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 Three

December 29 2019.

Sunday.

Today has been a day set apart for worship, the study of God’s word, and fellowship. We began with the leaders meeting and then into breakfast. Most people had breakfast today, but there’s always one or two who prefer to sleep in rather than eat. We all make our own choices.

The study groups today spent time considering the wedding at Cana and the implications for each of us. It has been good for the groups to look at a passage of Scripture like this (John 2:1-11) and recognise the generosity of Jesus at this wedding celebration, as well as the role of the servants in this story. When we link this to Isaiah 25:6-9 and the future promise of these verses, the story of the wedding is very relevant to us.

Our morning worship session today didn’t have any special guests which meant we could spend more time in singing and in listening to Andy’s preaching. Once again, it was worth listening to. We opened our Bibles to John 1 where those magnificent phrases that describe ‘the Word’ are written. Andy highlighted that the Word

• Was with God
• Was God
• Was there in the beginning
• Made everything
• Is the source of all life.

Not only that, the Word is personal – “The word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us”

God’s will for us is that we should know Jesus.

Our time in the afternoon was taken up with five workshops. Campers had the option of choosing one of the five to attend. As ever, it’s interesting to see which workshops will be the most popular and today it was the workshop about Quiet Times with Andrew and Suzy Vines that drew the biggest crowd. Louise Goswell and I conducted a workshop on ‘friendship in the digital age’ covering things like social media use, sexting, and cyber bullying. We will repeat these again tomorrow, so I hope to be able to write something about the other topics then.

Free time gave people the opportunity to sit in the comfort of an air-conditioned dining room and play board games, or to play other games inside the stadium. I don’t know if any were bold (silly) enough to play outside as it was very hot here today. Others spent time praying together in our daily prayer meeting.

The evening session was a whole lot of fun. First, campers had the opportunity to catch aliens and rabbits. Clearly some of the aliens weren’t very good at hiding as they were found quickly, although one of them did take quite a while to get captured. He was better at evading the crowds. Once they were all found, we divided into two larger groups for the inevitable game of Capture the Flag. The sun had gone behind the hills and a cooler breeze was beginning to blow while we were doing this. It was wonderful.

Victory

Some youth take this game very seriously. This is evident in the care they take with forming a strategy, but it is most clear as they run full pelt down a hill to get to the flag, while others run at them to stop them. It was good to watch – and watching is all I want to do.

The Late Show tonight included the showing of videos that were made last night. It’s a while since we have done something like this at a Summer Camp, and I think video editing software has greatly improved since then. These short videos were absolutely outstanding. We probably won’t be able to put them on YouTube for copyright reasons, so trust me that they were great.

And I finally got to the couch for an interview. But just as we were about to start our convener came up to tell Shady that we were running late and needed to finish now.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow night.

Monday is expected to be a very hot day. We’ll do all that we can to keep everyone safe, including swapping our planned activities for Tuesday when it’s cooler.

Thanks for reading all this.

Brian.

Charging the Flag

Is Sherif conducting a choir?

The Settlers

"Hey Ure. Give us a wave."

PYV Summer Camp 2019 – Day Two

Always ready to help one another

Saturday December 28 2019. Today wasn’t as hot as we expected it to be, and for that we are grateful. It might be because the air conditioners work too well here, or the cloud cover that hung around all morning. Either way, we’ll enjoy it while we can.

Today is our first full day at camp, so a lot has happened. We began with the Leader’s Meeting at 7.30pm – which seems a sensible time for such a meeting. Here we prayed for the camp and received instructions for all the various events happening through the day.

Breakfast was another great meal, but the dining room is almost full when we all get together. This means the meals can take a bit longer than we first expect, which gives us more time to talk around the tables. Following breakfast we separated into our study groups. Here is one of the most important times of camp where we sit together in small groups and discuss what we heard in the talk the day before and see how it all applies to our lives. As we were looking at Paul’s conversion experience and the great change that happened in his life, there was plenty to discuss for our own lives.

