AWA May 2012

The SUPAkidz camp I directed in April was the easiest camp I have lead in all my years of camping. Maybe it was because of the awesome camp site [first time we have used Campbell Park at Mangawhai Heads] or the wonderfully good weather or the team of committed and enthusiastic leaders. Or maybe having ONLY TWENTY CAMPERS was why it was easy. This got me thinking about the value of camps and other things. So this prayer newsletter has a focus on the value, both perceived and real, of some of the ministries I am part of.

WAY2GO Training

I ran three workshops on intergenerational faith at both the Auckland and Dunedin events. The overall numbers for the training events was down and I was a little disappointed with how few people chose to do workshops on all age faith. Then we received this comment:

“We loved Way2Go - it is the highlight of my year! I had two young girls who help with Friday Club at Way2Go with me - on the way home one of them asked the other - how would this compare as the best day of your life on a scale of 1 to 10? One said 6 1/2 out of 10, and the other said 7!! How cool!”

My disappointment very quickly turned to appreciation of God and that he works in ways that we can't even imagine and many children and families will grow closer to God as a result of WAY2GO.

In this issue...

WAY2GO Training

SUPAKidz Camps

Faith@Home

God's Word

Prayer

Events
NOT TO BE MISSED

Home

E Camp

Digging

Belt

SU NZ links

PDF version

SUPAkidz Camps

   “Only twenty campers” - is it really worth running a camp for such a small number? What is the cost to running a a camp compared with the value that is gained from it?
   The cost: hours and days given by leaders before camp and to be at camp, some even giving up a week's work.
   The value: Children and leaders leaving camp knowing more about who God is and excited about that growing even more. Some lives changed for eternity as God moves in the lives of children and then their families. Thank you for praying!!

Faith@Home

   I'm thinking this to be a good book title: "Let's Kill Sunday School Before It Kills the Church. Rich Melheim on twitter. I was almost at a place in my ministry where I wanted to agree with him until I heard Mark Holmen the founder of “Faith @ Home” share his vision.
   Don't throw out what we currently have in churches but add value to it or increase it's value by intentionally looking for ways to nurture faith in the home. Mark's passion for this comes from the statistics showing that more and more young people are leaving the church. All these young people come form homes where they have a parent or parents who go to church and are followers of Jesus.
   I left this session even more determined to help churches explore how they can do thing with all ages together but also look at areas of church life where homes or ,as I like to to say, places where people live may be assisted to nurture faith especially with children and young people but not exclusively so. Please pray for me as I explore this more and look for ways to help churches to value faith nurturing in homes.
Faith@Home web site

God's Word

I have been reading the book “The Seed and the Soil” given to all staff and I have been reminded of how important it is to interpret Scripture carefully so that we can get the greatest value out if it – to know God in our lives in increasing measure.
Buy a copy here

Our home group has started the “Essential 100 Bible reading challenge” and here too I have been reminded of the value of knowing that God has a plan to save humanity from destruction and his plan includes all who have chosen to have Jesus as Lord and Saviour in their lives.
Check out the resources here

Please Pray

Every Friday 9:10-9:40 am – I teach a Bible in Schools year 2 class at Glendowie Primary. Pray for the team I am part of as we open God's Word in our local community each week.

31 May – Starship Children's Church. I am telling the story of the three Jews refusing to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar's gold statue. Please pray for me as I prepare and the team as we run the programme

camp web page

SUPAkidz Camps

Three in July

Auckland - Auckland - Wellington

29 June to 1 July – Auckland leaders Training and preparation weekend for 2 teams

2 to 6 July – Auckland SUPAkidz camp

6 to 8 July – Wellington Leaders training and preparation

Breakaway camps are run for the children of prisoners in partnership with Prison Fellowship

6 to 10 July – Auckland
Breakaway SUPAkidz camp

9 to 13 July – Wellington
Breakaway SUPAkidz Camp

Please pray for the following people over the next six week as they have various tasks: Recruiting leaders and getting campers registered
Pip Wells, Raewyn Rowney (Wellington)
Andrew Ramsbottom, Paul Dadd (Auckland)

Please pray for the three camp team leaders Ruth Elliott, Andrew Ramsbottom and Annette Osborne as we finalise camp programmes.

As we contact churches, please pray that they will catch the vision of camps.

PRAY DAY
is coming
3rd August.

This is a day co-ordinated by Scripture Union specifically to pray for schools across New Zealand. We ask as many other organisations and churches to be a part of the day as possible.
Can you:

Keep the date free and think about whether you can do something in your area – we will send out ideas and resources for you to think about over the next few weeks.
Start encouraging people to set the day aside. The website will have pages for people to look at from the 18th June on. If you are talking to a church we suggest they choose the nearest Sunday.
We want to have a 30 day count down to PRAY DAY starting on the 5th July. We will provide a booklet with daily prayer ideas for people to download and also use Facebook and Twitter.

A cool quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson –
"More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of."

Home

While James was away at E-Camp the rest of us spent the weekend at Leigh. We walked a bit, swam a bit, rested a bit and visited the local school carnival fundraiser.
All the boys have celebrated their birthdays, and as you can see, James is now officially a teenager. Both James and Chris wanted a sleepover as part of their birthday party. We took Chris and ten friends to run through the tunnels at Devonport. Then home to take James and his five friends to a Warriors game. So we had fifteen boys to sleep over. And then it was pancake breakfast for everyone the next morning. I'm almost at the stage where I think I could make pancakes blindfolded. A great time was had by all. Check out photos here.

E Camp

I went to E Camp over Easter with nearly 1000 other young people at Finlay Park on Lake Karapiro. I had so much fun doings as many activities as I could fit into a day. My church small group leaders was in the worship band and the speaker was funny but challenged us. I am now thirteen ! I don't think I need to say any more.

James 13

Digging

I love going to camp especially when Dad is there. We did lots of digging. Annette came and showed us how to dig for old stuff. [archaeology] The boys in my group buried me in the sand. We got to follow the Desert Detectives as they dug to find the mighty God Sword, which we found out was actually God's Word. I love the Bible.

Chris 10

Belt

I celebrated my seventh birthday with my friends at our local skateboard park. We had bikes, scooters and and skateboards and had some near misses but no crashes. It was so much fun. My brother Chris gave me a green plastic belt that smells like bubblegum as a present which I found out later he bought with his own money. I love him.

Thomas 7