Ministry & Youth: PYV 2018 Summer Camp

The whole gang

The 2018 PYV Summer Camp concluded on New Year’s Day – January 1 2019. It was a good end to a great camp.

The camp had been held at Campaspe Downs near Kyneton, and based on my experience at the last PYV camp we held there, I had some concerns about how well it would go. I was very happy that none of those fears were realised and the campsite and staff were absolutely fantastic. In fact, we had a very encouraging message from one of the staff there. More of that later.

Convener Sherif Makar

Running a camp means a lot of work needs to happen beforehand, and this means good leadership. Sherif Makar accepted the role of convener early in 2018 and began to build the executive leadership team. All of these people were brilliant in their roles. Thank you Duan, Stephanie, Callum, Sarah, and Aradie for the part you played in making camp work.

The Exec Team and Preacher

Of course, it needs more than just these six people to look after around 115 teenagers, and we had a great team of study leaders (who were also activity leaders and dorm leaders), first-aid carers, pastoral carers, musicians, an amazing tech team, and a special someone providing morning tea and supper.

We also had 14 trainees very busy with YouthMETRO training. Matt Deroon was teaching theology and Nate Barbieri was teaching evangelism. It is always good to see this group of people getting to know each other and forming solid friendships while having their minds stretched as they consider some aspects of theology they haven’t considered before.

In the evangelism training, the trainees do some learning in the classroom, and then during camp they get to put it into practice. By God’s good grace, it is through this practical exercise that teenagers come to faith in Jesus Christ during camp.

This is the first year that we have a cut off age for campers as those who have completed year 12 (or equivalent). It was good to be able to get this group together in our final session and to pray for them as they ‘graduate’ from PYV camping. Some of these have been at camp right through their high school years, and it’s been a delight to see them grow in knowledge and wisdom (and height!) over that time. I look forward to seeing some back as leaders in the future.

Their Final Camp (as campers)

Speaking of the final session, it was here that we heard one of the camp staff say that she has enjoyed some long chats with some of our people during the camp, and that she is looking forward to learning a bit more about our faith. I have been to a lot of camps, but this is the first time I have ever heard a staff worker say something like this. Your teenagers have made a very positive impact, as teenagers can.

Finally, Rev Toby McIntosh’s sermons on the gospel of Luke were outstanding. Toby was able to make the big themes of the gospel clear and relevant to teenagers. God has used him well in pointing young people to Jesus.

Thank you for continuing to pray for PYV during the camp. Thank you also to those who expressed their thanks for the blog posts during the camp. That was a great encouragement.

Now we get into 2019 with a sense of great expectation to see what God has in store for us.