From there we went into our quiet times. This year we have given everyone a separate booklet to use at camp which they can then bring home and continue to use there for the next month. We pray that this will help to establish a good habit of daily prayer – something which is undoubtedly good for teenagers, and something which is easier for them when they know their parents are praying too.

Colin and Alison say 'YES' to Jesus. 

In our morning worship session today we had a few special guests. First it was a delight to meet our moderator Colin Morrow with his wife Alison. One of the campers commented that he has never been to a camp where a moderator has visited and he was very pleased to hear what Colin had to say about his own conversion, the work he and Alison are now doing, and the call to follow Jesus. Alison
shared with us that 40 years ago she attended her first Summer Camp, and the precious memories of that camp. She then recited a poem her mother wrote for that camp and it was worth hearing it today.

Then we met our new Youth Ministries Director Andrew Edmonds. He was able to talk with campers about his ministry experience, his family, and his desire to serve Jesus in serving youth. I was pleased to be able to pray for Andrew and Colin & Alison as they continue in their faithful work. Over lunch they had the opportunity to talk to a few of our campers and leaders as well.

Andrew is getting pumped and excited about PYV

Today Andy continued to tell us about ‘Finding God’s Will for Your Life’ and the big question to be answered today was “Who should I marry?” We know that this is a question people ask as they reach an age where marriage becomes an option. We know the difficulty and fear with which some people face this question. Today, if they were listening, Andy was able to give excellent guidance and clarity on this issue. This was done in the context of looking at the account of Jesus at the wedding in Cana when they ran out of wine. I’ll leave it to you to ask your children how Andy helped them know who they should marry.

(If they can’t tell you, then send me a note and I’ll give you his list. It’s a good list.)

After lunch we were outside enjoying the campsite as the activity groups went on a scavenger hunt. I’m not altogether sure what they were all looking for as I was manning the low ropes course. Someone did ask about the registration plate on my motorbike, so I think that might have something to do with it. The ropes course was fun to watch, particularly when teams worked out some of the tricks of the course that helped them get through it quickly.

While some enjoyed free time and the chance to play board games or basketball, others were involved in two other activities. Some were at the daily prayer meeting this afternoon where we considered who God is and all he has done for us. Psalm 103 is tremendous for focusing our thoughts here. Others were with Dave Assender having some training in using the Audio Visual gear we use at camps.

If you’ve been to a camp, you’ll know that we depend on the tech stuff working, and for that to happen we need to have people who know how to set it up and how to work all the switches and levers etc. So it was great to see a group crowding around the sound desk learning what this involves.

After dinner, the activity groups had another challenge, a more artistic challenge. Each group selected one of twelve songs from which they had to make a one minute video. With twelve groups doing this, it’s probably good we didn’t have more than a minute, or it would be a very long judging session. I am looking forward to seeing some of the finished products.

Then we finished with supper and the Late Show with Shady and Di. I was prepared again for my interview but missed out after an interview with Aradie and then a game went over time. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. A highlight tonight was the legend that is Matthew Burns being our cabaret singer for the game. Campers needed to guess the missing line from a song and Matthew volunteered to sing these songs. He was fantastic.

Our first full day has come to an end. If you read this before you go to church in the morning, can you please bring our camp to your church community to be praying for us? Please be praying for safety in hot weather, for God to open hearts and minds, and for lives to be transformed.

God is at work here.

PYV Summer Camp 2019 – Day One

December 27 2019. It’s not the hottest day that we’ll have, but it’s still pretty warm here at Forest Edge Camp. The cool air of the evening is around us as I write this and I’m hoping that the rooms have cooled enough to allow people to have a good sleep.

Registrations opened at 3.00pm and there was a good crowd of people ready to sign in right on time. With campers, parents, leaders and a few younger siblings together it looked and sounded like there was a lot of excitement in the air. We have a few campers attending their first camp, and not just the young campers either. This is a cause for excitement too. There’s also a few attending their final camp as they have finished Year 12 now. More on that in days to come.

