It seems to be getting harder to get everyone to breakfast
on time, as happens on long camps. But breakfast is still worth getting to.
Everyday there is a cooked breakfast for our campers to start the day. Perhaps
they’ll be inspired to start cooking their own breakfast when they get home. Or
perhaps not.
Our session today included a message from the PYV Council.
This doesn’t happen often, so it is a good way for campers to learn about the
group of people who make the council and the work that this council does.
Again, I am greatly encouraged by this group who give their time and energy to
this work. Why do they do this? They answered the question this way, “Because I
love Jesus, and PYV has had a massive impact on me. I want to help others to be
impacted for Jesus.”
Brilliant.
Pete’s message today was the one we have all been waiting
for – sex and dating. It was introduced by reading chapter 7 of Song of Songs,
which is not a passage of scripture that often gets read publicly, I expect. We
have already learned, or been reminded, that God is a God who understands relationship.
Indeed, we’ve learned that God created humanity and community, so the
fact that we desire a relationship of some kind should be no surprise.
Today we heard that in this world, God is often portrayed as
being either ignorant of sex or of being anti-sex. Of course, nothing could be
further from the truth. Instead we learned that God made sex to be good,
special, and optional. We learned that God made sex for marriage, which is a
stark contrast to the view that sex is for sport or for health, as some people
think. (Not those on camp, of course. I hope.) Sex should be given, not taken.
It should not be a selfish act, but a serving act.
Pete then spent some time dealing with what this means for
teenagers who are a number of years away from marriage. Dating was defined as ‘pursuing
a particular friendship with a view to marriage’, and we were encouraged to
resist the lie that we need sex to be complete, or that we need to have someone
to be someone.
There was much more that was said, and if you are a parent
of someone who was at camp and want to know more about what your child heard,
then I encourage you to listen to the recording of this talk when it is available.
Hopefully, that won’t be long. You will be able to find it at www.pyv.org.au when it is ready.
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| One of our study groups |
Our studies continued the theme and we spent the hour looking
at a little of what the Bible has to say about relationships and romance. We
started in Genesis and looked at a variety of passages from the Old and New
Testaments. These can be summed up in the phrase from 1 Corinthians 6:14, “Flee
sexual immorality.”
After lunch we broke into our activity groups. While the
temperature dropped and the rain came and went, everyone ran around the
campsite taking on different challenges. I was in charge of the balancing
see-saw. Rawson has a large square see-saw and we wanted the whole team to be
on it and balancing it for ten seconds. I learned that the quickest way to do
this is to get everyone in the centre and move from there. I’m always learning
something at PYV camps.
Tonight was, I think, another important event. All of our
camps have a question box for people to ask the difficult questions that they
have. Some are biblical, some practical, and some are fun. The questions we
answered tonight were difficult, and personal. Not surprisingly, there were
questions about relationships, pornography, same-sex attraction, and marriage.
It was good to sit on a panel with wise people like Pete, Emily and Clinton.
One of the great questions we had was “I think I just met my future wife. I’m a
Christian and she’s a Christian. What should my next move be? P.S. I’m not 12.
#pickyourvalentinePYV”
Answering questions is an important aspect of ministry in a
youth context. We can’t answer all the questions, and some aren’t all that
serious, but it is vital that youth know they have a place where they can ask
their questions. Please make sure your church is such a place.
We ran late tonight because after the question panel, we had
a presentation from the team who travelled to Malawi earlier this year. This
great group of people had a great impact on the children they ministered to.
Equally, those children had a great impact on this group. The sovereignty of God
was evident in the things that happened while they were away. May God bless
what has been done there, and what is still being done in Malawi. We hope to
send another team in 2019.
There’s more that was done, and more to say, but if you’ve
read this far you probably deserve a gold star. So I’ll stop here.
Day five, new year’s eve, awaits.
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| I don't know who's hand this is, but it must be powerful. |
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| I'm not sure what's going on here. |
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| It looks like Brad's trying to sell a car. It also looks like he doesn't have a buyer. |
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