Are you
planning on Coming Home?
About 32 people attended
Youth Bible Camp '06 at Kawatau Outdoor Education Centre
near
Mangaweka during late September. The theme emphasised the benefiets
of the
family and how we need to come home to Jesus and be ready
to come home to Heaven!
The
camp was a great experience with an excellent bunch of campers!
This is what some of them had to say:
"It
was really fun!"
"Awesome
Camp"
"Everything.At.Camp.Was.Good"
"I
thoroughly enjoyed the challenge..."
"I
enjoyed how everyone got on very well together as a group (boys
and girls mixed) and the ages mixed really well."
"I
really enjoyed the evening sermons! ... I was really blessed
by them!"
And that's what Youth Bible
Camp is all about! — growing closer to Jesus and each other
while studying God's Word, learning practical skills, developing
friendships for eternity, — oh! and having heaps of fun!
Bible Classes
Each morning for worship time Mr Paddison took
an interesting series on the "Sanctuary Prayer". We
looked at the items in the Sanctuary and what each one represents
for us in our prayer life. We saw the Gates represent
praise and thanksgiving, the Altar of Sacrifice represents
confession and consecration, the Laver is the prayer for
cleansing, the Candlestick is all about the Holy Spirit
and the Table of Shewbread represents our spiritual food,
the Altar of Incense shows the importance of prayers of
intercession for other people. Each morning we put these ideas
into practice during a prayer session.
After breakfast, Reg Peterson
took a series of interesting meetings on a few Bible doctrines.
We learnt about the State of the Dead, Tithe, The 10 Commandments,
the Sabbath, and Health.
During
the second part of the morning we worked in teams to make a timeline
of people and events from creation to today. Its interesting
to see who was alive when and what happened in what order!
For our evening session Reg
Peterson took some really heart gripping meetings on the importance
of honouring our parents and appreciating our homes and family.
The real highlight was the last evening of camp when all the
young folk were given a letter that their parents or some other
respected person wrote to them telling them how much they loved
them and appreciated them and also encouraging them to do what
is right!
Sabbath
Sabbath is always an interesting and exciting
day at YBC. This year we travelled about 20 minutes to the town
of Taihape to go to church. There were 5 members and 32 campers
there! We always like to be a blessing to the churches we attend
and so we had some special items prepared and we sung some group
songs too. Doug Hurley took a special mission report on his recent
trip to Papua New Guinea. Then we had a lesson on 1844 and the
Judgement. After Sabbath school Reg took an interesting sermon
on the signs of the end and how we can be prepared to be ready
to go home to Heaven.
After church, we had lunch in the sabbath
school room and in the sun out on the lawn. Then we went round
to Ruanui house, an elderly folks rest-home just up the hill
from the church. We shared a selection of songs we had been practicing
during the camp. Some campers formed special groups to do items
as well as every one singing together. The old folks and even
the nurses and cook all loved the presentation we did. Afterwards
some of us talked to the elderly and one 95-year-old man had
a go at playing his didgeridoos for us.
Activities
The
activities at camp were good fun. The first afternoon we started
off with two sticks, some string and some mouse traps. People
had to lash the sticks together and make a fishing rod then try
to hook the traps and get them back to them without them going
off. After a few had a go at that, Damon wanted to try out a
game called "Amazing Mobsters". Every one was a bit
confused at first but after just a short while people clicked
on to how it worked and it was the hit of the camp.
We must of played it about
10 times or more and it was still fun! We also had a few goes
of "Four on the Couch" - last year's most popular game.
The next morning between Bible
classes, the Mitchells organised a game where we had two teams
and had to get the ball out of a bucket on the other team's side,
it was a bit like capture the flag and really needed team effort.
On
Thursday afternoon we did solar studies. We found out how big
the planets were and how far apart, then we made a scale model
of the solar system where 1 metre = 1 million kilometres. The
sun was 1.37m in diameter and the earth was only about 2.3cm.
