2009 YP CAMP
13th-15th November
TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT, WHAT YOU REALLY, REALLY WANT."
The YP camp was attended by 12 young people aged 11~15yrs, from Cowdenbeath, Hamilton, Larkhall, New Prestwick and Aberdeen!! We started off by playing a few ice~breaker games, followed by worship songs and then a dvd showing 10 famous people who died/committed suicide/were killed in accidents or murdered. This was accompanied by the Abba song "Money, Money, Money". The aim was to show the young folk that real life is not like the song, that an abundance of wealth does not buy health, common sense, good judgement etc; It doesn't cushion you from the realities of life and can in actual fact attract the worst kind of attention and "friends". As soon as the DVD stopped the boys and girls said they found it distressing and immediately started discussing the pros and cons of "celebrity" and the wealth and lifestyles that accompany it. For relatively young adults they made an awful lot of sense and Craig, Michelle and myself were impressed with everything they had to say.
We met up with the juniors at mealtimes, but stayed in the lounge for breaktimes to avoid interrupting teaching and so on. We had decorated the lounge area with handmade banners etc to make everyone feel relaxed and we had a "prayer wall" and the YP stuck post~its with their prayers on them, over the course of the weekend.
Our invited guest was our President, Rodney Stout. On Saturday morning, after worship songs, prayer and devotions, Rodney spoke to the YP on "Roman Roads", using visuals and personal experiences to bring the Scripture passages to life. He then split us into small groups to answer questions and as we read out our answers it was obvious they'd been listening!
Rodney then took questions from the YP (and leaders too!). He had no idea what the questions were going to be and the time just flew in, so much so that the questions continued after lunchtime too! We're very grateful to Rodney spending the whole day with us, especially under the family circumstances at that time.
The YP rehearsed a sketch which they then performed in front of the juniors and their leaders, on Sunday afternoon. The sketch was to emphasise the importance of reading our Bibles and actually REMEMBERING what we read!
There was some free time on Saturday afternoon and after supper, we sat down to watch a "chill time" DVD.
Sunday morning was spent with worship songs, devotions and final drama rehearsal. The YP had a chance to play some games in the afternoon, then we had chain prayer before hometime.
We asked for feedback from the YP and they all seemed to enjoy the weekend. They would like to go further away next time ~ and for longer!! As leaders, our prayer is that what they took away with them from the weekend, is that what they really, really want ~ and need ~ is JESUS.
