u/Gaybime

Well, when I was 11-14, I was always convinced by my father and church people to go to those camps, saying how it would be fun and how it would make me get closer to God. It wasn't all that bad, since he had a few hours of free time to play and go to the pool, and some special nights where the food was more varied, but that was somewhat overshadowed by a few things.

First of all, they convinced us to stay up until the wee hours of the morning, like 3 AM, and wake up really early, like 6 am, and you still had to wake up even earlier to wait in line for the shower. I've always had trouble sleeping, I still take sleeping pills to this day, and if you didn't go to sleep when they wanted you to, they lamented how selfish you were for not wanting to socialize and preferring to be lazy. The worst part is that they said they respected your medical condition or fatigue, but they always talked about how terrible it was to prefer sleeping or resting to being around others or worshipping the Lord, and how they tried so hard to plan and prepare everything in vain.

Secondly, we were forced to hike trails full of mud, insects, and dirt, and worse, there were activities where you had to rub yourself in mud and clay in a tiny, cramped space. I am autistic and have very sensitive touch and hearing; I can't stand being dirty or physical contact with those I'm not close, and I hate loud noises, but there, they called you rebellious, sedentary, disobedient, selfish, and compared you to horrible people of the bible if you didn't do what they wanted you to. They always asked if you wanted to please Jesus or the devil if you didn't do the things they said, and they said how much humiliation pleased God, that I would be rewarded when Jesus returned. And since there were so many people, you couldn't take a bath or clean yourself properly; they told you to just rinse yourself quickly with water and comb your hair, and that when we got back home we could take a "princess treatment", I would get extremely dirty and sweaty, since the bathrooms there were very dirty and poorly maintained; one didn't even have proper walls and doors. Even today, I get chills just remembering how covered in mud and dirt I was, irritating my skin, and I feel like taking a shower and scratching myself.

And, the worst thing: "the dynamics". One of them was a huge field full of mud, where you had to run while the leaders, wearing cheap Halloween masks, chased after you, and if they caught you, you had to quote a Bible verse correctly or answer a question in a determined time, and if you got it wrong or ran out of time, they would take you aside and force you to do 300 or 500 push-ups, jumping jacks, and other exercises that a fucking 11-year-old who isn't used to do should be doing, while they yelled insults at you, telling you how flawed and lazy you were, that you were going to hell, or that you weren't a "Jesus child". Another one that really stuck with me was inspired by the movie Hacksaw Ridge, where you had to run through a dark field with various noisy firecrackers scattered around that exploded randomly, and there were several people on the ground pretending to be yelling in pain and asking for help, And you had to carry them to the gym that was there, and if some leader dressed as a soldier caught you, and you didn't quote a verse or answer a question correctly in the allotted time, you had to drop the person, who whined about how you couldn't save them, that you should have memorized the verse or paid attention in sunday class. And did I have the right to refuse to participate because the noises were giving me a headache and making my ears ring? Of course not! Jesus died on the cross (they even showed the most gruesome scene in The Passion of the Christ. TO. CHILDREN.) for my dirty sins, what is some slight humiliation in comparison to him?!

And I still think I experienced the mildest things there, because my sister-in-law told me about how she was forced to lick the floor when she went on one of those, and I want to know what you guys experience was like.