2016 Summer Camps – week one

THE RESORT – Mark

The Senior Camps program has kicked off  incredibly well this year, with leaders arriving on the 26th and campers a day later. What a privilege it is to work with this team of passionate, driven and focused young adult’s volunteers, they are incredible!  As the campers arrived relationships formed and a positive camp, culture quickly evolved. Kate Lang and Hayden Calway have been heading up the program, with lots of high energy, and strategic games to create community, empower campers and ultimately share the Gospel. A dedicated and talented team of sound and AV people plus the Senior Camp band and speaker, quickly developed a culture of openness in worship and freedom to explore the Gospel. The response has been a quick engagement and sensitivity to the Christian message, with three campers committing their young lives to Christ just two days into the program. We are excited about what God is doing, how He is moving in every element of this camp, and the way He is revealing Himself to both campers and leaders. Please pray that this will continue to be the case over the weeks ahead.

While senior teen is happening in Smiths and Woolamai, we have 180 family campers of all ages from Slavic Baptist in Silverleaves and our rear units. They are from all around Australia, and New Zealand. Their speaker is from USA all studies are in Russian. Paul the group leader explained that the purpose of the camp is to strengthen believers. To top off the week we have a group of 60 guests from Crossway Church who come together at this time of the year, for a family holiday, enjoying The Colonnades facility. They have been coming to us for11 years!  The pastor of Melbourne Full Gospel Assembly who will camp with us on Friday for two nights has informed us yesterday that their worship leader drowned at a family picnic on Christmas day, pray for the family and for the congregation. Pray also that that God will continue to work in the hearts of all of our campers over this holiday season.

ADANAC – Marcel

Currently we have 65 people at ADANAC on the first Yarra Valley CYC Family Camp! Here is the camps directors report from yesterday.

The start of camp has been good. We have seen the facilities being used well, meal times run smoothly and generally all families getting involved. The children are mostly primary aged with about seven teenagers including an eighteen year old who is older than one of our volunteer staff! Family hour on Sunday night saw  all  the campers participate in some very interactive games and activities, which really brought everyone together.

Today we enjoyed the first full day with successful crèche, superkids, and teenzone streams in the morning, while Jill J lead focused discussions with many of the couples, who seemed to share well with a positive spirit of interaction and transparency.

During the afternoon after safety training, a full afternoon of activities, such as canoeing, waterslide, stand up paddle boarding, water tramp antics, saw every family on or in the water at some stage during the afternoon. A gentle stroll around the bush trail for families to find animal figurines randomly positioned along the track within the trees finished off the afternoon. The children especially enjoyed this ‘quiet’ time with parents during the focused bush walk. Evening saw the women enjoying a night of pampering, and the men sharing aspects of fathering and faith, around the campfire.  Superkids ran a fun program and teens enjoyed a film. Feedback on the day was very positive.

FOREST EDGE – Marcel

A large (100+) group of Egyptian families, are enjoying, a break at Forest Edge for a few days before our direct ministry teams set-up camp there. Our Forest Edge staff are enjoying the cultural challenges and faith discussions that come with these groups who seem over the past few years to have embraced the western camping culture in a very positive way.

Leadership Development and Training – Tim

As part of our ongoing commitment to training and developing our leaders, I spent two hours with our Phillip Island Family Camp leadership team, facilitating an on camp leadership training session. We discussed how we can move from being a self-serving leader to being a Servant Leader following Jesus’ example in our leadership, through our heart, hands and habits. It was great to be able to unpack with the team where they saw their strengths, areas where they can continue to grow, and how they can better work together in that process.. The same session will take place at our Yarra Valley Family Camp later today.

I was also able to facilitate an elective at our Senior Teen Camp, where we had around 35 young people sign up for an elective titled ‘What’s your Mission’. This elective looks at ways we can discern how we can use our God given gifts, abilities and passions to shape our direction. Through the creation of a ‘personal mission statement’, young people are able to reflect and discern on how God is shaping them for the future. The elective had a great response from a number of young people as they wrestled with what it meant to allow their faith to shape their ‘next steps’, but also what it meant to walk alongside God in that, being guided by His Spirit.

Till next time

Glyn