PYV Summer Camp 2015 - Day Five

Our faithful and brave leaders

Day Five (Thursday Dec 31)

The leaders gathered together again this morning, although I think it’s getting harder to be here ready to start at 7.00am! Today we referred to 1 Corinthians 15:9-10. In this chapter Paul notes that he is what he is “by the grace of God” and so it is for us. All that we are is by the grace of God. A good reminder for us at the start of the day.

Our prayer meetings through the day have been well attended. It has been exciting to see some of our youngest campers meeting with others and praying together before we have breakfast.

Because we have some incredible activities planned for tonight, we had our worship session straight after breakfast. Our video today featured Paul from Canterbury church and a team who work with him providing meals and a safe place to eat together for homeless people. It has been inspiring to watch this series of videos and realise that there are people in our denomination who are living out their faith in wonderful and practical ways. May there be more and more.

Andrew’s message to us today came from James 5:1-6 and confronted our attitudes to materialism. And the video message we started with was confronting. We know that there isn’t a fair and equal distribution of wealth in this world, but to realise just how much wealth of the world is held and controlled by a small percentage of people is  . . . well, frightening! Andrew helped us to look at what the Bible has to teach us about materialism and the impact it can have in the world. “Poverty in our world is wide. Selfishness in our world is deep.” So, the challenge for us is to let go of our ambition for luxury and instead strive for justice and equality.

“Poverty in our world is wide. Selfishness in our world is deep.”

After morning tea we divided again into our study groups to discuss what we had heard in the talk and how it can apply to our lives. For this we looked at 2 Corinthians 8:9-15, a passage which has much to say about having a good attitude toward money. And here we are confronted by an attitude and an action. “What practical things do we need to do in our lives so that our “willingness” translates into “action”? Here’s my answer:

Determine what I can give. Determine where I can give. 

Our final dinner for 2015

Fairy Tales in 3D

Today is hot. Very hot. So the opportunity for a water fight on the oval was taken up with a lot of enthusiasm. I want to say a huge “thank you” to those who prevented a bucket of water being poured over my head. I might have enjoyed it, but I did have my phone in my hand at the time. My intended assailant did end up very wet. Which made me smile.

Every PYV camp has a theme. And on the last night at each camp most everybody dresses up in a costume matching that theme. For Summer Camp 2015, the theme has been “Fairy tales”. There has been some good work done by campers and families on costumes for tonight’s dinner and photo. There was a few dwarves, a lot of Red Riding Hoods, some little pigs, and if you looked carefully, you would also find the Big Bad Wolf wandering around. A special mention must be made to Thor and the work on his hammer. It looked fantastic! (Whether or not “Thor” or “Lord of the Rings” are fairy tales is open to debate.)

Just some of the talent

After dinner, we had our first “Open Mic Night”. And if I thought that there was some talent shown in the pirate ships yesterday, and in the costumes people dressed in, that was just a shadow compared to the talent on display tonight. We had some guests to play for us after the open mic night. “Babel’s End”, a trio of men who attend Cranbourne Presbyterian Church, play hard and play loud, and use their talents – which are significant – to glorify God. A huge thanks to the two of the trio who travelled up to Rawson just for this. 

Babel's End

A late evening of different activities gave us all the chance to enjoy being outside as the weather mercifully cooled down. Living the old Fairy Tale theme meant we could make armour, enjoy some jousting (pool noodles), fencing (textas and old t-shirts), eating apples hanging from a string, and throwing food at people in stocks. I think some people enjoyed this activity a bit too much.

Happy New Year!!!

From 10.30pm the music cranked up and those who wanted to dance the year to an end crowded into a sweaty room while the rest of us enjoyed playing quieter games, or just being together. At midnight there was a great cheer and a welcome into the new year.

And then comes what is, for me, the greatest start to a new year. We sing. Not the songs that people have been dancing to for the last 90 minutes. That won't help us into the new year.  Instead we sing the songs of praise, we sing with enthusiasm, we sing to a God who is beyond ages - the God of our salvation. Then we split into our study groups and pray together.

Praying our way into 2016.

New Years Eve at Summer Camp is a very long day. And it is a great day.

All glory to God!

#pyvsummercamp15 #onceuponapyvsummercamp

PYV Summer Camp 2015 - Day 3

Andrew preaching to PYV

Day Three (Tuesday Dec 29)

As usual, the morning begins with a leader’s meeting. Here, one of our guests, – Rev Stuart Bonnington from Fremantle, WA – reminds us of the humanity of Jesus. How we need the forgiveness of God, and how wonderful that we can know we have his forgiveness.

Our prayer meeting today is focussed on youth ministry within our local churches. It is encouraging to hear people speak about their youth group with love and respect. But there are many churches who do not have any youth, or only one or two families with young people. So we prayed for these churches as well, trusting that God will use these churches to bring the gospel to the youth of their community. This is just one of the important aspects of a PYV Camp. It gives youth from small churches the chance to connect with teenagers from across the state and be encouraged in their journey of faith.

