Youth Bible Camp 10

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Youth Bible Camp 2010
About 22 people attended YBC'10 at the Red Hill Camp near Dargaville at the top of the North Island during late September to early October. The theme emphasized the need of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the impact that will have on our day-to-day living!

The camp had a really family atmosphere amongst the campers and staff and there were great opportunities for learning, sharing and experiencing. The campers enjoyed their time! This is what some of them had to say:

"The best camp I've ever had in my whole entire life!!! (I silently cried on the way home. Thanks for being such great friends! You're like family)"

"I enjoyed the activities at the beach and also on Sunday. I love how we had discussions and the opportunity to ask questions in the end about topics we had studied :)"

"YBC10 was amazing :D"

"It was an awesome time! You should of come :D ... we meet amazing people :)"

And that's what Youth Bible Camp is all about! — having an enjoyable time together while growing closer to Jesus and each other and studying God's Word, learning practical skills, developing friendships for eternity!

Meetings
First thing every morning we had room worship. This year we had a stack of daily devotionals in each bunk room and we paired up in small groups and read from them as well as reading the key verse in its context straight from the Bible. The first time we were quizzed on it some of us hadn't been concentrating, but that really improved by the end of camp. These times were a blessing to share and learn.

Each morning after breakfast Jeff Wehr took our Bible Classes and these linked with the evening sessions too. We looked at the work of the Holy Spirit and the way it affects our life. That lead onto a discussion on faith and its 'ingredients'. During the camp we also talked on many other practical topics in our lives and relationships with others, even marriage. We also had some interesting topics on Bible Prophecy.

On Sabbath morning we traveled to Whirinaki through the Kauri forest and attended the little church group there. We filled the church up and the locals really enjoyed our fellowship with them. Reg, who is a local there and also was a speaker at YBC'06, took the Sabbath school. Jeff took the sermon which was basically a summary of a lot of what we had been learning during the camp. On the way back we called into The Sanctuary, where Zach and his parents offered us some where to have a meeting about the structure of Daniel and Revelation and our evening meal.

The last meeting back at camp on Sunday evening was a question time. We covered all sorts of topics from Bible prophecy to relationships.

Activities
On the first evening of camp we played the traditional all-time favorite '4 on the couch' game to get to know each others' names. This game was first introduced at YBC05 and has been in demand every YBC and has spread to family camps and other events too.

The beach isn't far from Red Hill Camp, about 1.75kms. Its about the right distance to walk down there (but normally not back) before breakfast starts. We spent a bit of time at the beach during camp. Sometimes just for walks, and one afternoon we made sand sculptures there. We made the tower of Babel, the Daniel 2 image, Jericho (some of us had fun smashing the walls down), Babylon including the hanging gardens (ditto), and one team made a neat model of the Sanctuary. After this we tried playing Darebase but it didn't work as well as it did at YBC08, not many people knew how to play it and they just got confused, maybe next year! So we stuck to bullrush and had a heap of fun playing that.

One afternoon we went to do some community service for a lady. We cleared her gardens, and tidied up the place. It looked so much better when we left. This lady spends a lot of her time helping others so it was great to help her out by getting her gardens ready for planting.

Another time Sam had us in two groups holding one of Hope's bed sheets each, we had to transfer a really light big beach ball from one sheet to the other and move across the field. The wind made it even more interesting. We did eventually manage it, then someone suggested we have boys on one sheet and girls on the other... it didn't work!

We also got into pairs and hand-made bread. We had the recipe in ourcamp songbooks and made it up in A10 tins. After letting it rise we kneaded it again and bake it. Most of the loaves turned out really good thanks to Sam's great recipe and lots of willing campers. We had a laugh at the end of camp when Steve and Tuk's had made the recipe into a song since it was in the songbook!

After dark on Sabbath, we went to Trounson Kauri Park. The intention was to find some kiwi, but they evaded us, (although we did our best to be quiet). We did see a few glowworm dells and some fish in the streams. Its dark in a Kauri forest at that time of night! Since we didn't want too many lights shining, everyone was trailing along behind trying to follow the few lights to see the path or using their cellphone to light the way.

Sunday was packed full of activities. In the morning we went up the road to Sam's house where Jordan, Steve and Tuks had helped make an obstacle course. We broke into two teams and had to help the whole team complete the course. It was a great team building time with some great memories made. We had lunch there and then went down to the beach there. We climbed a huge sand dune and then tumbled straight down the side back to the vehicles.

Meals
We had three healthy, tasty and popular meals a day. Angela and Sam spent plenty of time preparing them and various other people helped out. And every one had turns to help with meal wash-up.

For one evening meal we had a coded meal, like last year but with a twist to it. The campers who attended last YBC thought they had selected pretty wisely but were surprised to find that they then got swapped to having some one else's meal!

On the last night of camp we had a bonfire. There was a large pile of wood that we lit and then made our tea beside it, using it to cook. There were wide and varied meals made but every one seemed pretty filled up. Sheree and Zach made some pretty impressive potato wedges. We also ate some of the bread we made during one of the afternoon activities.

All the other meals were much more 'normal' but still very enjoyable and tasty.

Inbetween
Between the morning Bible class sessions each day and in the evenings we had a break and a few smaller activities. We also had opportunity to spend time together in groups to make good friends and just chat. Most campers were pretty tired after a busy day.

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!
• The organisers would like to thank all the campers that attended for being there and it was neat to have it so family-like with the younger and older ones all mixing together really well. We look forward to seeing you next year and pray that you will continue to remember your devotions each day.

• Be sure to check facebook for plenty of photos, especially Yosef's who collected most photos from every one else.

• Remember to keep in touch with each other and encourage friends to grow in their Christian walk.

• If you have any comments, questions or suggestions on the camp, contact us.