Camp

The Field

I think my favourite week of the year is the church youth camp, when about twenty adults, four children and thirty-five teenagers leave Perth and set up a canvas village in the countryside and live there for five eventful days. Every year the camp has a theme (usually topical) which is a focal point for all the games, competitions, awarding of both chores and rewards for behaviour - and the spiritual input too. Last year the camp took place in the middle of the Olympics, and so we explored a lot of the Bible's sporting illustrations and were busy 'running the race' and 'fighting the fight' etc. This year, as we plunge into recession the theme was 'money, money, money' - which had the added benefit of having a readily available cheesy theme tune too! The money theme worked in all the games, sports, craft competitions etc because teams could win or lose amounts of the camp currency 'The Dollop'. In the meetings, money also played a significant role because Jesus' parables use money a lot (i) as an illustration of our sin as being like a debt needing to be paid (Matt 18:21ff) and (ii)because he had lots to say about what we do with our resources in parables like that of the 'talents' or 'the rich man and Lazarus'.

The camp is a physically very wearying, but spiritually uplifting time. Sleeping in a tent in the rain is not exactly a refreshing way to spend the night, and playing football with sixteen year olds is potent reminder of my advancing age, by day. However, the adults and young people, all living there, working together, playing together, worshipping together, thinking together and laughing together at evening entertainment was just.. brilliant! It would be inaccurate to only say that all the teamwork and effort in putting up tents, cooking meals, planning, budgeting, risk-assessing, band practices, writing talks, planning sports competitions, organising crafts, praying, disclosure Scotland forms, parental consent forms, plumbing, wiring, hiring toilets, fiddling with laptops, preparing presentations, etc etc had been worthwhile for the effect that it had had. In fact it was much more than this, in that the teamwork in doing these things was in itself part of the reward. The fact that some of the younger people are having more and more input on both the practical and spiritual aspects of the camp and edging out some of us dinosaurs is also fabulous! I hope we can do it again in 2010!

Early Morning on The Field