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Interesting Stuff
ACTS Youth Work Camp
As Christians grow in their faith it becomes more and more apparent to them how important it is to serve one another as a servant would serve their master. We are to do this out of complete and authentic love so that they may see Christ through our example.
In order to try and stress this to the kids in our youth group we took them to a work camp this last summer (2004). The camp took place in Evansville Indiana and lasted for a week and there were a lot of projects for them to get involved with as well as lots of other kids their age for them to hang out with and make new friends.
I've taken the time since then to reflect on the experience and try and discern how I feel about the whole work camp idea. In general, it's a very worthwhile idea, if the appropriate motivations are behind it. In this article I'll try and communicate some of my ideas of how camps like this can be beneficial for not only the youth that attend them, but also the leaders and other staff that are involved.
The idea behind the camp, and how it works
The A.C.T.S. (All Called to Serve) Camp we went to was focused on service. The kids were there not to only have fun and spend a week away from there parents, they were also there to learn to serve others in love. Various youth groups from around the state had signed up and all were to be at the camp within a one-hour time frame. Once all groups had arrived it was time to get settled it. Once everyone had their things unpacked we had a full group meeting orientation to inform everyone how the week would be structured and other important bits of information.Once the orientation was over and everyone had a good idea of what was going to happen that week, it was time for the work groups to be formed. All of the youth groups that were there were mixed up to make new groups that would separate the kids from their friends (and their comfort zone). Once that was done the work groups got together and worked on some ice-breaker games and activities.
The following morning was the first day of working. We would all wake up around 8:00 and have breakfast at a common dining area, which is another article. :) Once breakfast was over the group leaders would scramble to get things together for their project of that day while the kids would finish getting ready. The leaders were giving a work order for the project of the day that told them where they were going, what they were to do and what tools they would need to do it.
From there we'd gather up all of the kids in our groups and head out to our work site. Once we were there, we'd get to work, around noon we'd have lunch and then head back to the camp around 3:30 or 4:00.
Evening Fun Time
Once all of the groups were back from working it was free time. They kids had the option of sitting around and relaxing after their hard day of work, swimming in the large lake at the camp or sleeping, as many decided to do. This was also a great time for the leaders from the various groups to get together and talk about how things had gone for their group. I always enjoyed hearing from the other leaders and was surprised to find that our group had done better than most. After an hour or so of free time it was time for dinner. Again, dinner was served in the common room.Evening Worship
Once dinner was done and the kids had a chance to relax for a while it was time for worship. This was by far my favorite part of the week. Each night there was a praise band there that would lead the group in singing and dancing. The kids from our church weren't used to being able to worship in that way and seemed to really enjoy it. I did too. Once the band was finished there was a youth pastor there to give a message. I was always very impressed by the messages that he gave and was even more surprised the first night when I realized that this was the guy that slept in the bunk bed next to mine. They message was very relevant, not filled with jargon and big words that mean very little to teenagers.The thing that really impressed me about the evening worship services is how great of a job they had done coming up with an atmosphere and music that would be exciting to high school age students. They had a projector, a very industrial looking stage setup and lots of lights. Each side of the meeting area was lined with barrells with red-yellow fires burning brightly. It was great.
The final worship service before we all went back home there was a different band that played the music. It was the band of the youth leader and it was their last performance. They were disbanding because of the family commitments of their singer, the youth pastor.
My Thoughts on ACTS
I had never been to a camp like this before and had never been involved in something that was so obviously beneficial to the people we were serving. I had been involved in missions projects through the church and other similar events, but there was something about this. The people we were helping tended to be older people, and I couldn't help but feel like we were doing a good thing for the youth of the nation as a whole. Maybe we were proving that they do care about others, or maybe it was just nice for them to see youth doing something other than playing video games. Either way, this was something that I know has effected the lives of the youth, Kristen and I for a long time. For the first time, I was doing something for someone else and I had nothing to gain... and I was loving it.Sure, there were things that could have been better at the camp, but I was very impressed overall by how smoothly the camp was run. The problems that they had would have been present in any other similar camp.