PYV 2018 Summer Camp – Day Three

It’s really easy to lose track of time at Summer Camp. So while we know that it’s day three at camp, we forget that it’s Saturday. More importantly, the weather has changed and we are enjoying a much cooler day today with a bit of gentle rain and grey skies. Fantastic.

At our leaders meeting it was my turn for the morning devotion. The quality of Jesus that I focussed on was his ability to mix with the sinners in his society. We might find ourselves far too comfortable in our Christian bubble.

Our worship session today included a testimony from Sarah, one of our leaders. I have no doubt that hearing the testimonies of Christian people is really important for teenagers and Sarah’s words today were very encouraging. We also heard about God answering prayers in unexpected ways from Courteney – unexpected but better.

Then we heard a story from a Pharisee named Simon. Apparently he invited Jesus around for a meal to check out if he was really the Messiah. While they were eating together a woman came into the house – the kind of woman that Simon would never invite into his house or even talk to in the street. But Jesus didn’t mind her coming in, touching his feet, and then pouring perfume over him. Simon was incensed! After all, he was a really good person and believed he deserved the attention of Jesus. But when Jesus talked about forgiveness, it seemed as though this lady was the one who was getting the attention of Jesus.

The wonderful truth of Jesus offering his forgiveness to all manner of people was made clear to the teenagers at camp today. It’s a truth that we need to keep hearing. Maybe this is something you can talk about with your family when they get home from camp.

Our thanks to Simon (aka Toby) for sharing his story with us.

After lunch we had our first session of workshops. I’ve already written about what the workshop topics were going to be, and I hope that what your children are hearing in these workshops will be talked about when they get home. I was leading the workshop on worship and here we considered many of the things that are a part of normal community worship and how differently our various churches do them. Do we sing four songs or six? Use an organ or other instruments? Collect the offering during a song or separately? We thought about what other churches do in their worship and considered what the Bible has to say about worship – a topic that is more difficult than it first seems.

I’ll talk to some campers and say more about the other workshops in a later post.

A cool dinner table

Al Fresco

Part of the local wildlife

We are finishing the day with a couple of movies and snacks. And the room has finally cooled down. (I'm currently watching Camp Rock. There's two hours of my life that I'll never get back again.)

Thanks for continuing to pray for us all. God is working amongst us all.

Sometimes you just have to be heard.

Just part of the YouthMETRO team

PYV 2018 Summer Camp – Day Two

It’s still hot in Kyneton today. Real hot. Maybe not as hot as yesterday, but not far short of it. We have endured it and maybe some have even enjoyed it. I wonder if they’ll enjoy their cabins tonight.

Anyway, before we get to the cabins, there is a lot that has happened today. The leaders were up early for their meeting at 7.30am with Aradie Walters, our pastoral care co-ordinator, leading us in our devotional thought for the morning. We are thinking about the qualities of Jesus and today Aradie read from John 18 and led us to think about Jesus as a person of truth. An interesting topic in today’s world.

The leaders are a great bunch and have given up their week after Christmas to serve others in a wonderful way here at Camp. Please continue to pray for them and for their energy levels in particular. No one is fading yet, so your prayers are having an impact. J

Breakfast was amazing and plentiful, and the fact that not too many people went for seconds is always a good sign. From there, we went into our study groups. There are two key elements to our camps that we believe help us to achieve our mission of bringing the gospel to teenagers – preaching and study groups. If you have kids at this camp, they are involved in one of these study groups. Please be praying for them and for the leaders.

The morning worship session happened after morning tea and while the room was more than a little uncomfortable, it was good to sing together. Through our worship sessions we are also discussing different aspects of prayer. Today we heard from Matt talk about God answering big prayers. We were encouraged to hear about something particularly important that has happened in Matt’s family recently, and it is good to be reminded that God does answer prayer.

Toby preached from Luke 5:17-26, the story of the paralysed man being lowered through the roof and being forgiven by Jesus before being healed. Now, I’ve been in ministry for a long time and have been teaching and preaching from the Bible for most of that time, so when I learn something new, I get pretty excited. Today, I got excited. It might not have been a big thing, but I was excited anyway. A good reminder that there is always more to learn from the Bible.

