PYV Summer Camp 2016 (2017) - Day 6

It's getting harder to get started. But the leaders still gathered early in the day to pray together, be informed of the activities of the day, and to encourage each other to finish the camp well. Our assistant convener, Scott, led our devotions today. Thanks Scott for helping us come to this busy day with a reminder of God's goodness to us.

Some of the campers were able to get up early, pack their bags, and still be ready for the pre-breakfast prayer meeting. May their prayers continue to be heard and voiced for many years to come.

After breakfast - pancakes!! - the rest of us quickly packed our bags and then made our way into the sessions room for our morning worship session. It was good today to hear a testimony from someone much younger. Mitch is part of the team doing YouthMETRO and while he is a young man (at least from the perspective of my age) he knows and trusts Jesus.

The sermon from Jared today pointed us to the Passover. While this would have been a truly horrific event for the Egyptians, Jared helped us to see that it was not the fact that some people were Israelites that protected them, but rather that it was those who acted in faith who found themselves safe. In faith they sacrificed a lamb and put the blood on the doorframe. God has redeemed his faithful people.

Through the sermons Jared has helped us all to see that Exodus shows God to be a God:

• who is faithful
• who is holy
• who sends
• who makes himself known
• who is Lord overall
• who redeems. 

Breaking into our study groups gave us the opportunity to discuss again what we had just heard and to see how it applies to our lives.Just as the Israelites put themselves under the blood of the lamb, as God had instructed them to do, we now put ourselves under the blood of Jesus.

The final page of our study group questions made us look back at all we had been discussing over the week and see what the implications are for our own lives:

• If God is faithful, then I will . . .
• If God is holy, then I will . . .
• If God sends, then I will . . .
• If God makes himself known, then I will . . .
• If God is Lord overall, then I will . . .
• And if God redeems, then I will . . .

Good questions to reflect on.

After lunch we had our final session together. This was a chance for us to say 'thanks' to all those who had worked so hard in many roles on camp. There are study leaders, dorm leaders, activity group leaders, (and a large group doing all three!), camp parents, leaders' chaplains, first aid, tech team, musicians, and the executive team. All these people did an amazing job to get everything done, and get it done safely.

Good job Kirsten. (Is she singing?)

I want to give a huge 'THANK YOU' to our convener for Summer Camp, Kirsten Bryant. Kirsten has had a busy year, but she is well organised and was able to lead a great team. This is the second camp she has been convener for, and both of them have been terrific.

Kirsten has a great desire to serve Jesus. If you would like to read more about that, you can follow her blog at Surrendered Dreamer.


Parents came, picked up their tired and excited children, and went home. Leaders worked to finish packing and cleaning while others talked with parents.

And then it was over.

I (eventually) jumped onto my motorbike to begin my ride to Sydney for a conference. But that's another story.

PYV Summer Camp 2016 - Day 5

Today has been full. Beyond full. I haven't been able to find time to write my blog. But I will when I can.

I know that by then everyone will be home and you can just ask your children what happened. But maybe reading it in a few days' time will be an encouragement to get them talking anyway.

(Nearly one week later)

Day five has been a full and a fun day. We started as usual with our leaders meeting which had the opening devotion from Sarah Weber. We have been greatly blessed with the pastoral care team we have on this camp. They have great experience and compassion and are able to talk to our campers and leaders with wisdom and grace. 

Prayer meeting was a little small today, but still a good number attended. 

In our worship session today, the campers heard a testimony from the oldest bloke in the room (when did I suddenly become the oldest bloke in the room?!?!?!!) Rather than recite it now, if you had children at the camp ask them what they remember. I also got conned into doing a 'dab'. I still don't know what that is!

More importantly, we heard a great sermon from Jared about the plagues that came to Egypt. There is so much to learn about these plagues and why they are relevant for the people of Egypt at that time. Three things stood out for me. First, these plagues were natural events of biblical proportions. Some have suggested that this means they really are a run of bad luck with natural events, but that cannot explain the final plague. Second, these plagues directly challenged the gods of Egypt, even pharoah himself. Third, when Pharoah said, "Who is the Lord?", the plagues answered that question in a powerful way. 

