Summer Camp

Right, I promised I would write about Summer Camp, and so I will. It's not quite as fresh in my memory, which is always a shame. Nonetheless it's worth writing about still.

The eastern region churches of SA came together at a place called Mooi River, about an hour and a half from Durban. We rented a school site for use for the 300+ strong group of campers that were coming from our churches, ranging between about 11 and 20. Everyone was multi-tasking, and lots of older youth were actually acting as leaders at the same time. I was a group leader, part of the ministry team, photographer, and part-time lead guitarist - which was a bit of a hectic setup. Some, like Ebz, the guy doing the video, worked far harder than me though.

What really made the camp remarkable though is how manfestly present the Holy Spirit was through the whole time. I think a lot of people spent more time on the floor than on their seats in the meetings! Previous camps have focussed a whole lot on mission and on "doing stuff". This one was focussed on the theme of being forgiven by God, and just stuffing these kids full of grace. It was powerful. I heard some of the stories that were coming out of these ministry times and you could begin to understand why people were not exactly being straight laced with all the stuff that's going on in the depths of their lives.

Normally I'm not one for the falling over thing (though I don't in principle have anything against it). I've not dropped before now (for which I'm sure many are grateful), nor did I this week. I spent much time scratching my head wondering quite whether a lot of things were right as people lay about on the floor for long periods laughing their heads off uncontrollably and staggering about after. "Drunk", as in Acts 2, is exactly the right description. Many use that verse to justify this sort of bodily incapacity, but I'm not sure it can be so certain as I think many would describe lots of people seemingly babbling away at the same time in the same way, whether or not they were dropping to the ground.

The guy leading the camp, Antony Eastes, is a complete loon in many ways, but he is a good man and is definitely annointed with power. He would often be the source of such collapse and "holy giggles", as well as doing the same himself.

As I looked at it through the week I had to conclude a few things:

• God can't be put in a box. When He's doing stuff it's bound to look weird sometimes.
• That a lot of time you can only tell what's going on by the fruit.
• That the church in Corinth shows God didn't remove His Spirit when people were being sometimes horrendous with their responses to His presence. Particularly with very young Christians lacking maturity, you probably will see some less than perfect outcomes to the Spirit moving and sensationalism and treating the Spirit like a gimmick.
• That the people I'm seeing involved are often people I think are very sound and godly people. I trust that they're not just buying into some empty psychology or demonic power.
• That we on the whole need to get to a place where God's presence is more manifest, and thus overwhleming, in our lives if we are to live in the biblical expectation. I'd rather make mistakes along the way than stand still.

What this camp did as well was to make clear to me not to limit what God will do because of location, resources, size, etc. He is no respecter of such things and does all He pleases. It was a great week, and I'm sure many young people will look back on it for years to come as a moment God changed their lives.