CAMP SERVICE | this Sunday 21 March | 10am | CHAPEL STREET CENTRE

 

Parish Camp!

 

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Parish Family Camp

12-14 February 2021

D.A.T. #2 | Camp Service & Harvest Festival

Hi there Awesome Kids and Hot Chocolate Club! Welcome to this week's D.A.T. (Digital Awesome Time)!

Hope you are well and looking after one another.

This Sunday was supposed to be our Camp Service and Harvest Festival. So today we will celebrate both of those things, and there will be some challenges for you to do at home with your family - and the chance to be in to win prizes too!

FIRST, 

Check out the video message below.

D.A.T. #2

WATCH and listen to Mel read 'RED, A Crayon's Story', with a message from Rev Anne:

The crayon, ‘Red’ had pressure from every side to be something that he wasn’t. There were lots of tears, and lots of anxiety and lots of trying, but he couldn’t be what everybody wanted. And do you know, that each and every one of us is a bit like that.

God has made us in a special way and God says ‘you are beautifully and wonderfully made’ and you need to find out who the true and real you is inside, and to be that person, no matter what anybody else says, to remember that you are made and deeply loved by God, and to find out who God wants you to be and what God wants you to do.

WATCH and listen to prayers from some of our campers:

WATCH the OFFICIAL CAMP VIDEO here:

DO THE CHALLENGES:

1. CRAYON ART

Make a drawing or artwork using crayons. If you don't have crayons at home, pencils or felts are fine too.

2. HARVEST FESTIVAL VEGGIE CHARACTER

Make an animal or character out of vegetables. Take a photo and email it to me.

3. MASTER CHEF

Make a meal for your family. Take a photo, including the menu, and email it to me.

4. 'RED' QUIZ

How much of the story can you remember? (You might have to go back and watch the video again).

Click HERE to do the online quiz.

STAIRCASE FOR BOATS

From Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Lloyd-Jones

When a riverboat needs to go up a hill, it navigates through a lock (which is basically a staircase for boats). The boat enters a sealed chamber. Gradually, the water level is raised, lifting the boat up, until the water inside is at the same level as the river ahead. The gates open and the boat continues on.

But from the boat entering the lock - you can't see the river ahead. It looks like a dead end!

And the Bible says we can't see everything God is doing in our lives either. But what looks like a dead end, is really God lifting you up. Because there are no dead ends with God. Only new beginnings in disguise.

I think this is really fitting at the moment. Lots of things have closed, we are 'locked in', we can't do many of the fun activities we are used to. It's hard to see the way ahead. But in this time of dead ends and closed doors... how about we look for new beginnings? There are so many awesome things starting up and people showing amazing creativity and kindness right now. Let's celebrate that, and let God lift us up and move us to take up a new challenge, be creative, show kindness and love to others. 

Love and blessings,

Mel

Camp was A M A Z I N G!

Come to church on Sunday 29 March to relive our creative worship service from CAMP 2020! We'll also see the CAMP MOVIE and photos.

THE YES

Our drama group at camp presented the wonderful story, THE YES, by Sarah Bee. 

The Yes set off to explore the big wide Where. But the Where was home to the Nos, who travel in packs and discourage the Yes at every turn. They told the Yes that the tree was too big to climb, the bridge too rickety to cross, the woods too scary to explore. But even just one Yes is stronger than countless Nos.

In life, we are faced with many obstacles to overcome… choices, where we have to decide YES or NO. Sometimes it’s scary. That’s OK. Being brave doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to be a bit scared. There’s a quote we heard at camp which goes:

“There can be no courage unless you’re scared.” 

So, I think we just have to remember that Jesus is there with us, every step of the way, Jesus gives us strength and helps us to be brave. He's there saying, 'Yes! You can do it! I believe in you!' 

We need to listen for God's voice, to know what path to follow. We need to keep faith in God's everlasting love that strengthens us.

Jesus wants us to have the courage to be ourselves, to try new things, to stand up for what is right, to be kind to one another, and to reach out and share the love of God with everyone.

