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.

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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. 

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PYV Summer Camp 2015 - Day 1

PYV Summer Camp 2015

 Day One

It was a pleasant drive of varying hours to get to Summer Camp at Rawson Village. With people from as nearby as Warragul, or as far away as Warrnambool and even Fremantle, some people travelled a long way. And eventually, everyone was here. 

Ready to Run

The camp began with a group arriving early to make sure things were set up and ready to go. The Tech Team worked hard setting up the audio visual equipment, others have been busy making sure the dorms are marked clearly so campers and leaders end up in the right place. 

To start the event, we played some simple wide games on the oval. While it’s true that some people are more enthusiastic about running around the oval than others are, everybody was involved doing something. We then crowded into the dining room for our first meal together. It’s quite a crowd when we are all in one room. 

Ready to Eat

Our first worship session gave Rev Andrew Vines a chance to speak from the book of James in the Bible on the topic of Practical Christianity. It is an exciting theme, and tonight we learned about a path that leads to death and a path that leads to life. We need Jesus to get us on that path of life. 

Breaking into our study groups gave us all a chance to get to know the people in these groups, people we will spend many hours with studying the Bible. 

PYV Summer Camp 2015 has begun well. It should be a great time here. 

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Thank you for your efforts in 2015. It mattered.

Happy Christmas Everyone.

Youth ministry in the Presbyterian Church of Victoria continues to be encouraging. Within the PYV events through 2015 we have seen young people come to faith in Jesus Christ. We have seen solid numbers of campers meeting together to learn and worship with each other. We have have seen new leaders step up to experience what it means to lead others in studying the scriptures. And we have seen experienced leaders share their wisdom with some of these new leaders.

In our churches there has undoubtedly been some numerical growth. There are those churches who can look back over 2015 as a time when children became teenagers and joined youth group. In other places they will have seen people inviting their friends along and the group growing in that way. 

Some churches will have seen their numbers shrink over the year, and there are many reasons for this. One of the great problems with youth ministry, and children's ministry, is that people grow up. And at some point they are just too old to keep coming. If this describes your group, please don't be discouraged. Take heart at what you have been able to do in the lives of these people as teenagers. They were looking up to you then, and they will still look up to you now.

Thank you for all that you have done to encourage young people to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Thank you for teaching them, for helping them, for encouraging them, and for simply showing them what it means to be such a disciple. I don't know yet what impact you have made, and you may not know either. But I know you have made an impact. 

Have you read something good this year? Or seen something that is worth telling others about? I'd love you to let me know so that I can tell others too. This year I have read two of Ken Moser's books after a recommendation from one of our youth leaders from Bundoora Presbyterian Church, and I would happily encourage others to read them too.

Anyway, have a happy Christmas. Celebrate the birth of our Saviour. And rest well as you prepare for 2016. (Unless you are coming to Summer Camp. You'll have to wait another week before you can rest.) 

God bless you.

Brian
www.pyv.org.au

Changing the World

The heading may sound more dramatic than this post really is. Yesterday I finished reading through Ken Moser's book "Changing the World through Effective Youth Ministry". Most books have strengths that make them worth recommending, and this book has plenty.

If you're an experienced youth leader, you might not think this would be relevant or necessary for you. And you might be right. But I think you would gain much by taking the time to read through it anyway.

There are some golden quotes in these pages. Here are a few I shared on facebook while reading through the book:

"The rule is simple: if your program doesn't meet your goals, either change your program or change your goals."

"Young people love being in an environment where their questions can be answered without the fear of being ridiculed."

"The Bible isn't boring, but many Christian speakers are."  

I'm not suggesting these are the greatest comments in the book, but they stood out for me.

Perhaps one of the greatest strengths in the book in my mind is the way Moser wants to see youth ministry connected to the age groups on either side. He refers to this as "flow". This concept of connecting a youth group with Sunday school, and of connecting a youth group with a young adults ministry is surely a good one. This helps youth ministers to know that they are a part of something bigger than just youth group. It also helps promote some enthusiasm in children as they prepare to come to youth group, and means teenagers know they have something to connect with when they're too old for youth group.

This suggests that we also need to remember that any section of the church is just a section of the church and not the whole. But that's another post.

Another chapter in the book that helped is titled "Fun". Here Moser challenges the false distinction youth leaders often put between Christian stuff and fun. You know the comments, "We'll have some fun first, and then we'll do the Christian stuff." Or even worse, "Invite your friends for a fun night and then let's hope they'll come another night when we do Christian stuff." Here's a secret to ministry: You can actually enjoy doing Christian stuff. Remember his quote earlier

"The Bible isn't boring, but many Christian speakers are." 

 Who should read this book?

If you're involved in youth ministry, you will only profit from reading this book. If you're considering a youth ministry in your church, this book can help you to know where to get started and what to aim for. And if you are feeling stuck in a rut in youth ministry, this book might be the very spark you need to start a blazing fire.