While I’m not a big fan of a cooked breakfast, the campers love it. So the hash browns and toast were a winner today. With good food in our stomachs, we went off to our study groups again to work through some questions based on last night’s talk. As were encouraged to rearrange our values in the talk, today we looked at just a bit of what the Bible has to say on “Being open-handed to the poor”. Again, for those playing at home, have a look at Deuteronomy 15:7-11 & James 2:15-17. There was some good discussion around this topic.

Blowing cups with balloons

Foil Towers

A time for personal devotion, then morning tea, was followed by the organised activities for today. And this time it wasn’t the pen thieves we were hunting. Today we were trying to determine the new name taken by Rumpelstiltskin. With a series of competitions and clues, they were able to work out that new name and so rescue the young child. Our activities team have done an amazing job in putting together activities that allow groups to work well with each other, use up some energy, and are a whole lot of fun as well. Good job team!

What is Rumpelstiltskin's new name?

After lunch we had our second session of workshops for the camp. Again, we have sought to put together workshops that are relevant to youth, and relevant to the life of the church. Today’s topics were: “Depression & Our Friends”, “Teenagers & Mission – Yes, they do go together”, “A gracious response to homosexuality,” and a repeat of “How do I know I’m a Christian?” Our young people have very good and important questions rolling around their heads, and we hope that these workshops have helped to answer some of these.

A workshop crowd

A couple of hours of free time to run around, or sit in the shade, or play other games, and then it is time for dinner. The dining room is a noisy and vibrant place when we are all together with our campers, leaders, YouthMETRO trainees, and some young children crowding in to the room.

In the evening comes what will be, for many, one of the highlights of the camps – our evening sessions. Tonight we heard a powerful testimony of God’s grace working in the life of a young man, we watched a video of some work happening in Croydon, and we opened our Bibles to James 3:1-12. From this passage, Andrew challenged us to sort out our speech. These verses of Scripture have much to say about the way we speak and how we use our language.

But importantly, our speech is also a sign of what is going in inside our hearts. “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” So if we have a problem with the language we use and the way we speak, then we have a problem with our heart. And we need Jesus to fix that.

"The mouth speaks what the heart is full of." 

Jesus    

The formal part of the night finished in our study groups catching up on some questions, or in my group, we wrote limericks and haiku to describe our battle with temptation. Then it was off to bed with the radio show entertaining us along the way.

#pyvsummercamp15 #onceuponapyvsummercamp

PYV Summer Camp 2015 - Day 2

Day Two (Monday Dec 28)

Our day begins with a leader’s meeting at 7.00am where our devotional thought came from 2 Cor 4:5 “For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” A good reminder for our leaders that we are here to point campers to Jesus, and that we are here to serve. This was followed by a prayer gathering at 7.30am. Today around 50 people, including some of our youngest campers, were there praying together.

In 2015 we have seen a change to our standard timetable. This means that after breakfast we begin the day in our study groups. The aim here is that we have heard a talk the night before, and we have then had the night to consider what we have been told. Meeting first thing in the morning means we get to talk to campers when they are at their brightest and best. Today in our groups we talked about ‘Resisting Temptation’. For those playing along at home, have a read of Genesis 3:1-6; Matthew 4:1-11; and 1 Corinthians 10:12-14 to see something of what the Bible teaches about temptation and dealing with it.

After a time of personal devotion, and morning tea, we split into activity groups. Today, we were looking for the evil team who broke into the Fairy-tale world and stole the pen so they could re-write fairy tales and make the bad guys victorious. Working together as a team, our brave and wise groups were able to battle against the Big Bad Wolf while solving the clues that had been left behind. Fortunately, they were successful just before lunch.

After lunch we had our first session of workshops. Today three workshops were on offer. “Is Science a Friend or Foe to Christianity?” “Should Christians Date?” and “How do I know I am a Christian?” Not only are these good workshop topics, but having trained and skilled people leading these workshops was amazing.

A couple of hours of free time, and then dinner, led the way to our next worship session. Here the topic of Practical Christianity became even more obvious. With a video showing one of our youth involved in Schoolies Revolution in Uganda, songs that bring us together in worship (although all of life is worship) this opened the way for Andrew to once again speak from the book of James. Tonight we were in James 2:1-13 and we were challenged to rearrange our values. “We need to get in line with God’s values, rather than just following the values of our culture.” Already we are learning how deep the work of God is in our lives and the impact he makes. 

“We need to get in line with God’s values, rather than just following the values of our culture.”

The night finished with some running games on the local oval before the dark descended. As we got ready for bed, the annual Summer Camp Radio Show took over the airwaves for 30 minutes. It’s a great way to finish a great day. 

#pyvsummercamp15 #onceuponapyvsummercamp