Our study groups had a good chance to talk through these issues and see how the Pharoah responded to each of these plagues. How sad that the more he hardened his heart, the more he found his heart being hardened. There's a good lesson there for all of us. 

We had planned to take a large group of campers to the local pool for a swim, but a breakdown in communications somewhere meant there was only one guard on duty and we had to limit the numbers Once again the activities team were able to make some changes and divided the group into three so they could all have about an hour each at the pool. I was one of the leaders who spent the afternoon at the pool with these groups. 

When we returned, it was time to get into our New Year's Eve costumes. The theme for the camp was 'Cartoons' so people had all kinds of cartoon characters costumes. We had at least two Pikachus, but I think one of them was too tall. The team who made up 'Winnie the Pooh' characters looked great -  except for the dragon. Why was there a dragon in this group?

I always enjoy the colour and spectacle of this part of the camp. Well done everyone for making the effort. And thanks once again to David Johnstone for taking some great photos.

Dinner was magnificent, and then we began the New Years Eve activities. It started with a Trivia Quiz. A shout out to the YouthMETRO team for joining in here tonight. This was a good and simple way to start the evening. One the sun was setting, it was out to the oval for an outdoor cinema experience. Now, I'm not a big fan of youth group movie nights. It makes little sense to get a group of teenagers together and tell them not to talk to each other for two hours. But tonight was great. Perhaps that had something to do with it being an outdoors cinema, or because it was near the end of a long camp, or because it was a lovely night, or because it was The Lion King. I don't know what made it work, but it did. (The popcorn and zooper doopers probably helped too.)

After the movie some people enjoyed the dance floor, some enjoyed board games, and others played table tennis or just talked. Whatever they were doing before midnight, at midnight we were together to welcome in the New Year. After a few cheers and handshakes, we sang. We sang to God's glory as one year ended and another began. Then we broke into our study groups and we prayed. What a privilege was mine to sit with this group and pray for those who are beginning at university in 2017.

What a great way to finish one year and to start a new one. 

It was a full day. 

PYV Summer Camp 2016 - day 2

7.00am. Leader's meeting. It feels like an early start, but all the leaders are in the room together. Clearly we all had a good night's sleep 😎

"Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" were the Bible words we start the day with. We are reminded that what we do impacts the campers, so we want to be like Paul when he said "Do what I do" and be a faithful example for others to follow. 

Breakfast was good and as most people love a cooked breakfast, they were well fed. From breakfast (after a quick break to brush our teeth) we divided into our study groups to discuss what we heard from Jared last night, to see how the words of Exodus are relevant to us today, and to get a glimpse of how this points to Jesus. I really enjoyed the group I am leading this year. There is good conversation happening amongst the group and some good wisdom being shared. 

The weather did get in our way today for the planned activities. But because we have talented and capable people in charge of things at PYV camps, we moved chairs around and moved indoors while the rain was falling.

After lunch we had our first session of workshops for camp. Rather than list them all here, you can see that list in a previous post here. I sat in on the Gospel workshop with Sam and greatly enjoyed watching people learn what Romans 6:23 has to say about the gospel of Jesus Christ and then talking to each other about what they had just learned. Brilliant.

Our worship session again gave us the opportunity to sing in worship, pray, read the scriptures and listen to excellent preaching. Tonight Jared show from Exodus 3, the burning bush. We have been confronted with God's great holiness and how wonderful and terrifying that is. Then we were confronted with the fact that even in his awesome holiness, God allows Moses to approach him. What an awesome God we worship.

We also heard a testimony from one of our younger leaders. God bless those who challenged her about her own faith and then encouraged her to grow as a disciple of Jesus.

God is good in all things. Please keep praying for what He is doing among us here.