We made signs for each planet and then measured how far apart
they should be. The sun was at the letter box and Pluto ended
up almost 6kms back up the road. It was really amazing to discover
that the nearest star would be right round the world plus about
quarter of the way to Australia at the same scale!
Friday afternoon was great
fun. We worked in three groups on different projects. One team
had to make tea that night and to do that they set up a Subway
outlet and prepared the food and signs. They did a really good
job of it and every one really enjoyed the food! 
Another group had to make a
powerpoint presentation on any topic they chose. They did a really
funny one called 60 Crickets and it was a news report on bugs.
The presenter was Cassandfly Mozyborne and they interviewed other
'bug experts'. They also made the most of some Puri Moths that
arrived one night and made it sound like a big invasion! The
'web' report was interesting too!
The
other group planned the evening activities on Saturday night.
They planned a few games and also a slot for the power point
presentation to fit in. The pictionary was really funny and noisy.
Of course there had to be a game or two of Amazing Mobsters that
evening too!
Sunday morning we had an interesting
challenge. 
We were given 28 photos of various objects and
we had to find them in locations around the camp. Some people
found them all but every one found most. Some were very hard
to find unless you looked very hard.
Perhaps the most fun was Sunday
afternoon. We went river rafting on the Rangitikei River. There
were 6 of us in each raft and 5 rafts in total. There was lots
of splashing and a few fell or jumped out into the water! After
we got out and went back to camp we had a few games and then
tea.
Meals
As
usual at YBC the food was real good, but some meals were especially
good! One night we had a BBQ and groups of campers each got one
items ready for the burgers. Some sizzled nut meat, others did
onion, or toasted the buns while others were cutting up tomato
and capsicum or preparing lettuce and others were heating up
pineapple rings. All together it was a delicious meal.
Another
night we were given little cans with gel in them which we lit
and tried to cook a stew we were making. Some groups got on really
well after they decided to use two cookers. Some cheats gave
up and went into the kitchen to use the stove. The stews tasted
good any way!
Then
there was the last night where we had a camp fire and were given
a can of beans and some bread, we had to open the can and toast
the bread to get our meal. We also roasted apple and patties
in the fires. Some of the toast was black and the beans spilt,
and of course there was lots of ash and dirt but the food was
the best yet!
One of the best meals must
have been the subway tea on friday. Team Subway did a good impersonation
and the food tasted great, almost beats the real thing!
Inbetween
After the Mitchells' first organised
game sparked off so much fun, campers started planning their
own versions of the game between meetings and in the evenings.
This was good excersice and wore every one out really well!
Each day we had our share of
duties to do. These included preparing meals and washing up after.
We also had a 
few
walks up the road, these were good times to chat with new friends.
Unlike last year, this time vodaphone uses had closer reception
than telecom users, but for both they really had to get in the
car and travel to get better service.
After evening worship each
night we enjoyed a drink and short social time together before
heading off to bed and lights out by 9:30. Most campers were
pretty tired after a busy day so they were keen on 
going to bed. For some reason lots
of people didn't sleep to well, they complained of snorers, wigglers,
and coughers!
Throughout the camp, campers
had the benefit of mixing with other Christian young people.
They gained new friendships and learnt from each other's experiences.
Prayerfully these friendships will go on into eternity and the
lessons learnt will benefit their lives here and in the future!
Notes for Campers!
• Because the
worships and Bible classes were more interactive this year, no
meetings were recorded.
• We got the following
note from the Mangaweka Adventure Company that took us rafting:
"I just wanted to say
thanks... The kids were awesome and it seemed everyone really
enjoyed themselves! If you need assistance with any other outdoor
adventure, dont hesitate to give us a ring! With kind regards,
Tricia Eames"
Tricia was the one driving
the ute with the boats on the trailer.
• If you have any comments,
questions or suggestions on the camp, contact us.