Caleb working the crowd

After a time to set up and play a few games, the introduction session gave us all a chance to meet the leadership team at camp, to be reminded of campsite and PYV rules, and to be introduced to the speaker and theme of camp. We also met the group of YouthMETRO trainees who begin their intensive week of study today.


Time was set aside for people to meet together in their dorm groups before dinner. Over recent years we have found this time to be incredibly valuable to get to know each other early in the camp. It’s hard to get to know people when the first time you meet them is in the dark while you’re trying to set up your bed. We also know how important the leaders are in the dorms. As I write this, many of those leaders will have prayed with the campers in their dorm and will continue to do that through the camp. Perhaps you can say a prayer with them around 10.30pm.

Dinner was fantastic, as it always is at Forest Edge, and then it was into our first worship and teaching session. I learned a new song (How long, O Lord) as we sang together, but the highlight of the session for me was Andy May’s first talk on Finding God’s Will. He helped us all to see that God’s will for us first and foremost is to know Jesus. It sounds a bit simple when I summarise it like that, but maybe it really is that simple. Anyway, when your children get home, talk with them about what they learned from Philippians 3 on the first night of camp.

Winners are grinners

The Late Show with Shady and Di gave us a fun conclusion to the evening. There was an interview with Caleb, a vote on whether it’s normal to eat chips first or hamburger first, and a ‘Price is Right’ competition. I was disappointed when they announced they were going to interview me, but then ran out of time. Maybe tomorrow.

We are off to a great start at camp. Pray for open hearts and open minds. Pray that God will glorify himself. Pray for endurance on hot days. And please continue to pray for Andy and all that he has to say.

YouthMETRO Trainees and Leaders

PYV Summer Camp 2017 - A final report

"Under the Sea" - Summer Camp 2017

From December 27 2017 to January 1 2018 over 200 wonderful people met together at Rawson Village for the 2017 PYV Summer Camp. Right at the start I want to acknowledge the amazing work done by our convener, Ash Haughey, and the executive leadership team she put together. Nothing works without preparation, and this group were well prepared for the camp.

Our theme at this camp was “Relationships” with Pete Sorrenson as our speaker. It is important to have a Relationships camp every now and then to remind each generation of teenagers what it is that God has been teaching about relationships. Many of us will remember these kind of camps for all that we were told not to do. I’m pleased to say that this camp had a much more positive focus. 

Pete has been involved in ministry to university students for a number of years, and is well able to see the changing trends in how people relate to each other. His experience and wisdom was evident as he spoke, but also his knowledge of the scriptures and his desire to see the youth of the PCV understand God’s will. His love for God was also evident. 

We learned why it is that we love ‘love’ – something that is made clear in movies and songs of any age. God has created us and God is love, so it is natural that we would love ‘love’. But this leads to the difficult question of why love is so hard and so painful. The fact that love is painful isn’t something we need to explain. We all understand it. So looking back into Genesis chapter 3 we see how that first relationship was damaged, and then see the consequences of that on all of us. 

Looking to Jesus we heard about the one who got relationships right, and from there Pete showed us how we can get them right in following Jesus. Romance was a key aspect of one of these talks.

Recordings of these talks are now one the PYV website. If you had children attending the camp, then we would be pleased if you listened to these talks yourself. It would be good for you to hear what your kids heard and then to talk with them. I think you’ll be encouraged. 

The camp also included a lot of time for activities or free time for campers to run around playing soccer, to play board games & table tennis, to sit under trees talking with friends. It looked like a number of new friendships were formed at this camp too. 

There were two other highlights I want to write about. The first was one evening where the girls and guys went to separate rooms to hear from some of the adults in the camp. Naturally I was in the boys group and we heard from some of our leaders about life and relationships. What was very helpful was having three blokes with different life experience to speak, one married but no kids (dogs don’t count), one married with children, and one single. The feedback from this evening’s events, both for girls and guys, was very positive.

