Belong,

which I know we all agree to want a sense of belonging in our lives. For the young people who attend our camps, finding a place to belong and finding a group to belong to is particularly important to them. So, can our temporary camp communities fulfil this desire to belong? I think they can, and I know that many of you reading this article know that it was true for your own experience when at an SUNZ camp. We work hard at creating a shortterm community that is a safe place, where people feel cared for, loved, and understood. You know that people feel as if they belong when they make comments like ‘I wish I didn’t have to go home,’ or ‘I can’t wait until the next camp.’ Many of you reading this also recall that some of the friendships you made on an SU camp have continued for the rest of your life. So, I think we can honestly say that our camps enable the

NEXT IS Believe,

and I am not going to go into all the different nuances of what it means to believe. Instead, I am going to talk about providing the opportunity to believe. On campers the chance to belong. our SUNZ camps our team encourage campers to know and believe there is a God who created everything—including them. We use the great outdoors to help campers connect with creation and then through that connection believe in the Creator. We work hard at creating opportunities to engage with Scripture so that campers can believe in a God who wants to have an intimate relationship with them. We also want our Bible engagement to offer campers the opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and their Saviour. Finally, through Bible engagement and through the community that we create on our camps, we hope and pray that the campers will believe and know they are chosen by God, loved, cared for, and forgiven. We totally understand that each camper is in on their own faith journey, and we create a safe environment where they can strengthen and grow their belief.

FINALLY, Become,

which I know from some recent conversations is an area that seems to bring up a lot of discussion. I, however, think that for us when it comes to camp, we have several areas of becoming that we target in our camps. Firstly, we hope that every young person who comes on an SUNZ camp will have the opportunity to become a follower of Christ or reaffirm their commitment to Christ. Then, we hope that those who call themselves followers of Christ will have the opportunity to become more like Christ on camp, and they will take away things to do daily that will enable them to become more like Christ each day. Our aim is that through attending our camps they will become people who care for creation and care for other people. Finally, I hope that the community they

People

encounter on our camps encourages them to become a regular participant in a community of Christ followers.

We totally understand that we can create opportunities for our campers to belong, believe and become but at the end of the day it is their personal choice to engage or not. Our job is to make sure they can engage in all three of the B’s and that, just like for Goldilocks, at the end of camp they will be able to say it was ‘just right’.

Please pray for our SUNZ camps ministry and particularly all the wonderful volunteers who enable us to run these camps and provide the opportunities for young people to engage in Belonging, Believing and Becoming.