Our Testimonies I Conference Notes
Teens’ Camp had always been a significant time in the church’s calendar, and in the lives of many at Bethany. It was a time when many of us started our walk with the Lord, when some of us renewed our walk with the Lord… In any case, they were times of great impact, of change, of growth…
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Last year, our Teens’ Camp was expanded into a Youth Conference, including young people from overseas. Our conferees included young people from our IPC family in Perth, our intern pastors from Myanmar and friends from Korea, not forgetting our lone representative from India. Our theme was Discipleship – First Things First. We recognise that the world today is full of distractions for our young people, and the only way to win them back is a commitment to the Lord’s Word, to be disciples of the Lord. The alternative is to be weak, insignificant, incapable of realising our potential, unable to overcome, unable to see beyond our everyday lives. |
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The sound teaching of God's Word was presented in 5 series of messages -
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Morning devotions - the practice of discipleship Morning session 1 - the Word of God in the life of the Disciple Morning session 2 - the process of discipleship Afternoon session - the life of the disciple
In addition to these, fellowship with camp officers and with each other over meals and in vespers groups gave opportunity for campers to interact with, and consolidate the thoughts gleaned throughout the day. |
| Games and rest in the late afternoon was much welcomed after a day of intense learning, and the camp officers can always be trusted to come up with creative new games and to discover greater potential in all at church - including the mattress. |  |
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As always, good food is never lacking in Bethany, spiritual or physical. For that, we have to thank our faithful ‘aunties and uncles’ who labour tirelessly camp after camp. Even before one meal is over, they can be seen chopping, peeling, roasting, frying, preparing for the next of the 6 meals that we have in camp. |
| Special programmes were planned in the evening sessions where different groups in the church came together to show to the young people, the blessing they can be, if they let the Lord work through their lives… We had the handbells choir, the senior choir and the evergreen choir |  |
It was a week of tremendous impact. Thursday night ended with a time of consecration and a special Christmas programme. The challenge to our young people was to recognise the voice of God as a child of God should recognise the voice of the Master, and His imperative call to us to follow Him as disciples.
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The challenge was to practice discipleship in the context of the church, and together, to be that church which can show to the principalities and powers, the manifold wisdom of God, as revealed to us in Ephesians.
Friendships were forged despite language and cultural barriers, and as our young people learnt to care for the extended IPC family, the wisdom, love and power of God was truly demonstrated in their midst. |