LIGHT FOR THE PATH

BY NATALIE DUCHESNE North Island Camps Facilitator, SUNZ

FINDING DEPTH TOGETHER

I’m all for immersion. Sink me deep to help my experience be a rich one. But a lot of us have lost sight of this depth–depth of community and depth of relationship with God. Despite holding the value of these things so closely, I’m a frustrating product of this world. I want to experience it all. I hop from one shiny opportunity to another and I’ve witnessed it doing damage to relationships in my life and my relationship with God. Thankfully, though, God continues to provide me with reminders to sink deep into communion with Him. Something that I find so beautiful about communion with God is that it is both personal and something we are required to do together with others–the Body of Christ, the Church. "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." –Ephesians 2:19-22 (NIV) I regularly turn to Jesus as an example of depth. Jesus, like us, lived within the relational fabric of community AND prioritised intimate time with the Father. Camps, in particular, have the potential to reflect a similar approach to that of Jesus–intensive time in community and intensive time alone with God. I’m particularly fond of how Joseph Ratzinger in his book Jesus of Nazareth talks about Jesus who "has eternally opened up within God a space for humanity" and "now calls the whole world into this open space in God, so that in the end God may be in all and the Son may hand over to the Father the whole world gathered in Him." When I stop and take a step back to reflect on God’s radical inclusiveness, I’m humbled by the fact we’re invited into such depth. When we intentionally choose to go deep and commit to being in right relationship with others and the Father–whether that is on a camp, during our every day, or while spending time in the Word–that’s when we experience a turning point and our faith realigns. Let’s do this together.

OUT & ABOUT

AUCKLAND PAUL DADD

It’s been a busy few months for the Auckland team... Andy Banks joined Paul Humphreys at Laidlaw College in September to run the Āpōpō mental health awareness training with around sixty youth workers and pastors from across the city. Please pray for them as they seek people who can be trained to present this workshop in Auckland. Paul Dadd and Andrew Ramsbottom ran the You’re Losing Us workshop with a cluster of churches in Helensville in August. We will be journeying with them over the next 12 months as they focus on some key areas of forming life-long faith with their children and young people. Annette Osborne spent time in PNG and Thailand in September with her role with SU International. Sylvia Coulter continues to support and resource our prayer groups while Glenis Silby keeps the Auckland office ticking along nicely. It has been great for us to get to know Natalie Duchesne (North Island Camps Facilitator) as she spends some time in the Auckland office before moving to the Waikato.

A great cheer went up in the National Support Centre recently after we scored 15/15 in the Wednesday morning trivia quiz from Stuff. Extra brain power from Nigel (in town for the National Leadership Team meeting) and Paul Humphreys (for an Āpōpō workshop) just might have helped! Paul was in town again with Andy Bank for another Āpōpō at a local college and North Island Camps Facilitator Natalie Duchesne came through to meet the team. Hilary has been out and about at churches and Neville was on team at the Ruapehu ski camp. The Marketing Team have been busy with summer camp publicity and the latest round of Team Support letters. Anitha held the fort in accounts with Xiang away for several weeks in China, then it was a turn-around with Xiang back and Anitha away for October. WELLINGTON JANICE HUNT

OUT & ABOUT

CHRISTCHURCH JANICE HUNT

We are delighted to welcome Ben Necklen (former South Island Camps Facilitator) back to SUNZ as our part-time Health and Safety Officer, working from home for 8 hours a week. Christchurch is home base for Paul Humphreys too, but as you can probably guess from other articles, he has been doing a lot of travelling round the country with Āpōpō, as

well as camps (Gain in Marlborough) and E3 administration. We praise God for the generous support of the Longview Trust helping us to develop the future of our E3 wilderness journeys.

SOUTHLAND/OTAGO KAREN POY

Before camps can happen, camp training begins! We were recently able to collaborate with Camp Columba in Gore and provide leadership training to a group of 40 young leaders. The weekend was full-on and had all kinds of workshops for pre-camp training and personal development. We were also able to bless participants by surprising with them a delicious thank you desert evening with key local volunteers as well. Lizzie is busy out and about supporting youth groups and is getting ready to run Wild Wanaka in early January. Nigel is recovering from running a SUPAKidz camp at Edendale during the holidays. He continues to be really busy supporting the Children and Families Team and planning future events. Registrations for Summer Camps and providing admin support for the growing Āpōpō Programme are keeping me busy.