YP Summer Camp

time playing fun games organised by Hazel Williamson. Olive brought the evening to a close with a Praise Time and epilogue.

After morning prayers we said our Good Byes and are all looking forward to Spring Break 2020.

Some views shared by folks on Thursday night included, “Enjoyed”; “Lots of fun”; ”Excellent time”; “Enjoyed the fellowship”; ”Good teaching” and “Got to know some lovely people”.

My sincere thanks to Rosemary and Trevor McDaniel for their help and support and to all who attended. We invite you to join us next year, DV.

Olive Rowe, Irish CE Seniors’/Comrades’ Convenor.

YP SUMMER CAMP 2019

Brilliant YP Summer Camp in Exodus Centre, Coleraine

Sunday afternoon, 18th August, campers were rolling in from County Down, Armagh and Fermanagh; the first time for some, the second or third for others. Icebreakers paved the way for a smooth afternoon of introducing new faces and allowing the inevitable late-comers… thankfully Richard just about arrived in time to deliver the first evening talk! Over the first four evenings we heard the story of Ruth’s four chapters - ‘Rags to Riches’ - when we learned how God is totally in control, provides and protects us, and best of all has a wonderful plan to transform us and our broken world. After a decent first night’s rest (for most of us!) and some tasty toast and cereal, we sang praise and heard the first of Andrea’s five morning talks, which covered the topics of “Joy”, “The parable of the mustard seed”, “Spiritual growth”, “Comparison”, and “Making an impact”.

Following the morning session, we all split into four small groups for our quiet times, where we thought about several questions based on the previous night’s Ruth talk. Lunch was then followed by the campers’ four games teams mixing the ingredients for their own cake and cupcakes in preparation for that evening’s “CE Camp Bake-Off”. During the afternoon, while the cakes were in the oven baking, the campers familiarised themselves with the Coleraine locality as they, in their four teams, decoded riddles and followed the clues to find the leaders hiding across the town centre. While running around searching for leaders, they also tried completing as many of the photo challenges as possible.

After dinner, one of the quiet time groups led our evening meeting from the front, they also conducted a memory verse time and even a brief dramatised recap of the previous night’s chapter of the Ruth story. Monday was finished off by the teams’ decoration of their cakes, following the category of ‘Film’, and the cake judging by Andrea “Hollywood” Graham. Some mini Mary Berry’s were discovered, as we had Frozen, Shrek, Monsters Inc. and Dreamworks cakes all produced by the campers – impressive! Before bed, we even had time for the campers to familiarise them-selves with the centre itself, squeezing in a quick game of hide-and-seek.

Tuesday afternoon began our three afternoons of big trips out, with a visit to the

nearby Jet Centre for ten-pin bowling and crazy golf. We don’t think any mini McElroys were discovered, but there were some (jammy) holes-in-one, and bags of fun! The evening fun saw us show off our knowledge on Hannah’s well prepared, fun table quiz, another opportunity to rack up more points for the campers’ teams. The extravaganza of fun continued with a CE Talent Show before bed, plenty of interesting and impressive acts made us all laugh and give many applauses!

On Wednesday, the big trip took us to a local water activity centre. Despite the harsh rain and non-summer temperatures, we all played on and climbed through a jungle of inflatable platforms floating on the water and had fun on the banana boat. After dinner and finishing off Ruth’s story, we set up the CE theatre to watch the recently released Christian movie ‘I Can Only Imagine’, which conveyed how incredible God’s forgiveness, grace and love towards us is.

Thursday had us heading off for Portrush, to have a picnic lunch and the annual County Down vs Fermanagh football match on the West Strand grass. The customary visit to Barry’s followed, and we took a less customary run into the Atlantic Ocean (through the rain), with some rented surfboards, before heading home for a nice warm dinner! For the fifth evening session, we learned a simple way to share the gospel story with our friends, the ‘Two Ways to Live’ tool. That night, the final night, saw us end in true camp fashion, lighting a small campfire on the White Rocks Beach, gathering around it and singing praise songs into the dark, starry sky.

Friday saw some campers wish that it all would end on Saturday instead; friendships had been made, much round-the-world table tennis sessions had been played (never mind Ben’s personally orchestrated campwide table tennis tournament), and many Bible truths had been taken away. However, the sun was shining as campers were collected and they rolled back out of camp for another year… and hopes were already raised for an even better CE Camp 2020.