PYV Summer Camp 2017 – Day Two

I always approach the first night of any camp wondering if there will be anyone who is so homesick they can’t sleep, or if there will be anyone who is so excited about being there that they can’t sleep either. To the best of my knowledge, neither of these happened. After our radio show with Hayden and Kellie, people made their way to their beds to sleep. Well, mostly anyway.

Regardless of how much sleep anyone did get, everyone was up for breakfast. Before that though, the leaders met for their morning gathering. I know I’ve said it many times, and I’ll probably say it again and again, but I am always impressed with the attitude of the leaders at the PYV camps. They really do give their all for the campers. If you have some from your church at this camp as leaders, please encourage them when you next see them.

Breakfast was great, then we met for our morning worship session. This session included an encouraging testimony from Jess McNabb, our assistant convener. Do the youth at your church get to hear testimonies from others in the church community? I hope they do.

A great group of young people

Pete Sorrenson continued his series on relationship. Yesterday he raised with us the wonderful issue of why we love ‘love’. Today we were confronted with the reality that although we love ‘love’, we all deal with disappointment and heartbreak which makes us wonder what’s gone wrong! Sin has extreme consequences. Our study groups continued to ask questions about this topic looking at Genesis 3 and seeing how it applies to ourselves.

Something I had forgotten, but should have remembered, is that when you open Genesis 3 with a group of teenagers and young adults, it leads to a lot of interesting and unexpected questions.

From here we went into our quiet times. For a lot of teenagers, a habit of daily Bible reading and prayer is not even on their radar, and we are trying to bring it to their mind. This year we are trying something that we hope will be a help with this habit after camp. Each camper has been given a separate note book for their quiet times. Along with the questions and guide for camp use, they are also being given a guide to use in the month after camp too. This is all based on reading through the gospel of Mark. Today I sat with a group of young men working through this, and I was greatly encouraged by what we were all learning in just the opening paragraphs of this gospel.

Through the afternoon we had five workshops happening. You can find more about them here. As I wandered through them all, it was good to see people getting involved in conversations and questions on these significant topics. Our presenters did a great job, and we hope to have recordings of these on the website in the next fortnight.

Some Soccer Fun

Everyone enjoyed some free time and the soccer game had a lot of people involved and enjoying themselves on a summer’s afternoon. Others were inside playing games, or sitting chatting together.

After dinner we had our first activity session – an evening, camp-site sized version of Capture the Flag. Those who enjoy running had a lot to offer their team for this game. If you can run past the outstretched arms of your opponent, you can score. But it’s not easy.

As I type this, it feels like the day has involved a lot of different activities. That might be because it has. Your prayers matter to the success of this camp. Please keep praying for us.