Be our guest

Nick was invited to be the speaker at Church Street Bible Chapel's Easter Camp this weekend, being held at Glenburn Lodge Youth Camp. We arrived on Thursday evening and were housed in a caravan - quite cosy! He shared his testimony and a song during the first session on Thursday night, and then did three more sessions on Friday morning and evening, and Saturday morning, all based in Romans 5.  Familiar territory for me as we're covering the same ground in our Sunday morning church services, but you can never really get enough of these truths - in Ephesians 3 verses 18 and 19 Paul prays that we "may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God".  Amen!

There were heaps of kids on the camp - more so than adults, I think.  The rope bridge across the river side of the camp property was a great attraction, but unfortunately was also the cause of a broken arm.

Nick found some like minds and had much opportunity to talk and discuss the Scriptures.

On Friday afternoon most of the campers drove the short distance to the Orari River Gorge Station, for a walk through the beautiful countryside and down to the river.

Nick, Matt and Marty (not McFly) were just ahead of me.

The trio again...

The river current is strong, I'm told, and the littler kids had to be careful not to get carried downstream.  Nick and Matt tried to build a dam from either end, but eventually ran out of time.  And sandflies, sandflies everywhere, and not a bottle of repellent to be found!

Caleb helped Kenshin across, in a very Big Brotherly sort of way.  They have a great bond already as Caleb, as a senior student, is Kenshin's swimming buddy at school, which means he has to make sure he gets off and on the bus, and has his togs at the end and so on.  My heart swelled to see how careful and capable Caleb is with the younger ones.  Aaron is too, to a lesser degree - I spotted him playing a tame game of ball throwing and catching with two-year-old (?) Timothy. 

Magnificent views down the gorge off both sides of the short bridge.

David Bruce, camp convenor, inviting walkers to have an apple or banana after the walk back to the cars.