4 minute read
ALL DAY LONG
ALL DAY
LONG
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BY PAUL HUMPHREYS South Island Camps Facilitator, SUNZ
Just imagine...all-day Bible study that keeps youths’ attention and offers concrete faith-formation. Have I got your attention? This sort of Bible study with a difference is a distinctive of our adventurebased SUCAMPS. Here’s an example… Our July winter camps looked at the story of the fat king from Judges 3. The story was a perfect attraction to a bunch of rambunctious campers (kind of gross but definitely keeps your attention). Throughout the camp our team was embracing the approach of using these questions to frame our Bible engagement experiences: Why did people find this important to write it down? What was going on in their world at the time? Why did they feel the need to put it into words? However, as we dived into the story the first time, we read the story and then walked away. We just left it. We didn’t process or debrief. We just ‘Let the Experience Speak For Itself‘. Later that morning we asked what was going on in their world at the time. Time for a quick history lesson: the Israelites were really good at making the same mistakes. Over and over again they went through the same cycle... occupation by a foreign power...crying out
to God...God sends help...dramatic delivery from slavery...all is good for a few years... the Israelites begin to worship a false god... God hands them over to their enemies... occupation by a foreign power...Hit repeat. This goes on and on for hundreds of years. We reinforced our conversation with an experiential game, which took up the theme of making the same mistakes over and over— ‘fulfilling the definition of insanity’. By this point campers had opened scripture, heard it, had a conversation about it, and played a game to reinforce its message. It was lunchtime. After lunch we hit the mountain bike trails along the Kowhai River outside Kaikōura. It was a perfect day and so we let rip—after all, kids come to come to camp to do cool outdoor stuff not just read the Bible, don’t they? Previously on a reccy I had discovered a new piece of trail to take riders away from the river bed trail which was frequently impassable due to floods. However, both trails were usable and with some creativity we could create a scenario of biking round and round in circles, a lap taking about 7-10 minutes. And so we did. After about three laps all of the campers realized what was going on and were ‘crying out’. What made it more perfect was a small uphill where almost all of them had to push their bikes and a super muddy section almost tailor-made for more whining and grumbling. Sound familiar? Upon their realization, a halt was called and we started a conversation around this teachable moment. What just happened? So what does this remind you of? What does this mean for you? How does this remind you of our story today? The conversation took a turn towards choices or decisions we make in life that aren’t healthy and how over time we keep making them over and over. Hmmmmm, sounds like the Israelites. How will you break out of that cycle of addition? (And yes, we named self-harm, porn addiction, bad choices in relationships.)
The take-aways for campers were around how to get out of the cycle. There’s this guy called Jesus Christ who definitely can help you. His help and love can come in many forms, including prayer, reading scripture and talking to your leaders this week and others once you get home. Essentially the message was ‘don’t be like the Israelites who “rode their bikes” round and round in circles for hundreds of years’. We had brought in the idea of a God who loves and cares for humanity, keeps hearing our cry for help, and tangibly sends help. We had experientially reinforced what could be considered basic theology. And we had recognised that the Israelites thought these experiences important enough to write down for us to learn from thousands of years later. By now it was late afternoon. The day had been fun and challenging – physically and mentally. But not only that, the Bible message and faith had been made more relevant and real through grabbing a teachable moment. We had literally spent our whole day doing a Bible study (shhhhh don’t tell the kids).
