Sept 2011ISSN 1176-5143

Your ScrIpture uNIoN MagazINe

tHe aDVeNture

our VISIoN:Seeing children and young people tranSformed by jeSuS

“Break Open Your Words, Let The Light Shine Out” Psalm 119:130 The Message

INSIDe:our values: relational

pray Day 2011

camp stories

eDItorIal SepteMber 2011

2 Scripture union 3www.scriptureunion.org.nz 3

MeaNINgful relationships are essential to the way Scripture union does things. It’s one of the reasons why we haven’t gone for attracting huge numbers to camps and clubs. the importance of being relatIoNal is always stressed and valued in our leadership training.

the seed for this is simply that god loves people and we think we should too. examples of superficial relationships abound, and part of being countercultural is investing in deeper relationships as the starting place for sharing faith. We want faith to be discovered in the context of caring relationships.

by being concerned about the pastoral care and development of our staff and volunteers, who are part of the Scripture union family worldwide, we have set the bar high. every person is made in the image of god. our activities seek to address the spiritual, physical, emotional, and social elements of being human, without prejudice to race or age.

i want to share with you two stories of people who were an important part of the Scripture union family. it is with sadness that we farewell two long-time canterbury supporters this issue. both were regular attendees at our canterbury prayer group. We have been so blessed by their prayers and support for our ministry over many years.

We’ve included their stories to honour them and to illustrate what a lasting legacy the value of being relational can create.

Wayne Fraser National Director

a lIfe of Self-leSS SerVIcepeter Joseph thompson, 2 March 1939 – 20 June 2011peter is described as a ‘fine christian gentleman.’ one of his many interests was overseas travel, and he passed away soon after returning from a trip to turkey. after taking early retirement from the bnZ, he continued to quietly volunteer for a large number of community groups including presbyterian Support, boys brigade, rangiora tramping club, rugby and tennis teams and his local parish. he leaves behind rewi and judith, his brother and sister-in-law, and their children and grandchildren.

he left a generous bequest to Scripture union, which will be prayerfully used to support new ministry to children and young people. a significant portion will invested to provide ongoing support for our ministries far into the future. What a legacy he has left the young people of new Zealand; that they may have the opportunity to discover and follow jesus, and hopefully grow up with the same values that peter obviously held dear.

beloVeD teacHerbryan temple Smith, 1 aug 1920 - 15 July 2011bryan had a lifetime of involvement with Scripture union. chris currie provided these reflections:

“Well before my time, he was very involved with camps and this was mentioned at his memorial service. i first met him on the council, where his perspectives as principal of melville high School and later as a retired principal were greatly appreciated.

my most vivid memory of him in action was at an Su council meeting when a name change of crusaders to inter-School christian fellowship (iScf) was being discussed. as i remember it, there was a significant reluctance on the part of some to make the change. after a while, bt, as he was known, stood up and in his quietly eloquent way, gave us a 10 minute history of the behaviour of the original crusaders, demolishing step by step any romantic notions. any opposition to the change of name vanished. the motion that it be iScf was carried, unanimously.”

bryan is survived by his wife, jean, five children, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. he will be greatly missed.

on pray day, 20 people from north rodney met at Warkworth

presbyterian. We started with morning tea and devotions, where

our speaker shared:”remember that your presence extends god’s

grace to the people in that classroom.” then, five people shared

about the chaplaincy, bible-in-Schools and Supakidz programmes

in their schools. We had previously contacted most of the schools,

updating our information, telling the principals about pray day and

asking if they had any prayer requests. the information from schools

was put on cards which were shared among five prayer stations.

We covered all 14 schools in our area including their christian

programmes. We ended up with

a fun quiz and a reminder to use

the “pray for Schools” cards. We

are looking forward to pray day

2012. Ann Cates, Warkworth

We had 12 people cram into our small office for their packed

school lunch and a time of prayer. We prayed generally for our

Southland schools and then quite specifically for the bible in

Schools classes that some of our lunch guests teach. there was a

real sense of the need for the local churches to stay connected

with their communities by being involved in schools. We

praised god for the openness of so many schools to christian

programmes and the trust that has been built over time. We

pray that god will continue to shine his light into schools, the

hub of our community. thank you to those who joined us and

encouraged us greatly with their fellowship in prayer.

Nigel Winder, Southern Regional Director

40 people gathered from churches all over upper hutt to pray together on friday evening. 5 churches joined together to organise the evening. almost every upper hutt school was visited to ask for specific prayers. these prayers were displayed on 25 prayer stations. the openness of the schools was overwhelming with many principals giving extensive prayer requests. this was humbling because we realised that we limit god with our expectations of the role that schools want churches to play. attendees were overwhelmed by the unity as christians gathered to pray and share their real desire to reach out to the community and to raise up children in their schools to reach their peers. We would like to revisit the schools to see if prayers have been answered and to give ongoing prayer support.