Camp Service

On 24 March, we had our Camp Service at the Chapel Street Centre. This is a service led by the people who were at our annual Church Camp, which was held in February at the Waipara Riverside Campsite.

At church camp, the campers plan and lead the worship service on the Sunday morning. Everyone pitches in and does something to contribute to the service. We choose which group we'd like to help with... it could be the team who cleans and prepares the hall for the service, arranges flowers, or the group who chooses the bible readings, prayers and leads them. There was also the drama group and the music team. We each have about 30 minutes to plan and organise or practice, then after morning tea our service begins.

We then re-create the service for the rest of the congregation, which was what we did on March 24th. 

BRAVE

Our theme for camp was BRAVE.  Bravery is not the absence of fear… it is moving forward in spite of it.’

There are awesome kinds of courage, and everyday kinds of courage that ordinary people show all the time.  

At camp, in teams, we faced a number of challenges… some that required us to do things outside our comfort zone, to try new things, to reach out to help someone else, and to trust our teammates.

There was the traditional camp waterslide and flying fox, and other challenges saw us tackle obstacle courses, melt ice with our bare hands, and collect coloured balls whilst blindfolded -following the directions from our teammates.

In our concert on the Saturday night, many of our campers overcame nerves to perform an act to entertain the rest of us. There were dancers, singers, musicians, a karate item, jokes and skits. Who could forget the Invisible Bench Skit?

So, our camp and our worship service was a celebration of the moments, big and small, that bring out the hero in each of us, where we shine the light of God's love, and live in Jesus's way.

Camp was Awesome!

Last weekend a large bunch of us headed out to Waipara, for our annual Church Camp. Our theme for the weekend was 'BRAVE'. With God's help, we can have the courage to face whatever challenges we encounter in life.

Over the weekend, we sure got to put our courage to the test... with a number of challenges such as Spotlight, obstacle courses, flying fox, waterslide, jumping from rope swings into the river, DANCING IN PUBLIC, solving puzzles and 'running the gauntlet' (racing piggy back, while other teams threw wet sponges at us!)

On the Saturday night we had a camp concert, and anyone who wanted to could put their name down to perform. We had an amazing range of acts, from song and dance, to karate and who could forget 'The Invisible Bench Skit'?

If you missed camp this year, make sure you mark it on your calendar for next year. Camp 2020 will be 14-16 February. We'd love to see you there!

Church Camp 2019

Join us for Church Camp 2019!

Family Camp Movies

Our Parish Family Camp was held in February at the Waipara Riverside Park. Click below to watch our two videos capturing some of the fun from the weekend.

Click HERE to watch our reporter's interviews with campers

Click HERE to watch some of the video and photo footage from camp

CAMP SERVICE Sun 8 April 10am

Join us at the Chapel Street Centre tomorrow morning, Sunday 8 April at 10am for our creative, collaborative church service, led by a bunch of us from Family Camp.

CHURCH CAMP 16-18 Feb

The highlight of the year - CHURCH CAMP is VERY near!

16-18 February, get your registrations in NOW! You don't want to miss this!

WATCH THE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/E5TpnLsoWS8

REGISTER: Click HERE to register for CHURCH CAMP!

Church Camp

The highlight of the year - CHURCH CAMP is near! 

16-18 February, mark it on your calendars now! You don't want to miss this!

More details to come soon.

https://youtu.be/E5TpnLsoWS8

Church Camp Videos

Here they are... what you've all been waiting for! The videos from this year's Parish Camp. Videos 1 and 2 are shortened versions which include clips of a variety of events. If you want the full waterslide and concert videos, check them out below. Enjoy!

Part 1: including Saturday morning activities and 'how to pitch a tent'!

Part 2: including waterslide and concert

Part 3: Interviews

Part 4: Waterslide

Part 5: Concert

Apologies, but not all concert items made it onto film, due to a malfunction with the video operator ;o(