PYV North Camp 2019 - Day 3

Our day 2 ended with a pretty competitive amazing race in our North-Pole-themed costumes and a campfire - always a great way to finish the last night of a camp!

Day 3 was an encouraging start to the day for the leaders, where we could show our appreciation for all the efforts and preparation that everyone put in to do their roles on camp. Serving in teams on camps is always a reminder that we are one big body of Christ, each with our own roles but each working together and complementing each other to serve God and his people. 

We had a great last session on Romans 5 - Clint preached on how we are now able to have peace with God. He unpacked the practical realities of what that looks like, one including a firm assurance of our salvation. It was great to overhear some of the campers chatting about what they learnt about Jesus on this camp - for some, a reminder that our works cannot save us, for others, a reality dawning of Jesus' sacrifice providing us peace with God.

We are so thankful for camp and the opportunities that campers have to hear the gospel of God preached so clearly. We pray that God would keep growing in the hearts of all who came to camp!

 

PYV East Camp 2019 – Day Two

Its been a great day at East Camp, although it’s also fair to say that the activities in the middle of the

day involved some difficult walking. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The day began with the leaders meeting and then a prayer meeting. I’ll always say how encouraging I find these gatherings. Firstly I enjoy meeting together with the leaders early in the day. It is such an encouragement to this old bloke to see a group of young adults (and a few even younger) who have given up whatever else they might have been doing for three days to be here where they can serve the campers. I am grateful for them. Secondly, I love to see a group of young people get together to pray in the morning. If it’s good to do this at home, it’s even better to do at camp.

Breakfast was more than good – our team in the kitchen are spoiling us today with a cooked breakfast, and the food got better as the day went on. Lunch we had soup, bread, and lamb rolls. And a roast dinner tonight! Absolutely brilliant. The kitchen team really are the unsung heroes of camps like these.

Our pre-session study group get-together seems to be working wonderfully well. The feedback so far seems to be that it is helping the teenagers to be better prepared and better focussed on the sermon as they hear things they’ve already discussed. This then leads into some better discussions when the groups meet after the talks.

Today’s talk led us to consider the person behind the Gospel. Dave pointed out that when we talk about ‘the gospel’ we make it sound like a thing. But it’s more than a thing – the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. The gospel is a person.

After lunch we went into our long afternoon activities session. There are two things you should know about the activities at East Camp. The first is that they are based around the theme of ‘mission impossible’, and each group is seeking to find the clues and solve the puzzles to lead them to the answer they need. This took us to various points around the campsite with a good walk in between each point.

The second thing to know is what the campsite is like. I didn’t come to East Camp last year, so when people talked about how steep the hills were, I thought they might have been exaggerating.

They weren’t!

And the walk from the final clue back to the main camp was . . . well, let’s just say it’s a while since I’ve walked up a hill that steep and that long. (But I made it)

Our costumes were put on before the camp photo and, not surprisingly, there was a lot of black jackets, black pants, and sunglasses. There were other ‘secret agents’, and some that were a little more creative. I have grown to love the costume photos from camps, and to see the creativity amongst many of our young people.

After a long and wonderful dinner, we were back to some more sleuthing to solve the final puzzles that would lead a team to “the files”. Congratulations to all the teams for getting so involved, and to T.A.N.G.O. for winning the chase.

Tomorrow is our final day. And I am sure it will be a good day. I hope your children will have a lot to talk about when they get home. 

(Sorry there's no photos on this post.)

PYV North Camp 2019 - Day Two (first half anyway)

(A post by Sharon Pike - Convener of North Camp)

Day 2 started with an early start at 7am – all the rooms were woken by a false alarm on the smoke detectors!!

But… it was a beautiful morning with the sun shining through which got better by breakfast when we were spoiled by the cooks with scrambled eggs and bacon. Fuel for the day!

Our main session today presented the good new of the gospel in Romans 3 – that though we have all fallen short of God’s glory, in Jesus we can be rescued from our sin and we can be justified by our faith in Jesus.

Over lunch, it was encouraging to hear campers talk about how their study discussions from day 1 helped them to “mull over their sin” and the nature of sin that is inherently in us all. Praise God that He speaks so clearly and the campers are able to understand different aspects of the gospel in depth. Please keep praying that the campers will continue to understand the good news of Jesus. Please pray particularly for the study leaders today as they catch up with the campers in their study groups to ask where they are at in their walk with God.

We are now at afternoon tea time after a big session of activities. In short, there was lots of running, lots of adrenaline and plenty of laughs and cheers! It’s been so great to see the campers bond together.

Please keep praying for the remainder of day 2 and for tomorrow. We trust that God has used this camp thus far to glorify himself and to make his gospel proclaimed clearly!

 

PYV North Camp 2019 - Day One

(A post from Stu Pike - Convener of North Camp 2019)

We have begun!

North Camp 2019 started with a windy and rainy first hour where the registration table got moved multiple times to keep dry. 

After the initial rush of registrations, intro session, and lunch, we launched into our first session. It’s a refreshing thing to witness a room full of voices singing praises to God. One of the things that makes North Camp so great.

Clinton Le Page did his first talk on “The Problem”. Clint presented the state of our hearts before God as explained in Romans 1 and 3. He made the point that we not only do ‘bad things’ but, more importantly, we run away from relationship with God. And so… we rightly stand guilty before God - not deserving of relationship with him, and therefore not deserving of his blessing. A heavy message, but a true and necessary message - a message that will make the grace of Christ all the more precious as Clint will unpack in his remaining talks. 

