Camp is…

For those who don't know, camp is offers a chance for children aged 10 and up, to come and sleep under canvas for a week and to read, study and hopefully learn from the Bible. There are two weeks of camp each run by different people but with the same aims and goals.
The children are in tents of up to six children with two leaders who are responsible for the members of their tent. Each day there are a number of Bible based sessions, these usually cover some Gospel themes, as well as deeper themes to aid and encourage any campers who may already know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

Week 1 2003
26th July - 1st August

The first week of camp saw approximately 128 campers gather together, with the leaders, cooks and other essential people this meant approximately 180 people were on site. Campers were split between 8 boys and 8 girls tents, helped by a team of tent leaders from around the south of England and Wales.
Bible based sessions were held first thing in the morning and last thing at night within the tents allowing any questions to be raised and answered in these small groups. In these 'Quiet Times' the morning sessions covered the following themes.

To be used by God you need to know God

This looked at how there are many good things people can do, however none of these will aid them in getting into heaven as the only way is to trust and believe on Jesus Christ as Saviour.

What happens when we fall short and sin?

The aim here was to see how if a Christian does sin against God their closeness and walk is affected. No one is perfect and everyone sins, often with terrible consequences for those around them, however God has promised to forgive our sins if we confess them to Him. (1 John 1v9)

How do we hear the voice of God?

This looked at how God can speak to us in many ways, through the Bible, feelings inside and people around us. It is important to be walking close to God, reading the Bible and praying to him if we want to hear Him speak.

Where do I get the tools from?

This looked at how Gods will give us all that we need in order to serve Him in the way he wants us to. And that if He wants us to do something for Him we ought to do it.

Fully Reliant on God

This aimed to remind the campers (and leaders) that we needed to be fully reliant on God if we are trying to live for Him as all that we can offer is nothing to what God offers us.

Handling Success

Following on from being fully reliant on God the focus was on how to handle success. Pride was considered and it was seen that this is one of the things God hates most. Christians were reminded that any success or joy in their Christian work was all due to God’s help and that He should be given all the glory.

The evening sessions looked at some of the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ and some of the lessons that could be learnt. These were

Bartimaeus receiving his sight

We saw how that his life was once in darkness but that his eyes were opened, this was contrasted with us as being in the darkness of our sins to the light of Gods glory that will come in when we trust Him as our Saviour.

10 Lepers who were healed

How good it was that this one leper came back to say thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ! This was used as an illustration of how we can say thank you to Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins but asking Him into our lives.

The paralytic who was healed

This is a great example of how friends could help this man; it was used as a contrast to show that leaders at camp could do a lot, but that the final decision was with the campers themselves.

The healing of the centurion’s servant

It was interesting to see how that although people thought the centurion had done so many great things that he deserved his servant to be healed, the centurion counted himself unworthy for Jesus to enter his house. It was shown that he had a great faith that Jesus could help him and that we too need to have the same faith in Jesus to forgive our sins.

The storm on the lake

This looked at how Jesus could still even this great storm, this was used to illustrate His control over everything and how we could completely trust Him.

The woman with the issue of blood

From this account is was shown that something which nothing on earth had been able to cleanse was able to be stopped by the Lord Jesus. It was shown how nothing could free us from our sin apart from trust in Jesus Christ as our Saviour.

Group sessions were held in the morning and evening and looked at Moses and Jonah respectively. There was a good feast of spiritual food for both believers and unbelievers to be had from both of these sessions. Both accounts were covered over five sessions allowing many important points to be covered. Due to the amount of material covered it is impossible to replicate it here.

Overall there was a nice atmosphere at camp this year, trips swimming and to Crealy Park in Devon were enjoyed by many, although wet weather did mean a little less time for outdoor activities.

It was a great joy for all the leaders that at least three campers came to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour and a number were planning to ask their meetings to allow them to follow Jesus’ example in believers baptism. So it was a profitable time and please continue to pray that campers will not forget what they have heard and may have been challenged, encouraged, strengthened or helped in some way by what they have heard during this week.