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A Feast of Piste
with Oak Hall
Carolyn Harry & Peter Green, 1-8 February, 2003
Carolyn’s magazine article last year stimulated Peter to join her on the Oak Hall skiing holiday at Schaldming - Dachstein Tauern, Austria from 1-8 February. Carolyn’s regular skiing companions of numerous previous Oak Hall holidays, Sally and John, came along too.
Oak Hall are an organisation who organise an amazing range of holidays - from Paris to Beijing - allowing people of all denominations to visit wonderful locations and experience real Christian friendship at very reasonable prices. They also organise at their base in Otford, Kent residential courses and activity weekends including bible study, music and worship and introductory courses for those interested in Mission Overseas.
It was all started by an Ian Mayo in the 1960's when he took a Church Youth Group from Caterham to Switzerland in a London Ambulance . The ambulance was replaced with a London bus and expanded to winter and summer holidays as the combination of holidays with Christian fellowship went from strength to strength. Now there are holidays all over the world including Spain, Italy, USA, Canada, China with a wide range of activities - from skiing in France, Austria and USA to cycling in the Loire.
During the week we found out that Oak Hall do much more than just organise holidays - Oak Hall Expeditions provide opportunities for those interested in Mission Overseas including ‘Atom Trips’ that offer a two week taster in places of great deprivation and hardship where voluntary organisations are actually working. These include an orphanage in ‘God’s Gold Acre’ in South Africa, a bible school in Yugoslavia (where they have so far made 48 trips in a 40 ton lorry packed with aid) and, amazingly, such challenging places as Palestine and Peru. Clearly this organisation are not put off by what must seem to most people as potentially dangerous situations - for example their work in Peru is with a Scripture Union that provides real help for the orphans living rough, who have little or no social status and are regularly beaten and even shot in the streets. Visit their website www.oakhall.co.uk for further details on forthcoming events.
Now to our skiing holiday! We flew to Munich and then travelled by coach to our very comfortable hotel Pension Ennstal in Haus in the Schladming area of Austria at the very foot of the slopes to Mt Hauser Kaibling 2015m. The hotel was very conveniently placed within a few minutes walk of the gondola up Hauser Kaibling and the adjoining mountains of Planai, Hochwurzen and Reiteralm were all accessible either by skiing directly using various gondola interlinks or by using the free and very popular ski buses.
We arrived at the hotel about 10pm and the first task was to get our ski equipment sorted and adjusted ready for the first ski trip at 9.00am the next morning. It was also important to sort ourselves into groups - from Group 1 for absolute beginners to Group 4 for the experts (Carolyn, Sally and John!) for the instruction courses. Peter started with Group 3 but realized on the first slope he needed to start in Group 2!
Typically the days included a prayer meeting at 07.40 - 08.00, skiing from 09.00 - 16.00/17.00 with a break at mid-day on the mountain for lunch, dinner in the hotel at 18:00 and an evening meeting at 20.00 in the basement games room.
The ‘boss’ was a lovely young girl Leoni who only last year was an Oak Hall tourist just like the rest of us, but saw God’s calling, gave up her job and decided to devote a year of her life to working for Oak Hall.
The ski instructors Iley, Adrian and Phil were equally impressive and the first big surprise for Peter was that they not only provided great care, instruction and fellowship on the slopes, but also took it in turns to lead the prayer meetings in the morning and the evening meetings too.
Both John and another visitor Marcus played guitars to accompany our praise at the evening meetings and James Heard from Holy Trinity, Brompton (where the Alpha Courses originated) gave the main address each evening.
The first address by James was on the Holy Trinity no less and it has to be said that this proved a little challenging after all the energy exerted on the slopes. So much so that Peter received a good kick from Carolyn to keep him wide awake during one meeting!
The praise too would come as quite a shock to most of the St. Wilfrid congregation as most of the songs were circa 1990 - 93 but sung with great feeling and there was the occasional traditional hymn to cater for all tastes.
It was whilst thinking about more traditional items to restore the balance [whilst gently ascending the slopes on a chair lift] that Peter hit on the idea of writing words in praise of our wonderful instructors to the tune of ‘Will Your Anchor Hold’ using words such as ‘Will Your Snow Plough Hold Through the Snow and Ice’. Carolyn, Sally and John helped to finish the words and it was sung with great gusto and to rapturous applause on the final night. The words are at the end of the article and can easily be adjusted for any skiing holiday!
One of the many highlights was undoubtedly a 2 hour sleigh ride for the four of us through the Austrian countryside (picture on previous page) cosseted under warm blankets and with free home-made schnapps along the journey. The part through the forest was quite enchanting and before returning we stopped for half an hour in a tiny picturesque village in a warm wood panelled hostelry enjoying large mugs of delicious hot gluvine.
It has to be said that cold packed lunches quickly gave way to sampling lots of gluvine and wonderful hot Austrian fare in the numerous restaurants on the slopes including delicious thick meaty and spicy goulash soup, tasty Austrian sausage and chips and those amazing huge dumpling sweets!
Peter thought that his previous skiing holiday over five years ago was the best ever but could see now that this was so much more than just a fantastic holiday. It was a chance to enjoy everything that is wonderful in the world that God has given us - wonderful scenery in crystal clear air, lovely food and exercise, real fellowship with Christians of diverse denominations and from all walks of life and from every corner of the British Isles [including the Shetland Islands!]. Doctors mingled with IT Specialists and even with a delightful young lady quarry explosive expert!
Do give Oak Hall activities a closer look - it could change your holiday schedule and possibly your life!
Carolyn Harry, Peter Green
Oak Hall
Otford, Kent, TN15 6XF
Tel: 01732 763131
Our Oak Hall Song:
Will your snow plough hold through the snow and ice
Will your heart be strong as with death you dice
Will your pole plant hold as you make your turn
Will your edges give and make you squirm!
Chorus:
We have instructors brave and true
What're the terrain they will see you through
With their watchful eye and their patient calm
They’ll make sure your safe and free from harm
Will your T Bar hold as you glide up high
Will your partner ‘wobble’ as you reach the sky
When the dismount comes and you twist the bar
Will you exit or be dragged too far!
Will your courage hold as you face downhill
When the ‘blue’ looks ‘black’ do you loose your will
As the ‘moguls’ rise and your spirits wane
Keep your nerve or it will end in pain!
If you do ‘wipe out’ when you’re on the Piste
Just remember who is to blame the least
When it comes to HELP! we can all attest
Iley, Adrian and Phil are best!