One summer break, my family became tired of my energetic elementary school antics and decided to send me to a christian summer camp, a few hours away, in the mountains, for a week of fun for me and a week of relaxation for them.
The last full day of camp was filled with crisp cool air and the other children in my cabin were excited about the hike we would take in the afternoon. The counsellor assigned to be our guide gave us a memory verse to memorize and hide in our clothing. She also gave us tickets and said to not give away our tickets because there was a reward in the end and that the one chance that she knew we would have to gain one ticket would be when we successfully kept our memory verse hid and were able to repeat the verse at a station.
Immediately as we started walking, another counsellor came by and advised us to buy maps from her for one ticket. Once purchased by a few children, it became obvious that the map was worthless. A squiggly line marked the trail with a big X at the end. No stops were marked and there was no mention of what we might expect as an end reward.
Shortly thereafter, we stopped at a station where another counsellor advised that we purchase cotton balls to put in our shoes to cushion our walk from the very start. Some said it made little, if any difference, for the long hike in the end.
We then saw a sign with a memory verse on it but we were busy talking and only glanced at the text. We came to the next station and the counsellor there asked if any of us remembered what the sign said, but no one did. Then, the counsellor said we had one more chance to get a ticket and told us that she would time us as we went around a short circular track. Two counsellors were moving logs on the track and asked us for help, but only one person out of the entire cabin stopped to help the counsellors moving logs away from the track. All I did was bump into one of the counsellors. In the end, those that ran were given the running time, but no extra ticket. However the one girl that stopped to help the two counsellors was given a ticket.
Later, we stopped by a bowl of candy with a sign that said "do not take". Our trail guide said that she needed to fetch the person that was in charge of this station and told us to stay where we were because she would be right back. Of course, most of the group swarmed around the candy and munched away. Only a few people, like me, hung back and didn't touch any. When the guide came back with the person from the station, the person from the station took a ticket for every candy taken, in some cases, taking all the tickets. When she did this, I thought of the verse "you may be sure your sin will find you out" [Num. 32: 23b].
We were nearing the end of the trail when when we came to a place where counsellors attempted to find the memory vers we had hid on our clothing. The counsellor did not find mine, but when I went and untied my shoelaces where I had hidden it in the knot, I found that the memory verse had fallen out somewhere along the trail. However the counsellor had a book of memory verses used for this hike and when I repeated the memory verse to her (I stored the verse in my short-term memory, rather than long term memory) she found it in her book and gave me another ticket. ("Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you." [Ps. 119:11])
We then scuttled towards our end, tired and weary. Yay! We saw a pick-up truck ahead and a couple counsellors said "We already did the hike. Get in! We'll drive you to the bottom!" and everyone who was ahead piled into the truck. The guide and the last two people in the cabin trailed along and said "no, we'll walk down". Then all of us in the back of the pick-up truck had to give the two guy counsellors a ticket and had to keep walking.
A few steps away from the truck, around the corner, were a number of counsellors dressed in white. "Welcome!" the person in white said as he took all the tickets of those that had them and waved in the people that had spent all their tickets. The guide explained that this was a representation of heaven as we sat down at picnic benches in the cool shade and munched on watermelon. It was a cool ending to the long road.
