PYV West Camp 2018 – Day Two

Some people were woken by kookaburras. Some were woken by phone alarms. Some of us were just awake. Regardless of what got us out of bed this morning, we were greeted by a cool and misty morning, and it was beautiful.

The leader’s meeting is always encouraging no matter what camp it is. Here we meet to be clear on what is happening today, to share something from the scriptures, and to pray. I value these times in the morning. We have a great team of leaders here, and a number of them leading at a PYV camp for the first time. They are showing themselves to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

Breakfast was good and everyone was there, which is always a comfort for the leadership team.  From there we walked up the hill for our morning worship and teaching session. Here, I need to confess that I missed the session as I had some other duties to perform, but everything I heard from other campers and leaders tells me it was good to be there.

For those playing along at home, the scripture passage was Proverbs 1:8-33 and the title of the sermon is “Wisdom: Why You Need It.” If you have someone from your family or church at the camp, why not have a look at their camp booklets and see what notes they have taken during the talk. It might provoke a helpful conversation. You could also listen to the recording of the sermon once we have it on the PYV website. (www.pyv.org.au)

After morning tea – which was amazing – everyone divided into their study groups. The study groups are a key element of what happens at a PYV camp. Here the campers get to ask their own questions about the talk and the passage of scripture, as well as work through some questions that have been prepared for them. This is where conversations take place that matter. Please be praying for our study leaders and the significant role they have on camp.

A quiet time for prayer and reading, then lunch was followed by a bit of free time or campers could attend a prayer meeting. I’ve said how encouraged I am at the leaders meetings. I am also encouraged when there are a group of teenagers meeting together to pray. This camp we are using the ACTS model of prayer – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Today we focussed on adoration and confession. There is much to say when we just focus on God, but I think this is an area our youth will do well to consider a bit more.

Today we also had workshop electives with four topics to choose from. These were:

• Tools for supporting friends with mental health issues
• Sexuality and Gender
• God, you and social media
• How do I know I’m a Christian?

There were some good discussions within these groups, and I hope they might lead to further discussions at home.

After all of that, we had our usual dress-up camp photo. The theme of this camp is “Back through time” so costumes reflected this with the usual assortment of costumes that were truly dress up outfits, but also some that were simple, yet brilliant. Like wearing a green sleeping bag to be a caterpillar. Brilliant!

PYV West Camp 2018 - The whole gang

The day finished with a couple of hours in our activity groups doing a variety of activities. There are some very creative and persuasive speakers in our group at camp. Listening to their debates was a lot of fun for me.

It’s been a long and wonderful day. We look forward to what tomorrow will bring.

Just proving that I was there too.

Preparing for a debate.

PYV West Camp 2018 – Day One

Travelling to Halls Gap for West Camp is always a bit of a mixed blessing. It feels like a long way to travel with a full car, but it is also so very nice to get here and enjoy the fresh air. Then everyone else arrives and it is even better. 

Everyone who was coming has arrived on time, so the journey has been a good one for everyone. We began with an introduction session where we were able to work through the camp rules, introduce the executive team, and talk through the administrative stuff we need to hear. Then we spent a bit of time in our dorm groups. We have found great value in spending time in the dorm groups before we all head to bed. Building these relationships is important. (As I type this, it sounds like some of the kids are having a lot of fun tonight, even if they should be quiet by now.)

Our topic for the camp is Proverbs, and Jared Keath is our preacher. Jared’s first sermon helped us to consider what wisdom is and who needs it. Here are a couple of standout comments – well they stood out to me anyway.

Wisdom is character moulded through experience.

The most important thing about wisdom is knowing where to begin.

We are in for some great teaching over the next few days. If you have someone from your family at camp, please talk with them about what they have learned about wisdom. 

From there we went to dinner, and then some night activities on the oval. These are often simple games, but playing them on the oval with a few spotlights around makes them different, and I think even more fun. 

It’s been a good start. And those boys sound like they have quietened down. We’ll see.

West Camp 2018 - Proverbs

I reckon every book of the Bible is relevant to teenagers, but the collection of statements known as Proverbs is surely one of the books that is most relevant to teenagers. Which leaves me wondering why we don't spend more time in Proverbs in our youth Bible studies.

In 2018, the PYV regional camps will bring Proverbs to the front as we spend these camps learning from this great book.

Our first camp is West Camp in Halls Gap starting on Tuesday April 3 - this week! It's going to be a great camp, I'm sure. We are very pleased to have Rev Jared Keath coming to preach from Proverbs and help us to see how connected this book really is, how it points us to Jesus, and how we can find a better life.

The leadership team is being convened by Jesse and Naomi Crabb, and they bring great experience to this role as well as a great team alongside them. We are also excited to have a number of new leaders joining us for the camp too. Of course it's not a camp for leaders, so there will also be around 60 teenagers attending. Please pray for us over this week.

At each of the PYV camps we have a theme. Sometimes this theme helps to guide our activities, but we always have a fancy-dress photo with that theme. This camp the theme is "Back Through Time", so it will be good to see what costumes people come with. Will they dress in the fashions of the seventies or even earlier? Will there be some ancient Romans in the photo? Will Doctor Who make an appearance? We will see.

If you would like to see my favourite song about time travel, enjoy this from Spock's Beard: "Bennett built a time machine" If I can work out how to do it, I will dress up as Bennett Lamb.

Young people - the world's greatest asset

If you're like me, you get tired of hearing people complain about youth and young people. Yes, I know they spend too much time looking at a screen. Yes, I know it's hard to talk with them because they've always got headphones stuck in their ears. Yes, I know their music is rubbish (but that's ok, after all that's what your parents thought about your music too). But that's not the point of this post.

The truth is that our youth are some of the bravest and most daring people in the world, and will do amazing things. Maybe we just need to get out of the way and let them do it.

Read this post from the Art of Manliness: and be encouraged.

If you are a teenager, imagine what you can do with your life.

If you're a parent, can you believe that your 16 year old could do something like this? Would you let them?

If you're a mentor, how are you helping teenagers achieve more than the mundane?

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.