PYV Summer Camp 2019 – Day Five (New Year’s Eve) - Updated

2019 PYV Summer Camp

Today has been a fantastic, frightening, and very full day. The first post was written at 1.40am and I was tired. Now it’s time for the update.

The power wasn’t on when we got up, so it was looking like an acoustic day. We use a lot of tech gear in our sessions, so the music team were considering what songs they could play and, more importantly, what songs we might be able to sing without words on a screen. It also looked like it would be a cereal only breakfast, but the generator fired up just as breakfast was starting and received a strong round of applause from everyone. This meant the toaster worked which was satisfying for many campers.

The morning study group was great once again and the cooler weather made it even better, although it meant those groups who had been meeting outdoors needed to find a place inside as the drizzle was blowing around outside. In our study today we talked about ‘Knowing Jesus on a Cross’. It’s important to understand that the crucifixion of Jesus wasn’t an unfortunate turn of events but rather a key part of a much longer plan of salvation.

Our worship session worked well and as we had power at this stage, we were able to revert to the original plan. Andy spoke about Knowing Jesus as King and focused our thoughts on the question of ‘What should I study?’. The guidance Andy shared on this topic is helpful for many aspects of life too. Here’s a summary

·         Remember you are not the king

·         Be honest to Jesus about your heart – Ps 139:23-24

·         Read the King’s word – James 4:13-15

·         Pray to the King for wisdom – James 1:5

·         Make a decision

·         Trust the King

·         Stop worrying and be thankful

The example of Eric Liddell and his service to Jesus was a great encouragement. His desire was, in his words, to “Give glory to my master, Jesus Christ”. Someone who spent time in a prison camp with him wrote about Liddell –

“His humble life combined muscular Christianity with radiant godliness.” 

We also heard a testimony from Suzy Vines, the PYV Administration Officer.


The day became frightening when we got a message about how bad things are at Mallacoota. We have campers here with family members involved in the SUFM Beach Mission, and they were rightly worried. So before our afternoon activities session, we sat together and prayed. It was good to hear the campers praying with each other. We were very pleased to get a message later in the day that things were looking better. God is good.

The afternoon activities included a variety of stations at different places around the camp. Everyone had a go at a tug-of-war; ultimate frisbee; memory game; and more.

The prayer meeting today was well attended with a growing number of campers attending.

As usual, we got dressed into our costumes for the Board Games theme ready for our camp photo. There were a few dominoes, dice, Guess Who faces and a surprising number of Cluedo characters. The photo looks great.

After dinner we knew that the end of the year was nearly upon us and wondered what the activities for the night would be. When one of our leaders was carried in having been ‘murdered’ we learned that we would be involved in a fun game of real life Cluedo. At this point I want to give a huge shout out to Ben McLeod and Isaac Johnson who organised this. It was a creative and fun way to embrace the last night of camp and the board game theme.

Being presented with a prize for Best Costume 

by Rev Green and Col Mustard

Guess what happened next. That’s right, the Late Show that didn’t happen last night was on now. And finally the interview we’ve been waiting for all week took place. However, I’m not sure they needed to show the video of me slipping over on the water slide.

The Late Show Interview

Then we enjoyed a variety of activities before the end of year countdown. We gathered in the dining room, we worshiped and prayed into the new year.

Then we cleaned up and now I’m going to sleep.

Celebrating New Year's Eve

Beginning the year in Worship

PYV Summer Camp 2019 – Day Six (New Year’s Day)

All of life is worship and it's good to worship together

January 1 2020. It’s the final day of what has been a tremendous camp. Because it was a late night last night, the leader’s meeting and breakfast started later today. While that sounds like we all had a chance to sleep in a bit, we had to have everything out of our rooms before breakfast so it wasn’t much of an extra sleep.

I saw this verse of scripture on the door of one of the male dorms. It seemed appropriate today

If a man loudly blesses his neighbour early in the morning,
it will be taken as a curse.
Proverbs 27:14

Our study groups had their last opportunity to sit together this morning. The friendships that have been formed in these groups are friendships we hope will last for many years. More importantly we hope all they have learned and discussed will guide them to a deeper and stronger trust in Jesus and a clearer understanding of God’s will. The leaders of the groups have been faithful in helping your children understand the scriptures and how they apply to the lives of teenagers.

