UCG-Manila Church 2007 Yearend Overnight Outing - Part 1

by Cecile Cinco

December 23 was much awaited by most in the Manila Congregation of the United Church of God, aIa-Pilipinas. It was the starting date of the Church’s yearend outing to bond together, have fun and fellowship.

We didn’t have to think that it’s already late at night and most would have to go home miles away if it was a time after services every Saturday. You see, during Saturdays, Church members and family arrive as early as 1:30pm (earlier when there’s a certain activity before the Service begins like the Youth Bible Lesson). We start fellowship that early with coffee…ahhh…I would not miss that! The service proper starts at 2:30pm and ends 4:30pm then more fellowship with prepared snacks, choir practice, and cleanup. We usually go home around 7pm. Others would reach home just before midnight.

Compared to that, the yearend outing was a break. We had swimming, singing, eating, playing, fellowship…and less sleeping. Almost all maximized the time doing something else than sleeping which can be done on the way home or at home.

I’ve taken pictures and would try to include most here. Some pictures did not make it. They were digitally corrupted. I just realized that pics of my mom was corrupted too.

I’ll just show thumbnails. They are clickable, though, to show the big picture. You won’t see much of me either since I was the one taking the pics. I have no pic of the youth activity also since I was in the pool then.

Loading the jeepney in Sta. Rosa, Laguna…at my mom’s place…(the pics are presented in chronological order and taken with an ASUS V80).

(If you want to grab the pictures to your computer, click on the thumbnail, right-click on the big picture and click on Save Image As…and that will prompt you where to save it or if you have a folder specified where you download files, that’s where you have to look for them later. Give it a new filename or just press Enter for the default filename.)

We left aroud 3:30pm. We can arrive at 5:30pm but not earlier. That’s the end time of whoever used the place earlier. The official time of entry is 7:00, though. The time difference is the resort’s cleanup time. They have to change the pools’ water and the rooms’ beddings and cleanup the kitchen and dining as well.

We arrived when the pools are just starting to fill…

The kiddie pool is being watched by its swimmers…Bea and Raqy posing…the dining area…

As the night fell upon us….

Dinner being prepared…

(Forgot the flash.)

Our roommates…

Dinner time…fellowship time…

Videoke time…

While others were singing, others were swimming…(it may be dark but if you see the big picture and you were part of the group, you can recognize the people in the picture)…

And more fellowship and singing…

At around 10:30pm to 1:30am, many of us went night swimming. I have no pics since I was in the pool. This time I was able to impart some diving and floating skills to some. Not that I’m a good swimmer or a diver, it just happened that I know better than those I was teaching. Besides, I learned informally from different sorts of people as well and I believe everyone MUST know how to survive when thrown on water othewise you might end up swallowed by the water sooner than you can inhale your next breath. Thanks to my uncle who used to drag us as far as he can, water level higher than we were when we were kids, and he’d drop us cousins scared to drowning. The next time we had our family reunion, I made sure I knew how to survive under water, enough time to swim away from him. During this outing, though, it turned out I was able to encourage 6 people (4 adults of different sizes and 2 kids) to learn how to float and 1 (adult) to dive. I was happy to find myself away from them when I was able to remove my support under them who floated. This was the first time I taught “many” at one time and I was surprised myself that it was a success. I also learned that it was easier to teach floating than diving. Some of the floaters also wanted to learn the dolphin swim which I normally do after a dive but time wasn’t enough…maybe next outing during the summer.

Around 2am-3am…there were still singing…