YOUTH

Featured
Crease: Youth Retreat Resource
Crease: Youth Retreat Resource

A resource to facilitate connection within community groups after times of change or upheaval

What? What? What?
What? What? What?

Taking a simple word and turning it into a valuable tool for faith formation.

Welcome Home, See I Made a Space For You Now
Welcome Home, See I Made a Space For You Now

Helping your children and young people transition back to school after COVID-19 lockdown

Caring For Volunteers
Caring For Volunteers

How to support your volunteers with realistic expectations, empowerment, and appreciation

Mental Health and Well-being: Part Two
Mental Health and Well-being: Part Two

A helpful resource addressing the mental health and well-being of Aotearoa’s young people

That's a Big Sheet: Growing Through Disruption
That's a Big Sheet: Growing Through Disruption

Choosing to grow in times of challenge

It Takes a Village
It Takes a Village

Reflections on parenting teenagers in lockdown

Mental Health & Well-being: During & Beyond Covid-19
Mental Health & Well-being: During & Beyond Covid-19

Tips that hold true through varied seasons of crisis, isolation or anxiety

Instagram and the Body of Christ
Instagram and the Body of Christ

Curating a social media platform in the midst of an online world

Fun games to play over video calls
Fun games to play over video calls

Simple games you can play with your youth over Zoom.

Bible jamming
Bible jamming

Engaging with the Bible in a fun way!

Strengthening the walls of our whare
Strengthening the walls of our whare

Mental health and discipleship

Discipleship: What is it and whose job is it?
Discipleship: What is it and whose job is it?
Many of my favourite camp memories (both as a camper and team member), is the buddy overnighter. As a camper this was always a highlight as you got to spend an evening in a bay with the group you have spent the week getting to know. Being huddled around a fire, under the beautiful stars usually leading to deep conversations. People sharing parts of their stories, talking about how God had moved and worked in and through each of our lives. There is a vulnerability that is often found during the buddy overnighter, and a deep trust or bond that comes after it. Groups tend to leave as a group and come back as a family (which is why it is still my favourite as a Team Leader). Personally I have found this bond to be life-changing, and years on still have these friendships.⠀ ⠀ 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing" - when was the last time you spoke to your friends from camp? If not recently, drop them a message or a call. Camp may have finished but your encouragement of one another doesn't need to, continue to have those conversations which point each other to Jesus. - Jamie, Ponui Junior Team Leader
And one more post from Matson. Thank you friend for your Instagram Takeover! .... who will it be next week??? Micah 6:8 is a verse which (especially lately) has been an important guide in how I live out my faith. The simple instructions to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God are ones which I try to use in guiding my day to day actions, how I treat the people around me, and in how I decide to use my time. They are also words that remind me that our faith calls us to actively do good, and that when we see people who are suffering from injustice in our world we should fight to correct those injustices and show compassion to those who need it.
More from our friend in the ‘takeover’. In my encounters with God I have found that Elijah’s experience in 1 Kings 19 11-13 has been the most like my own. In this chapter Elijah hears God not in a mighty windstorm, earthquake, or fire but rather in the sound of a “gentle whisper”. This isn’t to say they came in the form of a literal whisper but rather that they were moments that I would have missed had I not been paying attention. No matter how I have experienced God whether it be in scripture, in conversations with friends or in studying the details of His creation I always had to be actively listening to what He was doing and saying in that moment. P.S. 1 Kings 19 also talks about the importance of a snack and a power nap so I’d highly recommend reading it!
Calling all North Island leaders... Registrations are now live for our leadership weekend! ⠀ ⠀ Join us from 4-6 September for a weekend of community, hilarity, big thoughts, and engaging discussion as we consider what it means to lead the youth of Aotearoa. We’ve worked hard to keep the cost of this weekend down but places are limited, so get in quick!⠀ ⠀ P.s. Want an extra day up the mountain? Come Thursday night for an action packed day skiing, snowboarding, tramping or general frolicking in the snow.
Come and enjoy views like this and more at Season & Alight camps in Kaikōura. Wondering how to get there ..... fly in & out of CHC & get on our friendly shuttle. Contact us for more details
This week the TAKEOVER continues. Here’s some words from someone we will reveal later. Perhaps you know them. One of my favorite camp memories is from 2017 E3 where I was a camper rather than a leader. Going into this camp I had just finished high school and was about to leave home to move halfway across the country to start university and so had many questions swirling around in my head. Will I make new friends? Will my courses be too difficult? Where will I go to church? How do I do laundry? These questions left me with a lot of worry about my future that I couldn’t seem to shake for the first part of the camp. However on one of the days we had to do a mountain crossing and I remember looking across the other side of the mountain and into the valley and thinking “Wow, that’s pretty big compared to me”. Being faced with the sheer size of God’s creation in comparison to myself was oddly reassuring. Because if the God who knows how many hairs are on my head, and who knows my thoughts before I think them is the same God who created these mountains and indeed the universe then I’m probably in pretty safe hands! There are many things that happen in our lives and around the world that can be concerning however, it is reassuring to remember that we can depend on God to be with us and guide us through those times. Psalm 121 1-2 I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
We’re offering you something a bit different these coming Winter school holidays! Alongside our camps that you know and love, we have two nation-wide ONLINE camps! ⠀ ⠀ Just as active, adventurous, and engaging, sign up to Reset or Re:Create and you’ll receive an activity pack in the mail. ⠀ ⠀ Through Zoom calls in the morning (9-11am) and evening (7-9pm), we’ll be interacting in a variety of fun and safe ways – from creative challenges, to engaging with Creation, to thinking big thoughts… and everything in between. The sessions will consist of engaging faith-based videos, plenty of time to chat, and activities to get your minds racing and bodies moving both during the sessions and in the hours in-between! Get keeeeeeeen!