I am Jack Coburn, 19 years old, from Burnie. I attend Romaine Park Christian Centre.

I really enjoy hanging out with friends, being at camp and youth group, and going to church. I am not into going out partying or drinking or anything else like that. I spend most of my days listening to music via my i-pod, watching, playing a game on my PS3, or just being lazy or sleeping. Occasionally I will go out with friends and watch a movie or go bowling, which is always fun!

What I am hoping to gain from the Super Squad course is that I will grow in many areas such as leadership and organisation, hoping to be able to be more focused on spending time with God, and really stepping out of my comfort zone when in situations I might not like. I believe the Super Squad course is also going to give me a taste of what life is like in the real world, particularly in the working part, and I think it will be an invaluable experience for my life.

So far we have completed the Training week plus one day in the course after the Christmas break. In the training week we had a basic introduction to the different areas will be exploring during our five weeks at camp, such as maintenance, admin, kitchen, activities and last but not least… cleaning. We also had to complete a number of challenges, they included doing various obstacle courses blindfolded, team rescue, Judo practice and we also visited a Nursing home. During every lunch we got to know the staff that work at camp and also listen to a devotion given by one of the staff. We also we’re at the Christmas BBQ. We also prepared the programs for our camps that we would be supervising. On top of all that, we had lots and lots of free time, in which we mostly watched the TV show Heroes on DVD, or just mucked around. Since our return from the Christmas break, I have been along with matt doing work in the admin department.

The training week was really fun; I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It was pretty relaxed. We we’re basically just introduced to the different kinds of fields we will be exploring during our summer at camp including, maintenance, kitchen, activities, and administration, which is what I’m doing right now. I really liked the challenges Alex set us, even though they did appear at first to be quite intimidating, like doing part of the high ropes course blindfolded, we managed to succeed through nearly all of them by learning to work as a team and be accountable and trust each other. The group was also really encouraging to everyone and I really like it.

Some of the different types of challenges we have done included doing obstacle courses in which Alex had “incapacitated” us in some particular way, doing part of the high ropes course blindfolded, Team Rescue, learning some moves from a judo instructor, and visiting a Nursing Home in Ulverstone. The good thing about the challenges, particularly the ones where we we’re either blindfolded or somehow disabled was that we had to rely on each other a lot more, and I think that really helped us trust each other a lot more. We learned that as a group we had to assess the situation and plan how we we’re all going to overcome the obstacles presented to us. The encouragement everyone in the group gave was fantastic as well, whether the group was motivating someone to do a particularly hard challenge or giving someone a pat on the back for completing it. It was really great and I know I personally benefited from it. In some of the other challenges, like visiting the Nursing home, we really shared as a group about our individual experiences at the home, talking to the elderly people, even if some of us didn’t have the happiest of times, as a group we kept account of one another. Also, like when we had judo practice, we had a great and enjoyable time, with plenty of laughs, and some of us may have even learned a few moves. All the challenges, at first seemed to be hard, especially when we we’re faced with having to go to a nursing home, I know I wasn’t too comfortable when I realised what I would have to do. Just the uncertainty about what we we’re doing was kinda scary. Another thing I found hard was when we failed a challenge, or didn’t do as well as we we’re expecting, like the team rescue, which didn’t go as well mainly because we lost interest. That was a bit disappointing, but that’s ok, we learn from mistakes.

I am quite excited about the Summer. While I am still a bit uncertain about what lays ahead in this course, I know to always remember that God is in control of all situations and he is watching over me and all the other Super Squad members, and so I think the next 5 weeks will go perfectly. I am looking forward to the opportunity of supervising a camp, which I will be doing next week. Also the opportunity to speak to churches, including my own, which although is a little frightening, is a challenge I would like to see through, and I am confident I will.

16/01/08

Last week I supervised Junior boys with Matt Marshall. We we’re both first time supervisors. I was excited about the opportunity to supervise a camp, because it was a whole new role for me I’d never experienced before when helping out with a camp, and it was also a good opportunity to develop my public speaking. However I was also really nervous and scared. I thought I would struggle, trying to keep the boys attention when talking up the front, or trying to explain activities. As soon as I started my role at camp, I realised I had nothing to worry about. The kids showed me their full attention, and they really seemed to be enjoying their time here. The camp ran pretty smoothly. Some of the activities we did as a camp included small games such as pac-man, sleeping lions and Simon says. We also did running relays that included carrying various objects such as jelly, eggs (on spoons) and sacks. We also went swimming at the pool and the beach, and had water fights. Our sing and studies were lead by Casey White, who did a fantastic job, even though he was really nervous about doing it (probably more than I was about supervising). The theme of the camp was robots. This included awarding the cabins with a points system, based on various robot parts, and watching a robot themed movie (titled, funnily enough… robots). I really enjoyed my time supervising, and I couldn’t have picked a better camp to do so for someone supervising for their first time. I had a great team of leaders and support staff that I was already friends with most of. They were really encouraging and supportive. The campers we’re also fantastic. I felt really encouraged when I walked past and they gave me high fives, or a hug. Overall, I’d have to give the whole experience a 10 out of 10. I hope my other Supersquad buddies have an as enjoyable time supervising they’re camps as Matt and myself did.