I wonder how camps grow community and faith?
North-east Victoria Presbytery family all-ages camp, King River Camp, Cheshunt, October 24-26
By Rev Tanya Walker
After many years without a presbytery camp, the Mission and Education Committee decided to organise one at the end of October.
The planning team set to work and worked hard to promote the camp across the many congregations in the north-east.
On the Friday night 22 adults and 21 children came along.
We were fed from Friday night until Sunday lunch by our dedicated Mooroopna congregation member, Janette Smith, who managed to prepare and cook such delicious food for the whole of the camp with seemingly very little effort, even though we know how much thought she puts into catering for events such as this.
On the Saturday we were led by Wangaratta congregation member Anne Turnbull in a ‘mainly music’ session full of fun, singing and dancing, then in a ‘Godly play’ session based on our theme of ‘faith and creation’.
We were then led outside for some really fun and active games organised by Shepparton congregation member Rob Graham.
In the afternoon, Shepparton congregation member Melissa Graham introduced us to our creation-themed scavenger hunt and mural making.
Family groups, friends and a group of teenagers headed out to walk around the beautiful grounds of the camp to read scripture, ponder and discuss thought-provoking questions and collect items in the natural environment related to the creation story.
At the same time, Benalla congregation member Aria Winkler led a smaller group to paint a nine-part mural that would depict the different parts of the creation story.
This was then added to by the scavenger hunters who glued their collections to the mural.
Before dinner on Saturday evening, the group sat in a circle and were led in prayers using taper candles as a way to thank God for the day, and for each other, before sharing our meal together.
After the meal we went outside to the firepit and shared marshmallows, conversation and fun around the campfire.
On Sunday morning the rain came down and put a damper on our potential for outdoor worship, but we were able to gather in a cosy group inside on armchairs and the floor to participate in worship together, focusing on what it means to take times of rest as part of being in creation and following the rest the creator also took after the act of creation.
This worship was interactive, with all ages creating the space to worship, writing or drawing prayers on flower shapes to place in water, hearing and joining in the story, and reflecting on prayers for the world using gum leaves collected from the surrounding environment.
We finished with the wonderful singing of ‘Trees of the field shall clap their hands’.
The group of 43, with a few more joining in for day trips on Saturday and Sunday, enjoyed their interactions with each other so much that they really didn’t want to leave.
There was overwhelming enthusiasm for this camp and for future camps to be held, both a weekend annually as well as a day all-age event in between.
We are looking forward to the continuation of this ministry.
Oh, and there was a resident peacock at the camp called Kevin, who put on spectacular displays for us and was a big hit with all.