GROWING FAITH MUSCLE

GROWING FAITH

MUSCLE

BY NIGEL WINDER Children and Families Team Leader, SUNZ

Nigel has run the Southland SUPAkidz Camp over the last 11 years. He and his wife Hannah along with their four children have been involved in both the youth and children’s camp ministry for the last 14 years that Nigel has been on staff.

I’ve been startled a couple of times recently when I have suddenly caught sight of one of my children. I have needed a second look to re-engage my brain and recognise this young person as one of the babies I have been feeding and looking after since they were tiny and cute, taking their first steps in life’s journey. My children are growing faster than my brain can keep up with! My children didn’t actually just change overnight to suddenly look me in the eye. They have grown over time, an accumulative effect of stages of development and life experiences—and some pretty big investment from their parents and others. Many of our family’s best memories are from Scripture Union NZ (SUNZ) camps where my children have tagged along as my wife, Hannah, and I have been involved in various roles. As they got older, the children attended SUPAkidz camp as official campers too, and now they are beginning to involve themselves as junior leaders. This is a pattern of faith and leadership development that we are keen to cultivate. An encouraging number of past Southland SUPAkidz campers return as leaders with the desire to give back to younger kids something of the positive faith experience they received on camp themselves as a camper. When I look at these incredible young people in action, serving and sharing their growing faith, I see the accumulation of lots of firsts and faith baby steps along the way. First of all, these young people were encouraged and enabled by someone to attend camp as a younger child. They got to experience the power of camp community, the love of older leaders, the influence of the gospel, and the tools to engage with God when they go home. Some met God for the first time at camp, and others took the next step of faith and commitment.

After they outgrew SUPAkidz camps (for primary-aged kids), many continued to grow through attending SUNZ youth camps, leadership development camps like E3 and Exodus Prime, and camp leader training weekends. Each camp, each experience builds on those that have gone before, shaping their faith and leadership. Returning as leaders on camps stretches and grows their faith muscle as they serve, share their faith stories and open the Bible with others to discover and rediscover God in community. New leaders have to be given pathways and opportunities to grow and mature. I am personally indebted to SUNZ for my own faith and leadership development, and nothing excites me more than seeing children and young people having that same opportunity to grow through the pathways that SUNZ camping provides. SUPAkidz camp is such a good investment because we get two camps for the price of one—a camp for the children who come but also a leadership development camp for the young leaders who go on to serve in their own church contexts. Older, more mature Christian leaders are paired up with the young leaders at camp to provide them with great support and role models. When I look at the children at camps, I can’t help but wonder who might be back leading on the team in three or four years’ time. When I look at the incredible young leaders, I can’t help but wonder who in the future might be doing my job, or leading a church or carrying out world-changing mission. The time, energy and investment that we put into our children and young people and our commitment to growing them as leaders can only pay future dividends. SUNZ camps are such an effective tool.