ENGAGEMENT

Caitlin Janes has completed a 6-week assessment and report on Bible Engagement in SUNZ camps as part of her Venn Foundation project.

Iwas recently involved in taking a small group of senior high school girls to Wild Wāhine camp on Pōnui Island for a weekend of tramping, camping, and learning bush skills. The activities of the weekend—cooking over fires, learning to navigate with a map and compass, making art and composing chants, to name a few—were all taken in stride by our enthusiastic, resilient campers. We witnessed a beautiful community form amongst campers and leaders. It was a truly joyful weekend.

Bible engagement time went hand-inhand with spaces of prayer; one session involved campers sitting quietly in the bush for 25 minutes of listening to God. Each leader on camp shared a short story connecting the Road to Emmaus story with God’s work in their own lives. Campers sat around the campfires, learning from one another by sharing different perspectives. We explored this Bible passage about the resurrected Jesus one week after we had celebrated Easter in our own communities; encouraging campers to think about this journey considering the bigger picture of what they had heard at Easter time. We thought about how the passage might shape how we engage with our community on camp, and our communities back home.

The campers created beautiful, thoughtful sculptures using available natural materials from the Pōnui bush, leaving them scattered along a trail as a reminder that God is doing wonderful things on our journey.

I share this story to illustrate the incredible opportunities camps provide for young people to come to know more of God as He reveals himself through Scripture and creation. So, the question then stands, how can we best take hold of the opportunity we have in front of us as we lead Bible engagement on camp? Bible engagement is primarily to serve campers, but how do we present this well when our young people are so varied in age, faith background and engagement style? How do we create Bible engagement content that volunteer leaders can capably and passionately present? Are we able to confidently prescribe a ‘best practice’ way of facilitating Bible engagement when activities, size, age range and location vary so widely from camp to camp?

While Bible engagement on camp may hold these complexities, opportunities abound to outwork simple Bible study principles on camp in unique ways.

BIBLE ENGAGEMENT NEEDS TO BE SOAKED IN PRAYER, just as our full way of being on camp is soaked in prayer. On camp, we have opportunities for different voices to share in prayer, from the campers through to the cooks. We start and end our days together as a community in prayer, and there is time for campers to spend solitary time in creation with the Creator. As camp leaders, we should be thinking about our unique opportunities to engage with scripture prayerfully on camp.

WE ENGAGE WITH THE BIBLE TO MEET WITH GOD. Bible engagement on camp, then, should always have a relational focus. Camps provide a unique platform to explore scripture not just in one hour-long slot but woven throughout the day. From morning quiet times through to debriefing the day’s activities, we should be mindful of the ways in which God might be drawing near to campers in Scripture, and asking good questions that orient their thinking in this way. This is effective when leaders can model this way of engaging with scripture to campers. The stories we share are hugely powerful.

SCRIPTURE IS EFFECTIVE READ IN COMMUNITY. Camps can be spaces where voices are listened to and valued when unpacking God’s Word together. We might do that by creating safe small group spaces in which leaders and campers can all learn from one another through discussion, or by highlighting different local testimonies from the unique spaces in which our camps are located.

BIBLE ENGAGEMENT ON CAMP IS MOST MEANINGFUL WHEN SCRIPTURE IS WITHIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE LARGER NARRATIVE OF SCRIPTURE, understanding there are passages written for a particular people, at a particular time for a particular purpose. We serve our campers well when leaders can shed light on this context effectively.

And lastly, THE IMPACT OF BIBLE ENGAGEMENT SHOULD REACH WELL BEYOND CAMP! God is working through Bible engagement to transform campers for the good of their homes, churches, and communities. We should encourage campers to imaginatively consider the implications of the work God is doing in them for their everyday lives and remind them that God wants to meet with them outside of camp, too.

God works in wonderful ways on our camps, and we have the joy-filled role of partnering with Him as we lead Bible engagement in these spaces. May we continue to take that opportunity seriously, remaining confident that God is graciously using our humble efforts to advance His kingdom in the lives of our campers.

When I chose to be a follower of Jesus at the age of 10 (I'm now 57!), it was at a Scripture Union camp in South Africa. This was a 5-day adventure in the great outdoors, sheltering in tents. Our SUPAkidz camps in Aotearoa New Zealand are now in campgrounds with more physical shelters. The camps are closer to a city, and campers sleep in cabins. This does not imply that we have taken the ‘great outdoors’ out of children’s camping, rather, we are confident that our campers feel secure in their comfortable shelters and can be more intentional in our SUPAkidz camp programme about getting children outside to revel in the outdoors and to appreciate our Great Creator.

For children who are glued to screens for much of their day, getting up and out into the outdoors is an excellent and necessary way to enjoy new experiences, to clear their brain and to see the creation their God has made. At SUNZ, we firmly believe it brings positivity and enjoyment of life, strengthening our SUPAkidz campers to face life’s challenges.

So, rain or shine, light or dark we plan safe and fun activities in the outdoors. These include night games, stargazing, exploring the native bush, playing wide games, and racing boats made from all-natural materials down the local stream.

At the halfway point of camp, we allow for supervised free time at a beach or explore a longer bush walk to allow space for

ANDREW RAMSBOTTOM | SUNZ Children & Families Consultant

campers and leaders to enjoy and relax in the outdoors. During these activities, our camp leaders will gently point out things of wonder for campers to spend time to observe and be amazed by. The best and most fruitful outdoor activity—if it’s not raining or too cold— is the scheduled five minutes of quiet reflection after our daily Bible exploration time. We ask campers to sit away from close friends and take some time to observe their surroundings and listen for God to speak. We give them a few guidelines as to what God speaking may sound or look like. This is a time for our creator God to speak into the individual lives of all at camp as they look and listen for Him in the great outdoors.

“It is a joy to see children’s faith grow as they ask questions about God and the Bible and to see leaders’ faith grow as they respond. This is why we run SUPAkidz camps.” Paraphrased from Andrew’s December 2022 prayer letter. Please contact SUNZ if you would like to support Andrew in his ministry.