By Maritza Brunt
“Come on, Kate!” yelled Naomi as she checked her watch.
Her best friend ran out of the church building, hiking her backpack onto her shoulders.
“I’m here, I’m here!” she called.
“Finally!” said Naomi, as the two girls hurried across the church car park to the bus. “You took ages!”
“Sorry,” Kate puffed. “I was just double checking I had everything. I wouldn’t want to forget anything, you know!”
Naomi smiled at her friend. This was the first time she and Kate were going on an overnight Adventurer camp—all by themselves, without their parents!
As the friends reached the bus, Naomi’s mum and dad were talking to Kate’s mum and dad.
“Have you got everything?” asked Kate’s mum.
“I think so!” the girls replied in unison.
“Time to go!” called one of the Adventurer leaders as he stepped onto the bus. Kids began piling on after him.
Naomi turned to her parents, and was slightly horrified to see tears in her mum’s eyes.
“You’re just growing up so fast,” sniffed her mum.
“Muuuumm,” Naomi whispered. “Don’t embarrass me!”
Wiping her eyes, Naomi’s mum hugged her tight. Then she pulled back with a serious expression on her face.
“Promise me you will listen to everything your leaders say,” said Mum.
“Not just listen,” added Dad, “but OBEY what they’ve told you to do.”
“And make sure you stay together at all times!” said Kate’s mum.
“Especially stay together,” agreed Kate’s dad. “You can’t be wandering off alone.”
“We promise,” chirped the girls.
After a final round of hugs, and some more tears from her mum, Naomi finally stepped onto the bus, with Kate right behind her. The girls chose a seat and waved to their families as the bus pulled out of the church carpark.
The bus ride to camp went quickly. The leaders told funny stories, passed around snacks, and led them all in some lively camp songs. Naomi was already having the best time of her life!
When the Adventurers arrived at camp, Naomi and Kate helped their leader, Sophie, set up their tent. When it was up and their things had been safely put inside, Kate asked Sophie if they could explore before dinner.
“Sure,” said Sophie. “But girls—stay within sight of the camp at all times, and whatever you do, don’t go into the forest.”
“Okay!” said the girls.
“I have an idea,” said Naomi, as they headed towards the fire pit. “Let’s pretend we are princesses in a faraway land. This fire pit can be our castle!”
“Yeah, and we can collect these sticks to build towers on our castle!” said Kate.
Soon, the girls had built an impressive fortress of sticks around the fire pit, but they’d run out of sticks from the area around the fire pit.
“Should we look for more?” asked Kate.
“Yeah, there’s bound to be some good branches closer to the forest,” said Naomi.
“But Sophie said to stay away from the forest!” Kate reminded her.
“I know, I know!” said Naomi. “We’re not actually going IN… we’re just going a bit closer to find more sticks for our towers.”
The girls wandered closer to the line of trees, collecting twigs and branches. Suddenly, Naomi spotted an excellent branch just past the tree line.
“Kate, look!” she cried. “That branch has leaves on it still!”
“Oh!” Kate breathed. “That one could be our main tower with flags on it!”
Inching closer to the branch, the girls inspected it.
“It looks pretty heavy,” Naomi said. “We might need both of us to carry it.”
Kate picked up an end and tugged.
“I can’t lift it!” She said.
Naomi glanced back at the camp. She could still see a few tents just peeking out from around the big rock that led to the start of the forest trail.
Sophie said to stay in sight of the camp at all times, and I can still see tents, she thought to herself. And we’re not really going into the forest… we’re just at the entrance to get this stick.
Naomi looked up to find Kate had moved a few steps down the trail.
“Kate!” she hissed. “What are you doing?!”
“Look at this, Naomi!” Kate said, pointing to a bush. It was covered in small, red berries.
“We’d better not eat them,” Kate continued. “We don’t know if they’re poisonous or not… but they could be shells on the beach that surrounds our castle!”
