Hello Everyone,
It is time for our last Wednesday Words Post of 2015. Today we are so pleased to have a post written by Nick Brotherwood, I’m sure you will enjoy his unique Day Camp Story.
Welcome Nick!
for the Lamb on Day Camps blog. The pressure is incredible.
was in my thirties, was married to Sue, we had three children Adam, Pippa &
Kate, that I made my first visit to my future home, encountered Day Camps and
met Lamb. So for all you late starters out there-courage! I can honestly say
that our family would not have been celebrating nearly thirty years of living
in Canada were it not for Day Camps. You see all those years ago (1981), in a
land far, far away (England) I allowed myself to be recruited to spend twelve
weeks in a far distant land(Canada) leading five Crosstalk Ministries Day
Camps, (whatever they were.)
first year at an English Theological College, and was looking for something to
do for the long summer vacation. Enter Brett Cane, for it was he, complete with
enthusiasm in spades and a slide show, showing happy Canadian children in the
sunshine. Somehow I convinced Sue that this would be a great way to spend the
summer, so a few months later we dragged our three kids the eldest was nearly
five onto their first plane and we were off to Montreal. We slept in people’s basements,
sometimes enjoying semi-luxury in a rectory, and generally having a fantastic
summer. We learnt a lot about working with children, and integrating our faith
in Jesus into every area of our lives. The experience gave me a lifelong
commitment to including children and young people fully in the life of the
church. As I said already, I doubt if I would be living in Montreal today were
it not for that summer working on Day Camps.
Since immigrating to Canada in 1986 my
involvement in CROSSTALK Ministries has taken many forms, speaker at Senior and
Junior youth camps, director of the Focus weekend, Board member and even for a
time vice-president. But it all started with Day Camps, and I think that the
Day Camp program and the potential progression from day camper to parish helper
to travelling team member to team leader to who knows what (God knows) is a
great leadership development trajectory that we should support and encourage
people to follow. All that being said, I still think that the Crosstalk Ministries Day Camp program
should have the following warning attached to it, “Doing Day Camp can seriously
change your life, (for the better, of
course!)
 |
|
Back
L to R, Alex, Matthew, Chris, Ryan. Front, an over excited Nick inside the Olympic Stadium. |