PYV Summer Camp 2015 - Day Four

Day Four (Wednesday Dec 30)

Morning Leader's Meeting

In our leader’s meeting today we read from John 14:1-14 with the reminder that we are to keep going with the message that Jesus is the way to heaven. It might seem a simple reminder for many of us, but it was certainly relevant to what happened later in the day. Our prayer meeting had a mission focus and it was good to hear people praying for those working for the gospel in both distant countries and in remote parts of Australia. May God continue to answer these prayers.

Study Group

Our study groups this morning took a slightly different format. Instead of answering a number of questions relevant to the topic, we looked at a number of statements from Proverbs relevant to the way we speak. Here are a few:

Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed. 11:11

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 15:1

The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts. 18:8

It has been great to hear young people consider carefully what these words mean and how they could be applied to our lives. Truly they have been reminded that what we say and how we speak reveals what is in our heart.

Such Style and Swagger

After morning tea, the campers divided again into the activity groups. Today had a “Peter Pan” theme, and if I had bought my Captain Hook costume I could have been the villain. I was happy to leave that responsibility to someone else. When I walked past the teams at one point, they were lining up waiting for their cardboard Pirate Ships to be judged, and for their Pirate sea-shanties to be heard. There are some very clever and creative people in this larger group. Do they have the opportunity to express that creative edge at church? (That’s a question for another time.)

While the activities were happening, I was sitting in on YouthMETRO. “What is this?” I hear you ask. YouthMETRO is a year long training program that has made a huge impact on PYV and, we believe, on the PCV. A group of people begin their training with an intensive week at Summer Camp. Here they enjoy a series of lectures on theology and then get involved in evangelism training. This training isn’t just practicing with each other in their own room. Instead, these future leaders are talking to campers and sharing the gospel. They are training by learning and doing.

YouthMETRO 2016

And God is blessing this. In God’s good grace, the first young man a couple of trainees spoke with understood the gospel of Jesus and gave his life to Christ. Hallelujah!

Today was a day with a different timetable and after lunch we returned to our study groups. This time we were preparing for the talk that would come later in the evening. This afternoon we talked about idolatry. You could read Psalm 115:2-8 if you would like to see what we were studying, and if you do, please also read Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5 and see how the NT describes idolatry.

Here is a list of things our study group suggested could become idols for Aussie teenagers:

Exercising; Food; Fashion; Rock bands; Self-image on Facebook and Instagram etc; Latest technology; Friends; Relationships; Movie/Game characters; Social position we might have; Clothing. And I’m sure many others things were mentioned in the other groups.

This lead us into the evening session where Andrew preached from James 3:13-4:10 with the title “Deal with your desires”. As always, it is our vision of God that impacts our desires. Earthly wisdom seeks self and views others as a threat. Wisdom from above produces good works and shows itself in gentleness to others. If our desires are connected to the state of our heart, and we need to deal with our desires, then we obviously need to fix our heart. How do we do that? We can’t. But Jesus can. So the talk tonight included a call to follow Jesus.

Over supper and evening activities, leaders were able to talk with camper who indicated they would like to know more about Jesus, and those who were ready to commit their life to him as their Lord. Praise God, lives have been turned around at this camp.

Please keep praying for our camp and all that God will do through each of us.

#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