“I guess they could be,” agreed Naomi, warming up to the idea. “And look over there! There’s some pinecones that we could line up to just make the perfect pathway into our castle.”
Before long, the girls had their arms full of pinecones and their pockets full of berries.
“How are we going to carry the branch with leaves now?” asked Naomi.
“We’ll dump this stuff at our castle and then come back for the branch,” answered Kate. “Come on, we’d better hurry so we can collect everything before dark.”
But when the girls hurried back down the path, they came to a big tree stump.
“That’s funny,” said Naomi, frowning. “I don’t remember this being here.”
“Neither do I,” said Kate. “Shouldn’t there be a big rock at the start of the trail? And a sign?”
Naomi started to get a funny feeling in her tummy.
“Kate,” she said. “I think we’re lost.”
Kate slowly turned around in a circle.
“I think you’re right,” she said. “How did that happen? We didn’t go too far into the forest… did we?”
The girls were quiet as they thought about what to do next.
“It’s getting dark,” said Kate, looking up at the sky. “It’ll be night soon. Should we try and come back the way we came?”
“I don’t think so,” said Naomi. “We might somehow end up deeper in the forest. I think we’d better just sit here and hope someone comes to look for us.”
The girls slowly moved over to the tree stump, and dropped their pinecones and berries. The castle didn’t seem so important anymore.
Suddenly, there was a snap of twigs ahead of them.
“What-what was that?” Kate stammered.
“I don’t know,” Naomi whispered. Now her heart was beating really fast. Oh, why didn’t I listen to Sophie and my parents? she thought. Now we’re lost in the forest and something might be coming to eat us for dinner!
“I’m scared,” Kate said, tears beginning to fill her eyes.
“Me too,” said Naomi. “We shouldn’t have disobeyed Sophie. All we can do now is pray.”
“Let’s do that, please,” Kate begged.
As the sun slowly sunk lower over the tree line, the girls bowed their heads and prayed for someone to come and find them, also asking forgiveness for not listening to their parents and leader.
Just as Kate said the final “amen” the girls heard footsteps crunching in the distance. Then they heard a voice yell, “Kate! Naomi!”
“It’s Sophie!” Naomi cried, jumping to her feet. “SOPHIE! WE’RE OVER HERE!”
“I’m coming, girls!” Sophie called back, and soon, Kate and Naomi saw her appear on the trail.
“Sophie!” they cried, leaping off the tree stump and running to her.
Sophie knelt down and hugged the girls as they cried.
“We never should have gone into the forest,” sobbed Kate.
“And we should have listened and obeyed you,” sniffled Naomi. “Can you forgive us?”
“Of course I forgive you,” said Sophie. “Girls, whenever grownups set rules—me, the other leaders, your parents, even God—it’s not because we want to spoil your fun. It’s because we want to keep you safe!
Imagine if you had gone even further down the trail. It would have split again and we would have had an even harder time finding you both.”
Naomi and Kate were quiet as they thought about this. Neither of them wanted to think about spending the night in the forest!
“We’re sorry,” Kate said again. “We promise we’ll listen next time and not get distracted by our play.”
“It’s okay,” said Sophie. “We just want to keep you safe.”
As Sophie and the girls started back down the trail, Naomi and Kate told her about collecting the twigs, berries, and pinecones, but also about the noise they’d heard in the bushes.
“We thought an animal was going to come and eat us!” shuddered Naomi.
A knowing look crossed Sophie’s face.
“You did hear an animal,” she told the girls. “But I promise it won’t eat you. Come, look.”
Sophie put her finger to her lips and stepped quietly into the forest. Naomi and Kate followed, trying carefully not to step on any twigs. Suddenly, they saw it—a mama kangaroo with a joey in the pouch, nibbling on some grass in a clearing.
As the girls stood with Sophie and watched the kangaroos, Naomi felt a rush of emotion. Thank you, God, that you care for us, even when we don’t listen, she prayed. Help us always to obey so we know we can be safe.
PICTURE CREDIT- Pexels Free Images
