WEC Camp A

It was a good week.

It was a tough week.

It was a joyful week.

It was a tiring week.

WEC Camp is a great mix of fun and games, and Biblical input. I find teens these days don't really care as much for the Biblical input as we use to... but finding ways to make it relevant was done really well by the main speakers of the week. I think one of the keys is that it is the camp leaders who speak in evening meetings, so it's people that the campers have seen all week, and just hung out with each day.

I had the grade 12 and 11 boys - I'd only been asked to go on Camp A on Saturday, and only found out who I was co-leading with Sunday. Thankfully it was a bloke I've known for many years. Andrew is a top bloke, a youth pastor in Brisbane and a great youth communicator. I really enjoyed leading the older guys cabin with him.

Each year there is a tough fought out Cabin Competition on camp. It includes dorm inspections for cleanliness (intense inspections and not a speck of dust can remain in the cabin!), learning memory verses (possibly performing them to a song to add a little spark to your verse) and presenting a Field Focus (which is a small drama, skit, song or just reciting facts about the country and missionaries associated with your cabin). In previous years I haven't been able to talk too much about the countries, as the one's my cabins have been associated with have been closed to missionaries, and we don't want to risk any danger to the missionaries that are in the country.

However this year my country was Italy, and we learnt some great stuff about the WEC Betel ministry there. Betel is a drug rehabilitation program, which includes a peer based support program and refuge house for addicts.

The Italy boys in the cabin this year were a bit of a challenge, but each one of them were top blokes... I don't quite know how, but Andrew and I managed to coach them into cleaning the dorm to perfection, learning the verses and performing 3 different Field Focuses (the third one was amazing, moving and spine chilling - brilliantly executed and really made everyone think!) All that lead to Italy winning the seniors dorm competition this year - which was a surprise but the boys were worthy of it.

It's such a fierce competition, and as a leader the pride is sure there when your team performs and beats the others (good bragging rights in the leaders circle as well!). It was a tough fought competition with the grade 12 girls Thailand team, but we kept a steady lead all week. And let me tell you, no chocolate tastes sweeter than when your munching on the prize block from the WEC Dorm Comp!

The best thing of the camp though was the 2 first time commitments to God in my cabin alone, plus the others from all ages... and then the numerous re commitments, mind straightening and preparation for future mission work that happen during the whole week. Leading someone to Christ and talking them through making a decision to let Jesus be the Lord of ALL THEIR LIFE is a great privileged, and one I feel so humble to have been a part of this week.

There was also some good music, a bushdance, an ice slide, lots of soccer and a dress up night to cover all the fun and games needed to make it a memorable week. The dress up night this year was themed 'Hats'. Basically any hat creation was the go.... I found an old self reeling power chord thingo and with a bit of modification made a working helicopter helmet. Yep 3 alfoil blades which spun at quite an impressive speed... I was pretty happy with my engineering feet!

So Camp B starts on Monday - I'm not leading on it now, but will head up there on Wednesday to take some photos for the website. I'll put some of the Camp A ones up here at some stage as well.