Ministry & Youth: PYV 2018 Summer Camp

It’s still hot in Kyneton today. Real hot. Maybe not as hot as yesterday, but not far short of it. We have endured it and maybe some have even enjoyed it. I wonder if they’ll enjoy their cabins tonight.

Anyway, before we get to the cabins, there is a lot that has happened today. The leaders were up early for their meeting at 7.30am with Aradie Walters, our pastoral care co-ordinator, leading us in our devotional thought for the morning. We are thinking about the qualities of Jesus and today Aradie read from John 18 and led us to think about Jesus as a person of truth. An interesting topic in today’s world.

The leaders are a great bunch and have given up their week after Christmas to serve others in a wonderful way here at Camp. Please continue to pray for them and for their energy levels in particular. No one is fading yet, so your prayers are having an impact. J

Breakfast was amazing and plentiful, and the fact that not too many people went for seconds is always a good sign. From there, we went into our study groups. There are two key elements to our camps that we believe help us to achieve our mission of bringing the gospel to teenagers – preaching and study groups. If you have kids at this camp, they are involved in one of these study groups. Please be praying for them and for the leaders.

The morning worship session happened after morning tea and while the room was more than a little uncomfortable, it was good to sing together. Through our worship sessions we are also discussing different aspects of prayer. Today we heard from Matt talk about God answering big prayers. We were encouraged to hear about something particularly important that has happened in Matt’s family recently, and it is good to be reminded that God does answer prayer.

Toby preached from Luke 5:17-26, the story of the paralysed man being lowered through the roof and being forgiven by Jesus before being healed. Now, I’ve been in ministry for a long time and have been teaching and preaching from the Bible for most of that time, so when I learn something new, I get pretty excited. Today, I got excited. It might not have been a big thing, but I was excited anyway. A good reminder that there is always more to learn from the Bible.

It was good to hear Toby say that we need spiritual healing more than physical healing. (That wasn’t the thing that was new for me, but a good thing to hear.) When we ask why teenagers don’t follow Jesus, part of the reason is that they don’t think they need forgiveness. They might want a physical healing, but don’t believe they need a spiritual healing.

After lunch we came back to the hall for our activities. We have great leaders, and our activity leader, Callum Haughey, had organised indoor activities to happen on this hot afternoon. PYV camp activities often involve physical activity and not everyone enjoys this. The activities this afternoon gave the people who like to think more than run the chance to use their abilities.

Free time was more sedate than usual. But when it’s this hot, I’m happy to see teenagers sitting talking and playing board games. I salute those who did play cricket though.

Dinner was another good meal, and many campers took the chance to sit out on the deck overlooking the lake. Still a bit hot for me, but the heavy clouds made it better for the others.

The evening activities gave the creative and the sporty people in the teams to shine. There was a mix of kick-ball, poison ball in the stadium which gave people the chance to run around and to sweat. Each group also took their turn to create a team mascot. These mascots needed a design, and back story, and then the final model. There are some very creative people in our group – and some who had a good idea even if the final result wasn’t quite as good as the design.

Finally, the Late Show with Bec and Matt was fantastic! With a petition signed by over 120 people asking for Jacob to tell the Oreo joke, we were treated to the chance to hear this joke. If you ever get the chance to hear it, don’t bother. It really isn’t worth it. Nate Barbieri told a great story about the danger of hot chillies, and then we concluded with a Lip-Sync Battle between Louise and Callum. Congratulations to Louise and her back up dancers.