PYV West Camp 2016 - Day Two

There's nothing quite like the first night at a camp. Will it be a good night's sleep or not? Will there be people snoring or chatting in the room while you are trying to sleep? Or will everyone in the room be asleep when you are awake and want to chat! Looking at the faces of the youth as we gathered for breakfast today, it looked like most people had a good sleep last night. And with a day ahead packed full, that was good.

Our morning session was very encouraging. We sang some great songs and heard a testimony from Tom. I have no shame in saying how encouraging it is to hear that a PYV camp was a key part of someone coming to faith. For those of us who have the chance to preach to youth, we don't always know what impact we have. So, Bill when you preached at a Winter Camp in 2011, God used you to make a difference.

The message from Cameron helped us all to connect with Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We compared ourselves with John the Baptist - we love to draw a crowd around us (how many friends do you have on Facebook?) - but John, while he did have a crowd around him, turned the questions away from himself. He declared that he was not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet. What then was he? He was just a voice preparing the way for one who was greater. He was just a shadow who would fade when the reality was revealed. He knew that he could not cleanse people from sin - only Jesus can do that.

All those voices!

I came away from this session greatly encouraged in my faith.

After a delicious morning tea, we met in our study groups. Today we read John 10 where Jesus describes himself as a door and as a good shepherd. Our groups began with an example of how difficult it can be to focus on the voice of Jesus when there are so many other voices calling for our attention. How important it is for us all to be able to discern the voice of Jesus!

I confess that I love the chance to open the Bible with a group of people at any time, but when those who meet with me are teenagers and young adults, I'm encouraged to help them have a deeper understanding of the faith they accept. I am really enjoying the chance to do so here.

Blind Volleyball

After lunch we dressed in our fancy dress, and this camp has the theme of "Olympics". Our activities were built around a story of the Olympic Torch being stolen and we needed to work as a team to find out who took it and then to recover it. Clues were given to teams when they were successful in a sporting competition like soccer, softball, etc. Clearly some teams did better than others, and the fact that my activity group didn't win any of these events didn't mean we didn't have some fun on the way. And we did eventually work out who stole the torch, but just missed out on getting it.

Instructions before the game.

Congratulations to the winning team.

Our camp photo is always important. It means that in years to come we can see who attended the camp. But it also means we get to see who really makes an effort with their fancy dress. Have a look at this photo and you'll see what I mean.

West Camp 2016

Over dinner we continued to work in our teams to create and present our team flags. Again, there was some good creativity on show. Each team then chose one well-dressed member to strut their stuff on the catwalk. My team won!!! I can't say I was a good contributor to that, but well done team.

Even the children made a flag

I think we deserved a higher score

After dinner we had our first workshops at West Camp. Topics we covered tonight were: What to do when you're the only Christian; Dealing with anger as a Christian; Making the best of Social Media;  Watching TV & Movies; and Dealing with Loss. If your child was at camp, please talk with them about these workshops. I think they will have something to share with you.

It has been another good day in Halls Gap. Thanks for praying for us. Please keep on praying.