The weather improved to a sunny afternoon so we could enjoy some fun and Vegemite-filled activities outside (the photos should explain it) - even sunny enough for some study groups to meet outside to go through the first day’s content. It was encouraging to sit by and hear the leaders teaching, and the campers asking thoughtful questions - also great to hear the study groups laugh and have fun together - a great blessing for day one of camp

We finished the day with another set of activities after a very hearty dinner (thank you cooks!!!). 

‘Glow-stick capture the flag’ never ceases to entertain!

Thankful for a great Day 1 of camp - bring on day 2!

PYV 2019 East Camp - Day One

Leaving Melbourne today, the weather was strangely warm. It wasn’t going to stay that way though.

Camp Rumbug is near Foster, so it was a beautiful drive to get here. The leadership team arrived early to make sure everything was ready for the camp to begin on time. I always enjoy the registration time when campers and parents arrive. It’s great to hear the excited chatter amongst the teenagers as they sign in and find their dorms, and it’s always good to meet some of the parents.

Our opening session always gives us an opportunity to meet the key leaders, hear the roles of camp, and to just sit together in our main room. From there we went to lunch, and if lunch is anything to go by, we are in for some amazing food this camp.

This year we are trying something new at camp. The study groups meet for a while before the main session to discuss what they will hear in the session. This should provide an excellent and simple preparation for the talk. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Rev Dave Martin from New Life Presbyterian Church (Officer) is our speaker at East Camp this year and his first talk pointed us to the problem behind the gospel. We went back to Genesis 3 where we again saw Adam and Eve make the choice not to follow God’s way but to follow their own. It’s a pretty good and clear definition of sin – rejecting God’s way and choosing our own. It is this problem which has impacted all of us and so created our great need or a Saviour. In Jesus, we have such a Saviour.

The study groups met again in the afternoon for some more discussion about the talk and how these passages of scripture relate to our lives now.

The activity groups have had a couple of sessions today to get to know each other. Tonight was a live game of Code Names with teams rotating to play against each other. One of our leaders commented on how good it is to see such a group of young people together without any raised voices or any arguments. In fact, it was also great to see teenagers helping each other through the game.

All in all it’s been a terrific first day at East Camp for 2019. The second day might be even better.

(Better than the football anyway.)

PYV West Camp 2019 – Day Two

There is a strange relationship between teenagers and sleep. With daylight savings ending early this morning it meant we had an extra hour of sleep. But there were still a number of campers straggling into breakfast this morning, and a few who would have liked more sleep. (I was one of the latter group.)

Breakfast provided a lot of options for us. There was cereal, toast, and porridge and it was all good.  The catering team have been amazing (especially with the scones at morning tea) and if anyone comes home complaining that they didn’t have enough to eat, I don’t think they’re being completely honest.

From breakfast we went into the morning session. Today we continued the theme of “The Gospel – what it is and what it isn’t” and Russ was able to help us see where the gospel – the good news – leads to. Yesterday we were in Genesis 3. Today we were in Mark 15 and 16 where we read about the trial and death of Jesus. The comment that stood out for me in comparing these two sections of scripture was regarding an exchange that is made in both of these. In Genesis, a terrible exchange is made when people exchange God the creator for the creation and so become infected with sin. In Mark 15 we see a great exchange happening when our sin is placed on Jesus and we are given

freedom.

But you might ask how do we see this second exchange? Jesus wasn’t the only one to die by crucifixion that day, after all. So we move into Mark 16 where we see the account of Jesus being alive again. This is what separates the death of Jesus from all other deaths. This is what separates Jesus from all other founders of different faiths.

At the end of his sermon, campers were given a card to fill in where we ask them about their faith and their understanding of the gospel of Jesus. This is essential, and proves tremendously helpful as leaders begin to talk about these issues with the campers in their study groups.

The weather is glorious in Halls Gap. Not too hot, and not cold, so it was a good afternoon to be heading out into the area. One group enjoyed a 6km walk to Boronia Peak. We’ve taken groups here before as it is a good hike from the camp site that ends with a great view. Another group drove to various spots in the area to enjoy the sights from a lookout, and then to the beauty of a waterfall. Those of us who enjoy things a little more sedate enjoyed a stroll into the township for an ice-cream. The shop proved very popular and the queue was out the door for most of the afternoon.

When we all returned it was the annual city vs country soccer game. I don’t know who scored the most goals and the only goal I did see was scored by Country so maybe they won, but it looked like everyone was having fun playing together. The dust did pick up a bit and made it hard to keep your eyes open, which was a shame as it is truly a beautiful place to play sport. 

The camp theme we’ve been enjoying is “Safari”. So our teams have names like “Cheetahs”, “Elephants”, “Rhinos”, etc. I’m always impressed by the imaginative ways that teenagers and our leaders are able to put these themes into creative costumes for our end of camp photo. While there was a disturbing number of onesies at this camp, there was still some clever and simple costumes. There were a lot of photos taken with the whole group, and then when we came into the dining room, the separate study groups had their own photo taken.

A big shout out to those who worked hard to decorate the dining room for our dinner tonight.

After dinner I sat at the campfire for the evening. Here I enjoyed some good conversations with campers and leaders as well as distributing marshmallows for those who wanted one or two . . . or four . . . or maybe a few more too. Other campers were busy with games in different sections of the campsite. During this time many leaders were having chats about faith with campers. I can’t tell you how encouraging it is to see this happen.

A two night camp always feels like a very short camp, and tomorrow we will finish after lunch. This means we have one more worship session, one more study group, one more devotional time and two more meals. May God work in the hearts of the young people here.

Thanks for praying for us today. God has been good to us.  

He looked bigger in real life.

Dust on the oval

Worship in singing