Monday, February 6, 2012

Camp Google 2012: St. Philip's Confirmation Class



The birds fly all the time over the lake and a cool breeze keeps you cool as the hot sun baked on us. Who can forget the flies all irritating one as you try and lead a session. The cat or let me say the wild cat who chased every living mouse in sight. Keep the door closed! We cannot for the love of God have dead mice in the place.

Who can forget the lovely canoeing on the lake as we drifted and played with the currents. We joked that the whistle on the life jackets was surely there for sport as the neighbors would not be able to hear the whistle blowing. Even my two little daughters ventured out in the canoes. Lovely just too lovely I tell you.

We had fun with the activities while learning to love ourselves and others. The whole weekend as our theme would suggest to the techno freaks out there was about SEARCHING…First day was about SEARCHING SELF. We focused on Psalm 139 and how God made us so complex and how He loves us so much even more than the grains of sand on any beach! We listened to a great song by Kirk Franklin: With Out You. We definitely cannot live without God.

Without You…
“ life's a song with no end
Without You, like having a heart that won't mend
Without You, we're just actors on a stage
Like a child who's lost his way
Wouldn't be here today without You”

Awesome! We reflected on a personal level why we could not live without God in our life. Every Confirmation Student then wrote a letter to God why they cannot live without Him. Personal, relevant and to the point. That is how I would sum up the first day of camp.

The second day was about SEARCHING OTHERS. We started with washing each other’s feet. Some said that it was awkward but most felt that it was so inspiring. One youngster said that he never knew people thought so much about Him. While doing this activity they were challenged to say one positive thing to their friends. Our reading was taken from 1 John 4:7-21. 7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love (New Living Translation (NLT)Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved). What a challenging portion of Scripture. How can we love God whom we have not seen and find it difficult to love our Brother and Sisters who we can see! Eish! We then watched a video on the plight of people living in poverty and war around the world. We were challenged that above all the world needs love and that love can only come through the love that we receive and give from Jesus Christ. We then made declarations of how we can love others whom we find difficult to love and how we can reach out to others less fortunate than ourselves.

The rest of the day we had group activities testing our patience and tolerance as we work to complete a task in a group. Some people had to get plasters on broken toes, some persevered with tears flowing down the cheeks. I thought to myself shoe! These young people have tenacity!

The Sunday and last day of the camp was themed SEARCHING GOD. We used the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi and asked ourselves three questions: 1. How can I understand myself better? 2. How can I love others more? And 3. How can I get closer to God. I sent them to spend an hour reflecting on the prayer. The feedback was just amazing! It sounded like all of them was making a declaration to God of how they would like to live their lives and be better believing Christians. We have this song at our Church ‘I believe’ which is almost like our anthem. This song would wrap up this camp knowing that God knows every longing and secret prayer.

Just as I was about to leave the camp site with my two little daughters and my wife…one of the young girls in the Confirmation Class ran back from her parents car. She said, “I heard your voice. I had to run back and give you a hug and thanks for everything.”

My facebook status that evening: What a camp! We were challenged to Love Self, Love Others and Love God through the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi… Awesome!

Sedrico Husselman
Father of two girls: a model of 5 and a rock star of 2! A Husband of 1! Youth Development worker at Scripture Union and so on…
Scripture Union, Western Cape
14 Park Road, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa
+27 21 689 8331 Office
+27 82 071 8598 Mobile
sedrico@su.org.za
follow me on www.chapmanspeaks.blogspot.com

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