Here's a photo from our first youth camp at pennington back in 2006. With just one glance at it a million amazing memories come flooding back and I'm filled to the brim with nostalgic, happy thoughts! COGS Youth holds some of the best days, best friends and best ice-breakers I've ever known. From watching Richard dress up in his borrowed Khaki outfit to host the 10 week Survivor marathon 5 years ago, to Jon Cilliers introducing me to COGS when I had arrived from Zim with a healthy dose of the chair game, to learning how to wildly worship as Paul moved form a Marshall amp, to a line 6, to his dad's old Marshall, to his Vox (and we were informed of it all week in and week out).
Then there was seeing Paul's cell open, close, open, close and now RIP, Shelley Oswell (now Mom Phipson)starting the first girls cell held at the church split and grow into the two girls groups of Megs and Nikki where the new generation of COGS youth betties are moulded and shaped in the way of WITK and GWEC! Watching James Robertson move from a shirtless, cocky lightie to a shirtless, cocky main manna! Seeing Brad King speak passionatley (but slowly) about cement, to now speaking passionately (but still slowly) about his incredible cell. Seeing the baton of "hot guy that girls pretend to hate but all secretly like" move from Jarryd Smith to Paul Edy to Ryan Gallagher to Paul Edy to Andrew Wilkins to paul Edy to James Robertson to Paul Edy to the now encumbent Jasco Vadasco Burger!
Anyway, all this got me thinking what an incredible past COGS Youth has...but even better than that is the amazing future it has as the next generation pick up the mantle and run harder and faster than ever before!
And as I sang once at the end of a youth camp as Paul cried:
"We can't look back, we can't slow down, everything's changing, we're taking ground!"