Welcome to the 2019 Youth Camp!

The 7 Qualities of Leadership

This year’s Youth Camp was held for two weeks and was solely focused on the youths entering grades 7-9; something that had not happened in a very long time. The two weeks were a time filled with lots of fun, learning, and getting to know others on a deeper level. Memories that were formed over the two weeks will be unforgettable, for both campers and counsellors!

All the members of the 2019 Youth Camp:

• The Campers:
  • Nicole
  • Gene
  • Jaiden
  • Caitlin
  • Lia
  • Liam
  • Joan
  • Harinna
• The Counsellors/Adults:
  • April
  • Hannah
  • Joie
  • Lauren
  • John
  • Pastor Dave

Youth Camp started off with a bang, right after Canada Day. Things were tense and awkward; it was the first day, and like Pastor Dave says, the first day will aways be the hardest for everything. Despite this, the counsellors persevered, and by the second and third day, many of the campers seemed to loosen up, showing their genuine character and bright energy.

The second week of Youth Camp was focused more on field trips and preparing for the Family Celebration at the end of the week. This meant that there were less games and activities, but at that point, all the campers seemed very comfortable within the camp environment and with each other. So, even with fewer games, everyone was always together, having fun, no matter what we were doing.

Daily Messages & Group Discussion:

This year, the counsellors and Pastor Dave chose to focus on the theme of “Leadership”, integrating it into each daily message. From there, we broke “Leadership” up into 7 qualities that one would “need” to be a true leader. These qualities were:

• Creativity & Innovation
• Confidence & Courage
• Teamwork & Cooperation
• Communication
• Compassion & Empathy
• Passion & Inspiration
• Honesty & Integrity

Using this as the focus, Pastor Dave used real-life examples, along with stories in the Bible, to help us understand their role in “Leadership”. It became easier for us to wrap our head around such abstract ideas. After the messages, we would have daily group discussions. This was an important time where campers would open up on just about anything: personal sharing, questions that they had about the message, and opinions and thoughts on the message . This was also where we learned a lot about the campers, but also about ourselves, which helped with self-reflection, another big theme that the interns are focusing on this summer.

Activities & Games:

Many of the games and activities we played integrated the message of the day. On the day about Communication, the counsellors designed games and activities that would enforce the daily message.  Some games include: Blindfolded Obstacle Course (one person blindfolded while the rest of the team describes the course to the blindfolded person), Broken Telephone (counsellor whispers a phrase into a campers ear, they pass this message on until the end person receives, end person has to say aloud what they ‘think’ they heard). These games and activities played a big role in making the campers more comfortable with one another as it really forced them to work as a team.

Field Trips:

Youth Camp went on three field trips this year, which were, Canada’s Wonderland, Bowling and Swimming. Going to Wonderland, all the campers could be seen having a lot of fun, and it was one of the rare times they were able to leave their worries aside, let everything go, and play. Bowling was also a fun time of bonding between the campers and the counsellors! Some of the campers were playing for the first time, while others were scoring past 100 with strikes! As for swimming, because of the weather, we were unable to go to the pool to swim. Instead, we had a big water fight, playing in the church parking lot/green area with water balloons and water guns. It was one of the rare moments where both Youth Camp and VBS were together (apart from snack/lunch and Wonderland), and it was very heartwarming to see everyone having fun as one big community.

Family Celebration:

This celebration ceremony, the campers wanted to do something different from the regular skits that are done every year. After a long period of brainstorming together, everyone came to the conclusion of filming a short film for the celebration. With Pastor Dave as our director, and every single camper as a unique character, we came up with the idea of having ‘Dora’ go on an adventure, meeting different cartoon character as she finds the “7 Qualities of Leadership”. The youths had a lot of fun planning and filming the short film, and their hard-work and effort can be seen in the video below!

 

Conclusion:

All the campers seemed to really enjoy their time, and it was nice to see all the youths that are entering Hi-C this summer, actively wanting to come to the Hi-C events taking place over the summer, and the Hi-C retreat! Overall, Youth Camp 2019 was a huge success! There were so many unforgettable memories made and new friendships formed! Thank you to all the campers for being such an amazing group, and thank you to all the counsellors and Pastor Dave and John Chia for helping out. We couldn’t have done Youth Camp without you!