The Nelson diocese covers from Greymouth to Reefton to Nelson to Blenheim to Kaikoura - a large area, about the size of Wales, and it was a delight to be invited to be the speaker at the Nelson Anglican Youth Spring Camp held in St Arnaud recently, though I was slightly apprehensive and overawed hearing the stories about some previous speakers - I mean, come on, I'm just a muppet for Jesus!
All was well however. I took 3 main sessions: Jesus & Sex; Jesus & Alcohol; and Jesus 100% Pure Jesus. Each session was very different stylistically, but each one focused on Jesus & grace when we sin. Think they got it, which is great.It was great to work with my colleague Sarah - she led an excellent seminar for high school leavers about transitioning to uni life, and showed how she is vastly more experienced than me at these kinds of camps, by cunningly packing ear-plugs to avoid sleep deprivation!
The camp was also a great opportunity to meet and work with various other staff members, helpers and leaders; including Bishop Richard with his obvious joy in the gospel, Peter who works for the diocese as an educator, (and was excited to re-connect with TSCF and hear how TSCF is the same/different to TSCF in his day in the 1980s), Michael who organised the whole camp and invited us, and even blogged about me & TSCF which must be a first! It was also fun meeting one youth group leader from Westport who, it turns out, is in the same home group as some of our supporters - ah the never-ending connections in the Christian sub-culture of a small nation!
Overall it was a hugely beneficial four days for me in assessing how we as TSCF can best resource the church throughout NZ in the transition times from church youth groups to independent adults and missionaries on campus as students, and to see how many (or few?) are prepared for that.
I would love to see more of this - people grappling with applying the Bible to the differet stages of life. There are still gaps and areas to be worked on - future camps could benefit with more focused small group times to build relationships across different youth groups and to process what the Spirit was teaching this group of people - but the idea of gathering people from around the region with an open Bible expecting to hear God speak is excellent and I'm so pleased to have been invited.
There was so many other things to encourage and inspire us in the camp, not least the stunning scenery of the Nelson Lakes and time at Rainbow Ski Field (even if the mountain tops remained elusive), the friendly locals (I loved visiting the shop in St Arnaud where I had to return a few hours later to collect my change from the postie when he came through town) and I really enjoyed meeting and interacting with teenagers from around the district, and the wonderful youth group leaders, with their obvious dedication in introducing Jesus to the kids under their care.
I'm now looking forward to a similar occasion, just for one day this time, November 1st, back in Nelson, working with Richmond New Life Church & Scripture Union. Still musing and preparing for that on the back of this Spring Camp......