It was good to hear Toby say that we need spiritual healing more than physical healing. (That wasn’t the thing that was new for me, but a good thing to hear.) When we ask why teenagers don’t follow Jesus, part of the reason is that they don’t think they need forgiveness. They might want a physical healing, but don’t believe they need a spiritual healing.

After lunch we came back to the hall for our activities. We have great leaders, and our activity leader, Callum Haughey, had organised indoor activities to happen on this hot afternoon. PYV camp activities often involve physical activity and not everyone enjoys this. The activities this afternoon gave the people who like to think more than run the chance to use their abilities.

Free time was more sedate than usual. But when it’s this hot, I’m happy to see teenagers sitting talking and playing board games. I salute those who did play cricket though.

 Dinner was another good meal, and many campers took the chance to sit out on the deck overlooking the lake. Still a bit hot for me, but the heavy clouds made it better for the others.

The evening activities gave the creative and the sporty people in the teams to shine. There was a mix of kick-ball, poison ball in the stadium which gave people the chance to run around and to sweat. Each group also took their turn to create a team mascot. These mascots needed a design, and back story, and then the final model. There are some very creative people in our group – and some who had a good idea even if the final result wasn’t quite as good as the design.

Finally, the Late Show with Bec and Matt was fantastic! With a petition signed by over 120 people asking for Jacob to tell the Oreo joke, we were treated to the chance to hear this joke. If you ever get the chance to hear it, don’t bother. It really isn’t worth it. Nate Barbieri told a great story about the danger of hot chillies, and then we concluded with a Lip-Sync Battle between Louise and Callum. Congratulations to Louise and her back up dancers.

The weather is much cooler now, and we are looking forward to a much more comfortable day tomorrow (Saturday.)

Working on Words

Creating a Mascot

It was supposed to be a unicorn.

Kickball action

Sometimes the pressure is too much

Ready for anything

Louise and her dancers

The final battle

PYV 2018 Summer Camp – Day One

We’ve had some hot summer camps in the past, but it’s been a while since we’ve had a day this hot at camp. At least that’s my memory. Today Kyneton hit 40 degrees, and we felt every one of them on the drive to camp. A big shout out to the parents and others who drove people to camp, and then had to drive home again. 

We like to start the camp with various activities outside before our first introduction session, but today was just too hot for that, so we had a quieter start to camp. It was great to see people sitting around tables playing games, or sitting in circles on the carpet just talking. 

Our Introduction session is an important way to start the camp. In this session we are able to talk through the campsite rules, meet the key leaders at the camp, and advertise about the new hoodies and t-shirts that are available before getting together in dorm groups. From there it was dinner – and the food was good and plentiful – before racing back for our first worship session. 

Rev Toby McIntosh is our speaker, and is preaching from the gospel of Luke. Tonight he introduced us to the story of Mary meeting an angel. There were a few things that stood out for me, one of these being that God chose a teenage girl from the middle of nowhere to do this important thing. It’s good for our current teenagers to know that God uses teenagers for remarkable things.

We’ve had some great songs, and we have a great music team and a great tech team using their gifts and abilities. Some of these people will never be seen up front but they make a serious impact.

Following the worship session, we broke into our activity groups for the first time. If you’ve heard me speak about youth ministry, you’ve probably heard me speak about the importance of relationships in ministry to youth. Groups like this, and the games they play, can be a great help to build the friendships between people when they first meet. Who knew that Duck-Duck-Goose could be made into a good group game?

It is something of a PYV Summer Camp tradition to have a radio show at the end of each night. But in the spirit of trying new things, at this camp we are having a live radio show

“The Late Show with Bec and Matt”

This includes interviews, some appalling singing – which just makes it so much better – and prizes. I look forward to writing more about this through the camp. 

As I write this, the temperature outside has dropped to 27 degrees and it feels lovely. But who knows how hot and uncomfortable it will be in the cabins? There’s a whole camp full of people who are about to find out. 

Welcome to Summer Camp 2018

Worshipping Together

Activity Groups

This is why we tell people to wear shoes.

Five seconds to go.

The first interview on The Late Show.