PYV Summer Camp 2017 – Day Two

I always approach the first night of any camp wondering if there will be anyone who is so homesick they can’t sleep, or if there will be anyone who is so excited about being there that they can’t sleep either. To the best of my knowledge, neither of these happened. After our radio show with Hayden and Kellie, people made their way to their beds to sleep. Well, mostly anyway.

Regardless of how much sleep anyone did get, everyone was up for breakfast. Before that though, the leaders met for their morning gathering. I know I’ve said it many times, and I’ll probably say it again and again, but I am always impressed with the attitude of the leaders at the PYV camps. They really do give their all for the campers. If you have some from your church at this camp as leaders, please encourage them when you next see them.

Breakfast was great, then we met for our morning worship session. This session included an encouraging testimony from Jess McNabb, our assistant convener. Do the youth at your church get to hear testimonies from others in the church community? I hope they do.

A great group of young people

Pete Sorrenson continued his series on relationship. Yesterday he raised with us the wonderful issue of why we love ‘love’. Today we were confronted with the reality that although we love ‘love’, we all deal with disappointment and heartbreak which makes us wonder what’s gone wrong! Sin has extreme consequences. Our study groups continued to ask questions about this topic looking at Genesis 3 and seeing how it applies to ourselves.

Something I had forgotten, but should have remembered, is that when you open Genesis 3 with a group of teenagers and young adults, it leads to a lot of interesting and unexpected questions.

From here we went into our quiet times. For a lot of teenagers, a habit of daily Bible reading and prayer is not even on their radar, and we are trying to bring it to their mind. This year we are trying something that we hope will be a help with this habit after camp. Each camper has been given a separate note book for their quiet times. Along with the questions and guide for camp use, they are also being given a guide to use in the month after camp too. This is all based on reading through the gospel of Mark. Today I sat with a group of young men working through this, and I was greatly encouraged by what we were all learning in just the opening paragraphs of this gospel.

Through the afternoon we had five workshops happening. You can find more about them here. As I wandered through them all, it was good to see people getting involved in conversations and questions on these significant topics. Our presenters did a great job, and we hope to have recordings of these on the website in the next fortnight.

Some Soccer Fun

Everyone enjoyed some free time and the soccer game had a lot of people involved and enjoying themselves on a summer’s afternoon. Others were inside playing games, or sitting chatting together.

After dinner we had our first activity session – an evening, camp-site sized version of Capture the Flag. Those who enjoy running had a lot to offer their team for this game. If you can run past the outstretched arms of your opponent, you can score. But it’s not easy.

As I type this, it feels like the day has involved a lot of different activities. That might be because it has. Your prayers matter to the success of this camp. Please keep praying for us.

PYV Summer Camp 2017 – Day One

Summer Camp has finally begun, and it feels like a summer camp today. It’s hot and it’s sunny at Rawson Village today, and as the campers are arriving, you can sense the excitement that is building as the numbers slowly increase.

Like all camps, this one begins with a group of leaders getting here early to make sure everything is set up and ready before it’s time to begin. I value the commitment of these leaders who give some extra time to ensure our campers have a camp that is at the highest standard we can provide.

Not all campers arrived on time, which sometimes happens, but today it was certainly not a planned late arrival. The long journey from the west of the state was made longer by some mechanical trouble. So, we want to give a big shout out and thanks to the leaders who kept everything together, and to those who gave up their cars to get the campers here. It’s good to have everyone here.

The afternoon was busy with some introduction activities on the oval, and then an introductory session. This is an important session where we get to introduce the leaders of the camp, to hear our own camp rules, and then to hear from the campsite manager about their own rules. Keep away from the koala! Having a session like this – which is full of stuff that needs to happen – means that when we do meet together for a later session, it is a time for worship and we can focus on that.

From this introductory session we spent some time in our dorm groups. We are aiming to foster solid relationships between the campers, and this was a good way to begin. Some played games, some talked, and all seemed to get involved. Then we went to dinner, which was wonderfully noisy. It is always great to hear people talking together, even if it is hard to hear what someone is saying to you.

Tonight we had our first session of worship and teaching. Listening to Pete Sorrenson talk about relationships is always good and tonight we learned why it is that we love ‘love’. If we have been created by a God who loves, then it makes sense that we would also want love. If we have been created by a God who lives in relationship, then it makes sense that we would also want relationship.

We are off to a good start at PYV Summer Camp 2017. Please continue to pray for us here at Rawson.

Fun on the oval

More oval fun

Let's meet Pete

Worship together

Summer Camp - it takes a bit of work to make it happen

If you've ever been involved with leading a youth camp, you'll know that it takes a fair bit of work and some amazing people to make it happen. Fortunately, PYV has those amazing people and they have been working hard to get things ready for camp.

And, as far as the office is concerned, I think that work has been done.

Thanks Amy, Ash & Jess for the time you've given to get things ready.

It's nearly time for camp.

#pyvsummercamp17 #relationships

Summer Camp 2017 - It's about relationships

On Wednesday next week, December 27, over 200 people will make their way into the Gippsland mountains for the 2017 PYV Summer Camp. This is our "Relationships" camp and we are delighted to have Pete Sorrenson speaking to us on this important topic. But of course this isn't all that is happening over the six days. 

