Paint, sweat and tears

Matthew Huish
June 16, 2010

Deep in the forests behind Cleeve House, two teams competed against each other in a number of challenging missions, armed with high velocity projectile weapons. Despite suffering frequent casualties, the members of these warring tribes overcame personal injury to pursue their objectives. What motivated these young adults to advance as heavenly soldiers? Was it God? Was it True Parents? Not quite, but nearly…

Uncle Mike Stout is a legend when it comes to organizing fun activities on workshops. Many of the young people of our movement have enjoyed his creative games which stimulate both the body and the mind. For just over a year now, Mike has invested a lot of time and effort to develop paintballing facilities: He has applied for grants, investigated rules and regulations to ensure safety standards are in place, purchased equipment and even forged an agreement with a farmer who owns a forest behind Cleeve House to host the paintballing games for free. At the same workshop last year, we had the privilege of being the first group to enjoy the facilities. Although we were guinea pigs last year, we had a lot of fun.

This year, things were more organized: There were smoke bombs, flash-bangs and paint grenades; there were organized missions and games; the organization was more efficient to allow maximum time for playing games. As a father-and-son team, Uncle Mike and Victor Stout did an inspiring job, serving our needs for aggressive fun!

There was blood. There were bruises. There were even tears (after a couple of badly aimed shots to the gonads!) It's true that most of us had to bear discomfort and pain, which some found to present an unexpected emotional struggle, but through overcoming the immediate suffering, we actually had a really good time, creating good memories and forging close bonds of fellowship.

Abigail Cohn, who's working with Yea-Hong-Hee Lee as the kitchen staff, commented that after the paintballing, she observed everyone discussing and sharing more openly. Perhaps after going through life-and-death experiences, and thus sharing in the rebirth experience, we could relate to each other more deeply through the common experience. We became a genuine band of brothers and sisters.

Credit for the title of this blog goes to Iain Davies, who uttered these words during a break while paintballing yesterday afternoon. I hope they give you an insight into our experience yesterday afternoon!