It’s wet today. Real wet. As we woke this morning to the
sound of rain falling on the roof, some of us were thinking about the changes
we would need to make to the plans for today. But not all things need to be
changed. We will still eat in the same room, and worship indoors, and our study
groups can shuffle around to find dry spaces.
After the early morning leaders’ meeting and a well-attended
prayer meeting, we sat around the tables ready for breakfast. It was a breakfast
that would cheer the hungriest of hobbits – although we only had one breakfast.
Today we have two worship sessions. Our first session began
with answering some questions that youth have asked. This is, I believe, a very
important element of ministry to youth. Young people have many questions about faith
and we need to give them space to ask those questions, and we need to give them
a reasonable answer. PYV will always seek to do this. Some questions are
commonly asked but this makes them no less important to those who are asking.
Adam spoke from John 5 pointing us to the true story of a
man who had been sitting waiting to be healed for so long. While he was unable
to help himself, Jesus healed him so he could walk again. But this wasn’t the
end of the story, nor is it the most important part of the story, for Jesus
points out to this man that there is something greater. I was struck by this
comment,
“What is this man’s greatest need? To have his legs healed, or to have his heart healed?”
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| Flipper Relay |
Over morning tea I joined with a group of boys to play a
game called “Jungle Speed”. Wow! I was completely left behind as these boys
flipped cards over and quickly grabbed the pole in the middle of the table
while I was still trying to work out what was going on. It was a whole lot of
fun though.
Study groups today looked at the account of Jesus feeding
the 5,000 with a very small meal. As we learn about these signs and what they
teach us about Jesus, it helps to read these stories to learn, or be reminded,
of all that Jesus is and all that Jesus does.
One of the spiritual disciplines is reading and studying the
Bible each day. PYV is keen to help our young people to do this, so at each of
our camps we set time aside for this. But we recognise that this is also something
that will be foreign to many young people, so I am very pleased to look around and
see leaders sitting with campers taking them through the quiet time page in
their books. We hope that this will be something that the campers will take up
when they return home. If you have some children at this camp, please ask them
about this and give them every encouragement to continue this when they get
home.
Because of the weather we did need to make a couple of
changes to our planned activities, but not completely. Fortunately there was no
rain, so some of the activities could be outside. Frisbee golf was fun, a
flipper relay, and a couple of other games were on after lunch with the activity
groups working together as a team in the competitions. The final scores were
quite close which I take to mean that it was a fun afternoon for everyone.
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| Frisbee Golf |
At this camp we are having four worship sessions, and this
afternoon we had our second one for the day. I don’t think there are too many
teenagers in the PCV who can say they attend two worship services on a Sunday,
but they did today. In this session Adam took us through John chapter 9 – the healing
of a man born blind. What a truly amazing miracle this is but, once again, the
focus is not on the miracle but on the sign – this is pointing to something more
than just a healing.
Dinner was amazing, and I should record my thanks to the
team of cooks for making a special no-tomato lasagne. This is a good camp to be
at for those of us with weird dietary requirements.
The evening activity was a night game of Pacman on the oval.
I won’t describe it in detail, but just say that if you remember the game and imagine
campers and leaders chasing each other and looking for fruit tokens, you might get
the idea. From there the evening has finished with a campfire, games around the
table, supper, and most importantly, many spiritual discussions taking place.
My heart is warmed as I witness this happening.
The sky has now cleared, and the moon is shining brightly.
Perhaps tomorrow will be a lovely day.
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