Genesis Camp - SACRIFICE  

This week we catch up with Dan Paterson to hear a little about what the Genesis Crew got up to on their recent camp...

Wow! The rundown... 50 of the Genesis Crew headed up to Currimundi on the Sunshine Coast for a weekend of seeking the Master in worship, teaching, community, Scripture and heaps of fun!

We had beach games, land games, and team games. We had guys cabins, girls cabins, and warty intruders (toads). We had rain, soccer, and movies.  We had a live worship band, leader's preaching, and youth searching. We had daily devotions, sacred eavesdropping, and passionate prayer. We had genuine convergence on belief, conviction of heart, and conversions to Christ. All topped off with a ride home reading warm fuzzies - encouragements that everyone had written to each other over the span of the weekend. In short; Immanuel ... God was with us.

The theme of the camp was around Sacrifice: the Cost of Discipleship. With 17 of our 30 youth coming from what we call 'unChurched' and 'unChristian' backgrounds, this is a challenging theme. Darren, Ben & myself taught on Jesus' most confronting challenges to our comfort, conditions, idols, loyalties and self-will (Luke 9:57-62; Matt 19:16-30; Luke 14:25-35). With such fresh soil we are seeing Christ build His church as the youth witness the leaders' faith and are themselves drawn to the narrow path of discipleship in following Christ as Saviour and Lord.
 
There were a number of commitments made over the weekend, and we are running New Believers Ignite on Sunday afternoons (20th March, 27th March, 3rd April) to keep reaffirming the path of discipleship as it impacts the beliefs and lifestyles of the youth (1 Tim 3:16). But enough from me!
 
 

Let the youth speak for themselves...

"Genesis Camp was just a huge avenue for God to work in our lives, changing our hearts and minds.The devotions encouraged questions, allowing us to build up on solid faith, the music was great (coming from a muso!) and was really brought to life by the Holy Spirit whose presence could be felt in the air. The activities were a bunch of fun and I felt privileged to be involved in the best game of soccer ever!"    - Sam (in Yr 12)

"Camp was a real eye opener for me. It got me thinking about my faith and got me to make a decision about how I wanted to live my life. Hearing the stories of others' experiences in connecting with God made me realise that I'm not alone in the struggles I'm facing. Seeing Tara and Jess get baptised was a wonderful thing, as I had never seen anything like it before. The Genesis Crew is a bunch of the most lovely people on the planet, and each and every one of you is so kind and caring. Knowing that all of you are there for me to turn to for help and guidance has really helped."       - Bryony (in Yr 12)

These stories and heaps more serve as a massive encouragement to the team of leaders I have the privilege of serving under. Thanks for your prayers. We covet them. We rely on the Master's presence. Keep praying for us!

Daniel Paterson

Check out more of what the Genesis Crew got up to below.