We are also spending time together in study groups where we will explore deeper what the Bible says  about relationships. Our activity groups will help us to put what we learn into action as we build some of those relationships amongst campers.

Amongst that number attending are thirteen YouthMETRO trainees who will be busy during the camp time working through an intensive week of theology and evangelism training. 

Would you support us in prayer over this time please? Please pray for Pete Sorrenson as he speaks to this age group about the basis of our relationships and, most importantly, a relationship with Jesus. Please pray for Matt Deroon and Nate Barbieri as they teach the YouthMETRO trainees. Please pray for Ashleigh Haughey and her team who are working hard to ensure everything is ready for camp. Please pray for the leaders who have given up their time and who pay for the chance to serve these young people. Please pray for the campers, particularly those who are coming to their first PYV camp. 

The Leadership Team for Summer Camp 2017

Finally, please pray that God will glorify himself in the changed hearts and transformed lives of teenagers.

Thank you friends.

Rev Brian Harvey

Well-Intentioned Dragons.

Can we work with the dragons rather than slay them?

One Sunday afternoon way back in 1991, I read the book “Well-Intentioned Dragons” by Marshall Shelley. I was a cadet in the Salvation Army Training College and that afternoon I saw the book on a shelf of another Salvation Army Officer. A few hours later I was considering abandoning God’s call on my life. This book terrified me!

1985 Word Publishing

Today, November 10 2017, I have read the book again. I now want to encourage every minister to get it and read it. 

The premise of the book is simple and one which will be well known by ministers across the world – those people in your church community who, while seeming to be well-intentioned, are also dragons who crush your hopes and dreams. It might surprise some people to know that churches can face such a problem. If it is a surprise to you, then I expect you are not a church minister. If you are a church minister and these words are a surprise to you, just wait. It will come. 

Shelley doesn’t call for ministers to be like St George and seek to slay the dragon. The sub-title of the book “Ministering to Problem People in the Church” shows a deeper purpose, and through the book suggested pathways are shown. 

Shelley has put together a number of accounts from ministers and some of the troubles they have worked through. These include the church treasurer who decided that because you weren’t preaching at church on Sunday you didn’t need to be paid, the lady who seemed to know everybody’s problems and made sure you knew about them too, the man who thought that because he was chairman of the board meant he was in charge of the church, and more. In reading these pages I am reminded of people I have known and worked with – and argued with. 

What I enjoyed now about reading this book was seeing again that while there are difficult people in church, there is a way to work with them and not against them. Shelley’s work offers some good thoughts on this.

In 1991 when I read the book I was terrified because I was reading of churches with hundreds of people where these two dragons destroyed a minister. I knew, or expected, that I would be going to a church of 25 – 40 people, but these two dragons were sure to be there. How could I be ready to face that as a young minister? Over the 25 years of ministry, I have indeed met some of these dragons. Looking back on some, I can see that they were well-intentioned. But the cost to me, my family, and others in the church was enormous. 

2013 Bethany House

I also look back and wish I had handled some situations differently. Perhaps there are some things you can only learn with experience, no matter how much you read and seek to learn from others. Maybe one day someone will ask me to contribute to such a book as this and I can write about my experiences with these dragons. Maybe it’s best that those things stay buried too. To be fair, maybe look on me as one of these dragons too. 

The book I’m reading was published in 1985. I am now aware that there is an updated version published in 2013 which apparently addresses social media stuff. Obviously that wasn’t written about in 1985. 

If you are in ministry, I encourage you to get this book. No matter which version it is you will learn good things from it.

The protective value of friends

Today I've been listening to a podcast from Ultimate Youth Worker on the topic of "Youth Drug & Alcohol" with Dr Kat Daley. I'd encourage you to listen to it, but not necessarily because you will learn stuff to help you with youth dealing with drug and alcohol issues. Something else stood out for me.

Dr Daley is a researcher, and in this podcast she talks about some of the differences that came out when talking with males and females. She was not looking for these differences. In fact, when she was doing some earlier research looking for those differences she came to the conclusion that there weren't any - apart from pregnancies.

In this discussion though, her comments are confronting. She speaks of a link between substance abuse and sexual abuse, with sexual abuse leading to substance abuse often with self-harming in between. Confronting. Perhaps not surprising, but it is something that is worth thinking about.

Anyway, the comment that stood out for me was the conversations that happened with the girls right at the beginning of the interview. She described it as 'small talk', the kind of questions that adolescent girls would normally talk about with each other. But these girls were asking these questions to Dr Daley because they don't have a group of female friends around them.

Think about this for a moment. These girls are asking these questions to Dr Daley because they don't have a group of friends around them. Is it likely that they are in this situation because they don't or didn't have a group of friends around them that would help to keep them from ending up here?

In my role as a youth director, I have learned that one of the best ways to protect people from being abused is to ensure they are fully involved in the group. Our camp and group leaders work to make this happen and if we see someone sitting on their own, we will talk with them so they know they are part of the group.

Why not invite people join your game?

But we're adults. A better way is for teenagers to keep an eye out for those teens who are sitting on their own and include them in the group. And I mean fully include them. There are a number of good reasons to do this, and one of them is that this helps to protect people from a dismal future.

How can you help the teenagers in your group to be a better help to each other?