We are on the search for wisdom, and today has been helpful
for those on that path.
The leaders meeting continues to be an encouragement to
start the day, and having it at 7.30am has turned out to be much nicer than
7.00am. That extra 30 minutes in the morning makes a difference. Well done team
for getting up early.
Breakfast at camp is magnificent, though the numbers here at
8.00am seem to be getting smaller as camp goes on. We’ll see how we many are
ready for breakfast tomorrow. From breakfast we again made our way to the main
room for our worship session. How often do you get to meet with around 100
people to worship God and hear some solid preaching on a Thursday? I expect it’s
not all that often, but today that is exactly what we did.
Before I comment on the sermon, I want to thank those who
have worked to make sure we have music, sound, and vision. It is so wonderful
that we can walk into the room and when it’s 9.00am, a video begins with some
highlights from yesterday. Then after a call to worship, we sing a couple of
songs which are accompanied by young musicians who are prepared. And it is only
through some technical wizardry that we can hear things properly. Thank you to
Nick Attrill and his team for making sure the worship time just works.
Jared preached from Proverbs 2:1-22 today with the title “Wisdom:
How You Get It.” He began by pointing out that the only time we really think
about wisdom is when we have a hard decision to make, but to become wise we
need to be growing and exercising wisdom every day. This is what will prepare
us for that hard decision when it comes. From there we learned that the
metaphor of a path is a key idea on this topic, and through Proverbs 2 we read about
a path quite often. We also read about that path in other parts of the Bible
too – like Matthew 7:13-14.
I was struck by Jared’s words about the protection of
wisdom. Comparing verses 5-8 with verses 9-11 we see much the same thing, but
there is an important distinction. 5-8 refer to God while 9-11 refer to wisdom
in the same way, so we see the connection between God and Wisdom. Interestingly,
verse 8 and verse 11 speak of guarding and protection. When we ask God to
protect us, God does this by giving us wisdom. Let’s use the wisdom that God gives.
One of the great things about using a camp-site at Halls Gap
is the beauty of the landscape around us, and it would be a shame to just look
at it rather than enjoy it. So, this afternoon we had the option of a long walk
to the Pinnacle and back to camp, a short drive and walk to McKenzie Falls, or
a walk into town. While I took the easy option of a walk into town and an
ice-cream, others took the chance to get into nature at the falls or up to the
Pinnacle.
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| McKenzie Falls |
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| Back to camp from Halls Gap township. |
And everyone returned safely. 😎
The annual “City Vs Country” soccer game was a good game and
we congratulate the Country team for their winning effort. Though I think some
of the country people should accept that they have now moved into the city and
swap teams.
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| He's hard to stop once he gets going. |
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| Good game everyone. |
After dinner we enjoyed a fun night of Family Feud in the dining
room. Some good questions that were surprisingly difficult to answer. Tomorrow
we find out which team was our winning team through all the camp activities.
There’s one more important thing that happens at PYV camps
that I should again write about. I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that study
groups are a key element of what we do. I hope this never changes. One other
thing that is a key part of PYV camps is the conversations leaders have with
campers. In this conversations, each camper is spoken with by their study
leader individually to talk about their own faith and answer questions about Jesus.
Of course, we want everyone to know Jesus and to find their salvation in Him,
so we ask people about their own faith. We don’t pressure teenagers – we don’t believe
we need to. But we don’t shy away from asking them about faith either.
Today it was wonderful to look around to see that in various
places in the dining room, or on the seats outside, these private conversations
were taking place. May God continue to use these camps to transform lives.