Raewyn Rowney, Wellington Children and

Families Worker

We set up the foyer at St barnabas church with interactive

prayer stations including a thanksgiving graffiti Wall, a

Salvation tree (where people wrote names of those they

were praying to be saved and pegged it to the tree), and a

table with local newspaper articles of troubled youth

We had the foyer open from 1-4pm for supporters and

anyone else to come in and pray. We had a great response

with many coming in during that time.

from 4-5pm, we had many of our student leaders from local

high schools come in, go through the prayer stations and

then join us for corporate worship and prayer.

Rebekah Smith, Nelson Youth Ministry Worker

praY DaY 2011 was an amazing time with people praying for their local schools right across the country. they prayed in groups and as individuals, they prayed in churches and community settings.

4 Scripture union 5www.scriptureunion.org.nz

ruapehu adventure campWalking away from crusader lodge after this, my most enjoyable week of the entire year, i’m still lost for words on the impact it has had on so many campers’ lives.

time works differently in camp; relationships with god and with one another grow much faster, and now as i look back on camp as a whole, i am blown away by how much ground we achieved in a week.

Small study groups paved the way for some challenging, but insightful and inspirational discussion, whilst reminding us that “for where two or three are gathered in my name, there am i among them” (matthew 18:20).

We used the sport of skiing/snowboarding as a bridge between the sometimes insular world of christianity and the often unwelcoming world of reality, to not only equip our young generation for the strength and empowerment to serve god in society, but to serve as a constant reminder of god’s presence; that we can always be reminded of his awesomeness, his love, and his support.

Gareth Haddon Ruapheu Adventure

Team Leader

WINTER YOUTH CAMPS Karapiro adventure Winteri like to define an adventure as being committing to something risky with the aim of achieving something beneficial.

in the context of the Karapiro adventure camp, while we do undertake adventurous activities such as kayaking or abseiling, the two activities where i see the biggest adventure happening is not in these traditional areas.

the first is the studies. the risk is opening up a perceived “big, boring, old” book with a group of teenagers. the benefit though was seen as a number responded by getting excited about this book and wanting to read it more. and for one, coming to know the author.

the other area was the visit to a local rest home. from “scary” old people to having to drag the campers away from new found elderly friends. all in 1 hour!

both activities seemingly not that adventurous or appealing initially, but as we carefully guided the campers into them, huge benefits are achieved.

Stuart briscoe (american pastor) sums up for me what adventure is really about: “We are guiding people into a discovering and a doing of the divine will.” that’s adventure!

Peter Bichan Karapiro Adventure Winter Team Leader

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Angel Tree SUPAkidz CAmP

Angel Tree SUPAkidz CAmPcaMper aND leaDer alike agreed the camp was fantastic. as a new initiative in partnership with prison fellowship, none of us knew what to expect. it was amazing how god used networks and relationships that had built up over years as well as brand new ones to bring us all together.

as we worked through our Secret agent theme, great fun was had by all. We experienced codes, adventured into the snow on a superb bush walk with a gigantic snowball fight, cooked, played awesome night games, watched an inspiring movie, ventured to the river and painted rock designs and were entertained by puzzle the clown. as secret agents, we investigated the authenticity of jesus.thank you to the joe aspell trust for supporting this camp.

it is fantastic that half of the campers have Supakidz clubs in their areas that they can attend. those campers already exploring faith through local churches or clubs have returned from camp much more assured that there is a god that loves them in their situation. they are keen to bring their friends to hear this and to experience camps in the future.

our challenge will be how we can help bring this about as many of these families are financially stretched. a huge thank you to all who helped make this camp happen!

Andrew Ramsbottom, Raewyn Rowney & Janet Walburn Camp Leaders

Check it out and register online at: www.scriptureunion.org.nz

regISter SooN, fIllINg faSt

Spring camps (Oct holidays)THE ‘GRUBBY ANGELS’ SOUTHERN ROADIE 8 – 15 October 2011Road trip to help Christchurch

Bus from Inver’s & Dunedin to ChchYr 11-13 Co-ed

$250 (incl bus trip)

KARAPIRO ADVENTURE SPRING 9 – 14 October 2011Kayak, Rockclimb, Camp out

ADVENTURE LODGE, Lake KarapiroYear 8-10 Co-ed

$200

SNOW BLAST9 - 15 October 2011Ski, Board, Rockclimb, Explore

CRUSADER LODGE, Mt RuapehuYear 9-11 Co-ed

$265 + Activity costs*

PONUI XTREME 10 - 15 October 2011Sports, Explore, Cook-outs

PONUI ISLAND, Hauraki GulfYear 10-13 Co-ed

$185

SUPAkidz Camp: TEAM UP 10 - 13 October 2011

EDENVIEW CAMPSITE Edendale, SouthlandYear 4-6 co-ed

$145

SUPAkidz Camp: TEAM UP 17 - 21 October 2011

CAMP MORLEY, South AucklandYear 4-6 co-ed

$175

*Activity Costs - skiing typically costs $60/day, snowboarding $70/day.

