Northland Age Article

Another great write up & photo in the local paper...

Summer Camp 2012

School is almost over for the year...I'm sure you are looking forward to the holidays :-)
Our camp this summer is going to be awesome & a must-be part of your holidays!
Our theme is "Treasure Island" and we have some cool things planned, including a pirate-themed dress-up on the last night.
Make sure you lock these dates into your holiday calendar so you don't miss out!...

Dates: Sunday January 15th - Friday January 20th 2012

Price: $110 if registered before 2nd January

Theme: Treasure Island

Click here for a registration form to print out.  

If you would like to be a leader, click here for an application form to print out.

October 2011 Report

Once again the build-up to camp was not without the usual drama & excitement of any roller coaster ride as we watched God bring together the leaders, helpers & children that made up October camp 2011. 

We had 33 children in total, 9 youth leaders and 7 adult helpers. We started off with a great leader’s weekend, gelling as a team, setting things up & generally getting ready for the campers to arrive.  The adults & leaders came from Tauranga, Auckland & the local area and it was exciting to see each of them catch the vision for camp & give themselves whole-heartedly to the mission at hand. 

Out theme this camp was “Red & Yellow, Black & White, ALL are precious in His sight,” and we focused on different aspects of our uniqueness and loving & accepting our neighbours as we love/accept ourselves.  The cabins were turned into 4 different countries that represented the four colours & we decorated the hall with the flags & colours too.  The children really got into the spirit of it & camp definitely felt like one big happy family.

Scott Doddrell from Auckland was our speaker at chapel times and did a great job of getting the message across.  We had at least 2 girls respond, and others wanting to talk & ask questions.  We gave away at least 12-15 Bibles (thank you to a generous sponsor) and we know that seed has been sown.  There were many children at camp who never heard of a Bible, and some who knew nothing of its message.  We count it a real privilege to share with these children & that their parents entrust them to us for a week (to complete strangers!)

We did have about 3 days of rain at camp which caused us to change the program a bit, having to miss out the Bush Walk & a few other things, but all in all the program went well & the kids really loved it.  We did unfortunately have a rather severe broken arm on the last day, but quick medical attention was at hand (thanks St John!) and he was hospitalised for the night. 

We have since had lots of great feedback from parents and other parties with children wanting to book in for the summer camp, singing the songs at home and raving about the food & the great time they had. 

For the full set of photos go here

October Camp

Looking forward to our next camp coming up these holidays!

Dates: Sunday October 9th - Friday October 14th 2011

Price: $110 if registered before 26th Septemebr

Theme: International flavours

Click here for a registration form to print out.  

If you would like to be a leader, click here for an application form to print out.

Autumn 2011 Camp Report

2 weeks out from camp we had about 15 children registered.  We estimated that by camp we might be up to about 20.  I had contacted a few local newspapers earlier to see if they would be able to run an article about the camp.  10 days before camp started we had an interview with the main paper & they ran a very good article on the Tuesday before camp started.  As a result our numbers more than doubled & we ended up with 42 children registered.  We unfortunately also had to turn some children down, so it is quite realistic to expect a full camp of 48 children next time. 

We had a lot of difficulty securing enough leaders & adult helpers, but in the end we had 5 student leaders who did an amazing & tireless job looking after about 10 children each.  We also had both of our sisters doing the cooking & my brother came from Australia as the speaker and also helped a lot with the program.  Although we could have done with more help, those who were there worked very hard & we had a good team atmosphere. 

We had a lovely group of children who were well-mannered and got on well with each other.  The children loved the activities at camp & we kept them very busy with lots of games, super-hero challenges, a bush walk, flax weaving, daily cabin inspection, chapel times and loads of other stuff. I think the singing would be what they remember the most, with reports of them going home & teaching the songs to their families.  

 

We had great support from the community with fish, mandarins, prizes, feijoas, apples & other things donated to camp. 

All comments and feedback from parents has been positive and asking when we will be running the next one. 

We would like to run the next camp in the July school holidays but have yet to have the camp site confirm it is available.  The October school holidays have already been confirmed (7^th- 14^th). 

Registrations filling up

Friday 14th April at 12pm is the cut-off point for registrations.  We are getting close to maximum, which is great, but if you are not fast, you may miss out.  The bus too is also getting full...be in quick!
Check out this article from the Northland Age... (click on it to make it bigger)

Autumn Camp 2011

This will be our first camp -- with many more to come! :-)

Dates: Sunday April 17th - Thursday April 21st 

Price: $90 if registered before 3rd April

Theme: Superheroes

Click here for a registration form to print out.  

If you would like to be a leader, click here for an application form to print out.