Ridgecrest 2003
By Henry Wu
I met many new people, like people from Coral Springs and the Chinese Reformed Church. It was great meeting those people; they are all really cool and awesome. Most of them I met in the bus ride, which was about eighteen hours long. I slept most of the time, and when I wasn’t sleeping, I was watching TV. I am a big person. The chair on the bus didn’t give me much leg room, so I slept on the stairway, which was hard but it did give me more leg room.
When we arrived at Ridgecrest, it was great. I loved the air and the view there. We had separate dorms, which meant that girls had their own dorm and boys had their own dorm. However, my friends said that this year’s dorm was way better than last year’s. I had the same room as Jon Yuen, Phil Chong, Larry, Ray Lau, Jon Linn, and Sam Ling as our counselor. Everyday I woke up around six thirty and went to breakfast, but Jon Yuen always beat me there. The food was great. After breakfast, I went to bible study with my assigned class. My teacher was Andi; she was a great teacher. She gave us quiet time in the beginning of the class and also gave us candy.
My class’s name was Counts. I met a guy with hair shaved into shape of cross and he was really cool. After the good quiet bible study, we went up to Recreation hill and we played games and team work activities. Then the Centrifuge staff would give the Spirit Stick to the team with the best teamwork and cheer. However, we never seemed to get one.
After that, we would go down from Recreation hill and have a nice lunch, and I tell you this: the food just kept getting better and better. After lunch, it would be time for tracks. A track is like class; we have two tracks a day and four track times a week but some tracks took the whole week, while others only took half. I took drama and backpacking. Since I was in drama, I performed in a play, which was shown during Worship. My other track was backpacking. Backpacking was one of the tracks that took the whole week to finish. A lot of my friends said this track was going to kill me; they said it was very tiring but I knew I could do it, so I took it. First few days I learned about building up the tent, what to bring and what not to bring. Then on Wednesday afternoon, we went up to the top of the mountain and built a tent there. I loved the food; it was chicken and rice, and I ate five plates. At night, we told ghost stories and made fires. I ate lot of marshmallows that night. While others were telling ghost story, my friend Jessica Leu was trying to scare other people, including me. She did a pretty good job on scaring others, but not me.
We slept in the tent we built, and it was very good. Next morning, we woke up around five in the morning and went back down to our dorm with our backpacks and tents. We were tired when we get back to our dorm, but we survived and we are proud.
Another thing I liked very much in the Centrifuge was the White Water Rafting, which was on Tuesday afternoon. At first I was scared, because my friends told me that I could die from White Water Rafting; I am too young to die. The staff gave us life jackets, helmets, and paddles. When we got to the river, it was going really fast. Some lifeguards came and helped us paddle the boat. In one rapid, our boat was shaken and most of us fell into the water. I didn’t fall into the water, so I pulled my friends back into the boat. Our lifeguard saved two people. In the end, we were all okay, and we all thanked God.
During Centrifuge, after our tracks, we would have free time. Everyday, most of us would go to the Recreation hill to play Frisbee. I wasn’t really good at it, but everyone was very supportive. After Frisbee, we were really hungry, so we just went down to dinner. The girls always wanted to take a shower before dinner, so some of us would wait for them. Dinner was great, better than I expected. After dinner, we would have our worship. Our pastor was Chad. He was a really funny guy and he told us many great stories that had to do with God. Chad really knows how to deal with teenagers like us.
After worship, we went to a room, where our church would do devotion. Pastor Lee taught us many things that we might not have learned if we never came to Centrifuge. And then Jon Yuen and other great guitarists played worship songs for us to sing. After the devotion, we just went back to our dorm or to the arcade. At around eleven o’clock, each room’s counselor would have a little bible study for us. Then we went to bed.
I would be pretty tired after the whole day, but I knew I would be able to look forward to the next day.
This year’s Centrifuge’s topic was “All About Me”. Though it appeared that we were learning all about us, but actually, we were learning all about God. This world is not always just about us; we should care about others and most of all, God. Each day we had a different topic. We learned about authority, humility, possessions, the heart, and sacrifice. I learned a lot about God during Centrifuge.
Everything was great in Centrifuge; the only thing I didn’t like was the bugs. There were so many bugs and they were so big. However, the point is that Centrifuge changed my life, I feel like I was closer to God every second in that camp. Next year, I am expecting more people coming to Centrifuge with us.