Have you talked with your children about their study groups?

After a shortened morning tea we walked up the stairs to our session room for our final worship session. We heard a short talk from Andy May to conclude his series where he has simply reminded us that God’s will for us is to know Jesus. We watched a recording of an interview with Sil Ruddle, who was the captain of the Australian Women’s Volleyball Team and involved in the Olympics in Sydney in 2000. She is now serving Jesus in Western Africa. She talked about determining God’s will for her life that led her to Africa and there were a few amazing statements. This was the stand out comment for me:

I went to SIM (Mission Agency) and said, “These are my skills. Is there an opportunity for God to use me and these skills?”

These skills were much more than volleyball. She had learned much about leadership while playing sport, but had also completed an engineering degree and had been working in water management for a few years. She had skills to offer.

Have you talked with your children about the talks at camp? Ask them about ‘maker; manger; cross; king’ and see what they can remember.

We also heard an encouraging testimony from Erwin Yii, one of our leaders. It is always an encouragement to hear about the difference Jesus makes in people’s lives whether it’s a testimony about coming to faith, or a testimony about growing in grace. Erwin has encouraged us all today.

Once again our lunch was fantastic with a choice of chicken or lamb on wraps, and then all the good things to put on top. The meals at camp have been great and listening to the conversations happening across the room over six days has been very encouraging. The campers did good work when it was their turn to set tables or to pack up dishes and wipe down tables.

From there we had our final time together to say ‘thank you’ to everybody who has been busy in leading different areas of camp. Our executive team led by Caleb Schulz; our speaker Andy May; the first aid team; pastoral care team; study and activity leaders; the tech team; and our musicians. (Apologies if I’ve forgotten anyone.) We also heard a bit more about YouthMETRO, and prayed for the group who have finished Year 12 and are graduating from PYV Camps.

This is a great group of young adults. Let's see what God has in store for them. 

I was flattered that some time was spent to say goodbye to me. My thanks to all who were involved in putting this together.

Then we had to pack up quickly and leave the camp as another group were ready to start their camp later that afternoon.

This camp has been eventful in unexpected ways with power outages and very hot weather. This probably helps to make it a very memorable camp too.

This camp is also my final camp as the PCV Youth Ministries Director. I am grateful to God for the opportunity that has been mine to be involved in the camps and to help point young people to Jesus. I trust that the seeds of faith that have been sown will continue to bear fruit for many, many years to come.

Ben getting everyone's attention.

The Executive Team did a great job before camp. And at camp. 

My last PYV Leader's meeting. 

PYV 2019 Summer Camp starts next week.

Friends and supporters of PYV. Thank you once again for your ongoing prayer for the youth of the churches in Victoria. I know that for many it has been a significant year. I hope for others it will end that way too. 

Next week our 2019 Summer Camp will be beginning at Forest Edge near Neerim South. We will have 185 people with us at the camp including campers, leaders, YouthMETRO trainees, and a few special visitors. 

Andy May is our speaker and we are excited that he will be able to help our young people with the topic of "Finding God's Will for Your Life". As some of the group are finishing school and determining what to do from here, it's an important topic. Speaking of that group, some of these people have been to every summer camp through their secondary school years and we will give them a bit of a farewell at the end of camp. Perhaps you could pray for them while your praying for Andy. 

Caleb Schulz is our convener for the camp and he - with the fantastic support of his executive leaders - have brought together a wonderful team to lead our study groups, activity groups, and workshops. You can find out more about the workshops at https://www.pyv.org.au/camps/summer

Chris Shaw and Nate Barbieri are leading the YouthMETRO trainees as they have their intensive week of theology and evangelism training. Many churches have seen the positive fruit of YouthMETRO over the years. Perhaps there's someone in your church who could be exploring this for 2021. It's never too late to start the conversation about that. 

We will aim to be posting a daily update on the Ministry and Youth Blog for parents and friends to keep up with what's happening. We invite you to enjoy this each morning - https://ministryandyouth.blogspot.com/

Please continue to be praying for what God will do at the camp. 

Thank you.

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