Aganoa Black Sand Beach for the weekend. During one of the prep meetings, Fila came up with the theme: Survivor. Janita and I planned the overall flow of the weekend and the activities. Junior was in charge of the equipment, and Kirstin and Charlotte planned all the meals.

To get to this incredible place, you must drive do some major off-roading. It is required to have a 4-wheel drive car. I loved the drive, as it reminded me of 4-wheel driving in Colorado!

After we set tents up and got firewood, I saw my first sunset on the beach!

We ate an incredible meal and then listened to the first “Survivor Story” - Janita shared about how a survivor needs faith. We then split the group up into teams for the weekend and began the challenge with the Walk of Faith game. Janita tied string around the trees in a forestry area and then had the teams follow the string while holding onto one another’s shoulders in the dark. We then ate S’mores and played fireball soccer (until the fireball got put out by the ocean.

Bright and early Saturday morning – 6 AM to be exact – Janita, Fila and I arose to pray for the women’s conference* and for the rest of the weekend. We had an awesome time of prayer and we realized that God was asking for us to stand in the gap and pray for our fellow campers – we prayed for spiritual blinders to be removed and for the Holy Spirit to move in the hearts and lives of every person there. During our prayer time, I was looking out into the water and saw my first shark fins!!

Zonder shared the next survivor story when he talked about how survivors leave legacies. What hit me hard was that what our group builds will determine how the next generation (no pun intended) will experience this group. It made me realize that this group is so not about us. We need to make sure that we are building on our Sure Foundation, which is Christ, and that what we do will make a lasting impact.

Janita and I gave each team a piece of material and told them they had to be creative about how they were going to display their team “uniform” and that they had to wear a piece of their material at all times or they would lose points for their team. The winners got 40 points. Here is a picture of the winning team, “Pirate Punks”

We then explained that there would be “tree mail” randomly throughout the day and that they had pretty much the whole day as free time. The first tree mail explained that each team would have to prepare an item before dinner that had a “survivor theme”. The second tree mail told them to bring a coconut and their best listening skills to the beach front at 3 PM.

During our free time, we played in the water with the boogie boards. It was a blast because it was the first time that I have been to a beach in Samoa where the coral reef wasn’t so close and where the waves were big and crashed right on the shore line.

At 3 PM, we told the survivors that each team would have one blindfolded person and another that would give directions to that person. The blindfolded person had to pick up coconuts and put them into a designated hole. The team with the most coconuts won. It was so much fun watching!

After dinner, we had our third survivor story and then Julya and I crashed into our tiny little circus tent (as Marques called it because it reminded him of a clown car – it was so short that it was like a kid’s tent). If you’ve been camping, you know how the sleeping schedule goes – the first night is unbearably uncomfortable and therefore no sleep and the second night is great sleep because you are so exhausted.

Sunday morning a few of us – Janita, Robin, Fila, Julya, Nata, Zonder and I went to pray for the rest of the weekend and the women’s conference. I then went off to a secluded place to pray about my sharing that was going to happen shortly. I then shared the final survivor story about perseverance. After my sharing I asked everyone to ponder some questions for about 15 minutes. During that time the Holy Spirit hit some people hard. When we gathered back Janita asked if we could write down a hardship in our lives and sacrifice it and put it in the campfire to be released. Afterwards, we met in small groups to pray with one another.

We all could not resist boogie boarding before we left because the waves were massive. Janita and Nata were the first brave women to tackle the waves. They both got annihilated by the waves, but that didn’t stop me. However, after a couple tumbles I realized how powerful the ocean is. Then Fila came along and had to find out for herself. Here is a picture of Fila and I after being tossed around by the mighty waves.

*Peace Chapel is hosting the first-ever women’s conference in Samoa on the 21^st to the 24^th of this month. Alesi, Pastor Samoa’s wife, received a vision from God ten years ago and it is now coming to fruition. There are going to be 3 speakers – one from Hawaii, one from Seattle, and our very own Alesi. Our church has been fasting since the 6^th for all meals but one per day so that we can pray for two specific things: that each woman attending the conference will experience a breakthrough from whatever is keeping them in bondage from fully experiencing God’s love and for the presence of God to be felt during the conference. It is going to be incredible. Wait for more updates next week during the conference!!