SUPAkidz camps are for primary aged kids (Year 4 – 6)!

They are well run with trained leaders and great programmes.

They include games, art and craft activities, swimming and heaps of fun.

Come on a Scripture Union Winter Youth Camp and you’ll never want to forget it.

Make lasting friendships. Do awesome activities:

Snowboard, Ski, Camp, Tramp, Explore, Rock Climb, Kayak.

Have the chance to learn about God and how he can be part of your life.

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“uncle” John Stottjohn Stott influenced countless people around the world in their discipleship of jesus. his recent death has been recognized in dozens of nations and marks the end of an era in leadership across the evangelical community. if you haven’t already, you may like to read an overview of his life and influences by going to www.johnstottmemorial.org

in this account, you will read of how a Scripture union schools worker led john Stott to christ and how john went on to lead many Scripture union camps.

canterbury Winter escape from the 2-4 of September, ben necklen, our new South island camps facilitator, will be leading a team to take a group of year 9-11 youth on a ‘canterbury Winter escape’. this camp is aimed at young people living in areas of christchurch affected by the canterbury quakes. the camp will include skiing/snowboarding, rock climbing and plenty of fun! a big thanks to supporters who have helped make this camp affordable for the campers!

changes at Wellington office • Long-servingResourcesforLifeCoordinator,Carmen

van Wyk, left recently for the sunny sands of cairns. our receptionist, lee-ann nero, is stepping in to fill her place, so you can rest assured friendly chats on how our resources can help your ministry will continue as per usual.

• AccountsAssistant,MarilouDelRosario,ismovingtoauckland this month after three years of dedicated service.

• OurNationalFundraisingManager,AliceHarper,isnowonmaternity leave with her baby due this month.

Development fundthis fund gives supporters the opportunity to make at call or term investments with Scripture union. these funds are overseen by the Scripture union board and are reinvested with registered banks or other high quality institutions.

the difference between the interest earned by the development fund and the interest paid to you helps Scripture union to fund its ministries.

Hire our lodge on Mt ruapehuScripture union’s crusader lodge located in the Whakapapa Village is available for hire. this is an ideal location for church and youth group camps/retreats or as a base for skiing.

please see our website www.scriptureunion.org.nz for details on any

of these news items

NeWS

building bridges with It’S Your MoVe!

“We Do talK IN claSS about the transition to school, but what you do captures their imagination and grabs them by learning through fun and interaction. can we book you in again for next year?”

YR8 School Teacher It’s Your Move! books and programme are there to reassure children making the big move to secondary school, reminding them that god is always with them. it’s your move! serves as a tool to help churches build links with their local schools. relationships can start with a church (or group of churches) buying and giving out the books at their local full primary/intermediate schools, opening doors to further connections and growing friendship. in addition to sponsoring the books, churches can

also (with the help, training and support of Scripture union), lead it’s your move! assemblies, lessons, or presentations in the last term for students moving to secondary school next year.

individual books are $2.99 or you can buy a pack of 10 for only $20. find out more about how you can order the book or learn how you can use the programme in your local school.

you can make a secure online donation at

www.scriptureunion.org.nz or freephone 0508 423 836.

or respond on the enclosed form.

online: www.scriptureunion.org.nzemail: schoolsministry@scriptureunion.org.nz phone: 0508 MYSCHOOL (0508 697 246)

10 Scripture union 11www.scriptureunion.org.nz

Guest Writer: Wayne fraser national director

lIgHt for tHe patH

i’ve been rereading a small book by tim Keller1 who suggests that the prodigal son story is actually about two sons, who are both lost. the elder son who stubbornly refuses to join the festivity caught my attention.

after slaving on the farm, never far from home for years, he feels his father owes him something. i hear him saying; “all this work, all of my plodding obedience, what has it been for?” it is really as shocking as the younger son’s pigsty scene.

the elder son has somehow set himself up as his own saviour and lord. he can run the farm, who needs dad? “i’ve worked hard enough; you owe me a fattened calf!”

remember jesus’ audience, pharisees and teachers. he is talking to them, and he is talking to me, and maybe you. how easy it is for people who have been on the christian journey for a while to cultivate an elder son syndrome. to become so good at being christian, that we practically have no need of god. this was the challenge for me. not only am i literally an elder brother, but i can sometimes slip into the skin of a lost older son.

this parable is also about the grace and mercy and unlimited forgiveness of a loving father. reread this story and rediscover what that means for us today as we live in relationship with our god and one another.1. the prodigal god; recovering the heart of the

christian faith. tim Keller, hodder & Stoughton, 2009

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