The other was a Q&A evening. We normally have a question box set aside for campers to leave questions which will be answered by some wise and learned people. As these are anonymous, people can feel free to ask some fairly personal questions – and they did. It was a privilege to sit with wise people and seek to answer these questions. 

PYV exists to glorify God by assisting local congregations of the PCV in the development and nurture of youth for the service of Christ Jesus. We know that this mean we want people to know Jesus before they begin to serve him. I am delighted to report that through this camp we had six people come to faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Would you please be praying for these young people?

I should also comment on YouthMETRO. Each year there is a group of youth ministry trainees who are at Summer Camp but are involved in a separate program. These are the YouthMETRO crew. This year we had thirteen trainees who were learning theology with Matt Deroon and evangelism with Nate Barbieri. It was exciting to see this group learning together and forming into a solid friendship group. What was also very exciting was to see them putting their evangelism training into action. This contributed to the young people who did come to faith. 

Summer Camp 2018 will be held at Campaspe Downs Resort near Kyneton, with Toby McIntosh as our speaker. Please put this camp into your church calendars for Dec 27 to Jan 1, and can I also ask you to include it in your church budgets? If you can help some young people get to these camps, you are investing in the next generation.

PYV Summer Camp 2017 – Day Five. New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve 2017

Why do we do what we do? There are a number of answers to this, most of them equally good, but one towers above them all. We do camps to lead people to faith in Jesus. And we have seen this happen. Young men and women who have Christian knowledge and families have this week had this turn into a personal faith. Hallelujah!

Where yesterday’s talk was about getting romantic relationships right, today’s talk was about getting friendship relationships right. The book of proverbs was a good place for us to spend this time as there is much to say about friendships here. Some old writers also have some good things to say about friendship. Here’s a good one from Augustine:

In this world two things are essential: a healthy life and friendship.

The study groups were a good place to continue the discussion on friendship by first starting with a list of what friends do and what they don’t do. From there we looked through a number of passages from Proverbs on friendship and created another list. It was positive to see that there was a number of similarities in the lists. We hope that good friendships have been created on this camp, and look forward to seeing them develop over the next few years.

The afternoon included some activities in our groups before a great game of dodgeball with water balloons. It’s a warm afternoon so throwing water balloons at each other is a brilliant idea.

Over the days of camp there has been something else happening which I haven’t recorded in my blog yet, and that is the afternoon prayer meeting. This has been led by Jacob, one of our younger leaders, and has been attended by 20-30 people each afternoon. Some of you know how good it is to hear young people pray and here is where that happens.

Something else that has happened each day, or rather each night, is the Radio Show. Our hosts for the show this year were Kellie McLeod and Hayden Millsteed. They were funny and entertaining and involved the campers each evening. Ryan was also there making sure things worked. Tonight we don’t get to listen to them, but that’s because it’s New Year’s Eve.

Our costume theme this Summer Camp is “Under the Sea” and once again, there were some outstanding costumes. Some were obvious, some took a bit more thought to work out, and some were brilliant. I was going to include a few photos, but you’ll have to wait another day.  

After dinner and some outside time, we enjoyed a trivia night and then a movie. With the “Under the Sea” theme, there are a few films that would fit, and “Finding Nemo” is one of them. It’s so long since I have seen it that I had forgotten most of the storyline. Except the seagulls. It’s hard to forget the seagulls.

In past years we have had a bit of a dance party in the hour or two before midnight. Over recent years we have noticed that the number of people getting involved in this has been reducing. So, daring to do something different, we made a change. This year we began to sing worship songs at 11.45pm. Our final song finished with three seconds to go before midnight, so we were able to celebrate the beginning of the year together as usual.

Then we divided into our study groups to pray together. Some people like to drink to celebrate. Some like to dance. Some like to do other things too. We pray. We worship. We encourage each other.

Friends, if you have been praying for this camp, and if you have been praying that God would glorify himself by transforming the hearts and lives of young people, then your prayers have been answered.

Thank you.