The Pathway Church Beach Hangout

Now that I think of it, I really wonder why exactly I was so skeptical about being a part of the beach hangout last Saturday. Not only did I have fun, but I met new people, and we altogether had a great time. I would have just been home doing the regular otherwise.

A friend invited me to her church's beach hangout last weekend. I didn't exactly make plans for it, yet I found myself on the way to join them. What I didn't expect was to do a lot of interesting things in one day.

The Pathway Church—the host of the beach hangout—is actually the youth branch of the church I grew up in as a child through my teenage years. So I met people and old friends from way back at the beach. But we're all so grown that we almost didn't recognise ourselves.

One of the first things we did was to worship our maker. The worship leader needed someone to play an acoustic guitar, and I volunteered. It had been years since I played an acoustic guitar, yet I was eager to do it. Perhaps I was a tad bit nervous as I was going to play in front of people that hadn't even seen me before. But, oh well, I love playing the guitar anyway.

There were many activities lined up—games and quizzes—and we were all split into groups to compete against each other. I was in the purple team, and after much debate, we called ourselves Royalty. Bible quizzes and charades are a few of the games we played. The questions from the Bible were surprisingly tough, as they were cleverly crafted.

What's a beach hangout without the beach? After a while, some of us went to the other side to play near and in the waters. And that's when it all leveled up.

A mistake I made was going to the beach unprepared. I didn't bring with me beach clothes I could change into and get into the waters with. To avoid getting totally soaked and dripping on the way back home, I refrained from being fully immersed. I would only just stand or pour some of the sea water on my hand, or just splash some on other people.

Have you tried playing football on beach sand before? It is ten times harder than on solid ground. When I joined the boys to play, I was exhausted so quickly. It already takes so much energy trying to balance oneself on the soil, let alone trying to kick the ball.

I don't know about the others, but not only was the water really so salty to taste, but it always felt discomforting when it was in my eyes. I wonder how people swim in it.

We had enough food for the day, which really surprised me considering the number of people present. I had three different meals that day—or maybe appetizer, main course, and dessert—and boy did that please me. I'm no foodie, but that was really nice.

The day had to come to an end at some point, and we all had to get back home. For some reason, though we were all packed up and ready to go in the bus, we didn't leave immediately. In the time we were waiting, probably more than an hour, we had a worship session in the bus, and it was just beautiful. Just the people, on guitar, and their God. What a day.