Steyning Methodist Church:
District Youth Weekend 2000

EASTBOURNE EXTRA 13th and 14th May

Liz, Rob and Cathy, with Eleanor as a young leader, borrowed a people carrier and with their own two cars took 10 youngsters (Anna-Fiona, Alexander, Mabel, David, Amanda, Stuart, Christopher, Ben, Sarah and Jane) away for a wonderful weekend held in a school at Eastbourne.

We arrived early and were greeted with drinks and Julian Albrow's smiling face. He had come as the new District Youth Chairman to see what went on. We then had an official welcome and the youngsters divided to take part in quiet and physical activities. This was followed by lunch, after which we went on a visit to Drusilla's Zoo Park, which included a special Animal Encounter where we were shown animals and allowed to touch them.

We went back to the school for tea, after which we were treated with a show from the Rainbow Theatre with a production of 1066 onwards. They involved most of the children and all of ours: Stuart was the black death (with a gruesome mask) and the others had to sing Ring a Ring of Roses around him while he "killed" them one by one. A great chance for over-acting! At the end of the show we collected our very generous breakfast box and headed for the church where we were to sleep overnight. The next day we had a service at the school followed by a boat trip (althought this had to be cancelled due to sea mist), lunch and home.

These are some of the comments they made about the weekend: (Their diaries were available in full in our church hall afterwards.)

Cooking The mixture wouldn't stick so we added more butter (M)
A bit of a disaster we added too much SALTED butter (S)
They were too salty (A-F)
T Shirt Painting Exiting and boring (CH)
Music Some of the songs were quite difficult (D)
Line dancing It was great, I was tired at the end (M)
Fun but the same dances as last year (SA)
Drama It was very good (J)
Rounders Very good one team won with 20 points (AL)
Tennis We were 5-1 down but won 7-6 (B)
Football Brilliant coaches (CH)
Too many people though (D)
Helping Fun but boring having to do it twice (E)
Drusilla's Enjoyed stroking the hedgehog. (D)
Stroked a snake, (B)
Touched a sea shell (AL)
It's a shame we didn't stay that long (A-F)
I won a medal (B) [A lot of them spent a long time panning for gold]
Fun and interesting especially the playground. (E)
It was fun (J & ST)
Rainbow Theatre Funny and weird (ST)
Funny and I was in it for a bit (CH)
Theatre was good because I had a go (AL)
Very good and interesting (J)
Very good but a bit too long to sit down for (SA)
Overnight It took ages to find but I map read and we got there in the end...(E) [Don't mention women and maps! - Rob]
Really great (M)
Really good especially the midnight feast (A-F)
We had to split the room in two for the boys and the girls (E)
Excellent we planned an attack on the girls (AL)
Service Mainly songs but couldn't get up much (ST)
Different but exellent (SA)
Very informal which I liked (E)
Boats Too foggy so it was called off (D)
Built a huge sandcastle (CH)
Threw stones (in the sea) (AL)
School Was very good huge untidy confusing
Toilets were horrible 'yuk' disgusting messy
Food Brilliant, but at lunch the cheese could have been sliced (CH)
There was plenty of food and drink for every one including lots of fresh fruit.

To round the weekend off, as we missed out on the boats, we stopped at Birling Gap near Beachy Head. We made sand works and paddled at first, but then Rob tried to rescue Jane from a muddy deep bit of water, stubbed his toe, trapped his foot and fell in fully clothed. This was the start of half of them swimming in the sea or just messing around getting wet. We finished off with ice-creams all round.

Thank you all for a lovely time.