October 2004 - The Boys' Brigade

KGVI(Second Week)Carronvale HouseRathmore HouseFelden LodgeKGVIIS A UNIQUETRAININGCOURSE, whichtrains young leaders between the ages of17 and 19 in two week-long courses toequip them for almost anything that BBwork can throw at them. I was privilegedto be invited back for the second yearafter completing the first in 2003. Thefirst year consisted of a lot of theorywork, which we put into practice withinour various companies over the year.From the start of the second week we allknew what to expect in terms of thestandards required and after not seeingeach other (mostly) for a year we allstarted talking as if we had never leftFelden Lodge. This was quite fortunateas we were thrown in at the deep endfrom almost the moment we arrived.We had to prepare a 45 minute churchservice for the following morning in alocal church. This seemed a verydaunting task but I am sure everyonewould agree the service we deliveredwas excellent considering how little timewe had to prepare. It was an amazingstart to a truly amazing course.The second week takes a much morepractical form than the first and thisincludes taking classes, delivering aprogramme, taking a games session andleading two short acts of worship. Thesewere done within various groups underthe guidance of the staff. We even gotto act as the boys for individuals whowere leading classes, which proved fartoo much fun for some of the cadets!As well as the practical sessions therewere also lectures to attend and thedebates covered a range of issues, whichwill hopefully prove very useful to us allas future BB officers.A very important part of the programmewas the Chaplain’s Sessions and theseproved a very good insight into theChristian faith and how it affects us asyoung leaders. The BB is all aboutbringing the good news to young peopleand these sessions were very helpful inexplaining the good news to us and howto put it across. A personal highlight forme was the excellent session entitled “I’llBelieve It When I See It” which was aneye-opening session about faith.However, it wasn’t all work as we weregiven a generous amount of free time inwhich we played football, pool and evencroquet as well as just sitting round andhaving a laugh with one another whichseemed to be a big feature of the course.It was also a privilege to welcome theBrigade Secretary and Brigade Presidentlater in the week. They shared theirexperiences with us as well as holdinga very insightful question and answersession and attending our formaldinner at which there were some trulyexcellent speeches. It is also worthnoting that two cadets beat them in agame of croquet despite their slightlyunderhand tactics!All in all an excellent training course,which I would thoroughly recommendto anyone thinking of becoming ayoung officer in the Brigade. It can’t beoverstated how much I enjoyed mytime, the skills I learnt and the greatpeople I met, both staff and cadets. Ithink every cadet will go on to be anexcellent officer as a result of thetraining and advice we all received onKGVI.I would like to thank all the staff whogave up their valuable time to teach us,advise us, criticise us but most of all befriends to us. Without them none of uswould have experienced theopportunities that were presented to us.Ian Bond5th Exeter Companypage 92 • VOLUME 112 No. 4 • October 2004