During our week in August at Trinity Summer Camp we had around 30 leaders and young leaders come out to serve the Lord and teach the kids more about Him. Here’s a little rundown of what the week looked like:

Every morning, we started the day off at 11am with team devotions led by Colin. Each day we had a different focus, but they all centred around the theme of ‘daily  discipleship’:
 On Monday we looked at ‘The decision to become a disciple’, looking at the call of Simon Peter and Andrew
 Tuesday’s devotional had the title ‘the daily cost of discipleship’ and looked at Mark 8 where Jesus clearly tells the people about the significant cost of following  him. Salvation cost Him His life; therefore we should be willing to give up everything to follow him.
 Then on Wednesday the focus was ‘the devotion of a disciple’ in Acts 2. Here, we learned that the devotion to being a disciple isn’t just about prayer and  worship, but also about the importance of fellowship.
 On Thursday we concentrated on ‘the discipline of a disciple’ and we went to John 15. The focus here was how we must *remain* in our faith as growth and development will only happen through this.
 Lastly, Friday’s devotional was titled ‘the distinctiveness of a disciple’. We turned to John 17 for this, which tells us how Jesus prayed for his disciples, that  although we are in the world, we would not be of the world.

I would just like to say a special thank you on behalf of the team to Colin for preparing all of this as it was amazing to go into the day starting with devotions.

After we finished the talk, we then had roughly ten minutes to go and have a personal time of reflection on the devotions and pray by ourselves. We also used the  practice ‘Lectio Divina’ one day, which is an ancient method to help meditate on God’s word, using Psalm 46. Then we would come back together and pray in small  groups. We then had our team lunch at 12pm which was a great time to get to know each other more as well as share any thoughts that we had about the devotions or the impact they have had.

Then we headed up to the Killaney Hall to get set up and ready for the kids. We would also have our prayer huddle together which was so important to have as it can be easy to get caught up in the busyness of the day and forget to pray. When all the children arrived, they would either head to the hall and do games and craft or stay on the pitch and play football.

At 2:30 we all met back in the hall for some juice and biscuits as well as songs, our memory verse, our colour for the day followed by small groups.

So, our focus with the kids this year was the wordless book which has five colours in it, representing different elements of the gospel story.
 On Monday we had yellow which represented Heaven;
 Tuesday was black, symbolising sin;
 Wednesday was red to represent Jesus’ blood;
 Thursday’s colour was white symbolising forgiveness, and
 Friday was green to symbolise growth as a new creation.

I think it’s safe to say the leaders’ energy (especially Andrew) for the songs and actions was slightly higher than the kids, but we’ll not focus on that too much! Anyway, it was amazing to see the kids really engage and do the actions, as well as picking up the new songs quickly. Our memory verse this year was found in John 3:16,’For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life’. Throughout the week we had a boys vs girls challenge of who could say it louder, but it turns out we should probably have said louder and clearer, as some of the boys just screamed instead of saying it. Either way, the girls still came out on top when it came to Friday! It was encouraging to see that by the end of the week, many of the kids could say the verse from memory. Then we headed into small groups which was a perfect opportunity to share the meaning behind the colours in more depth to the kids but also get to know them and build relationships. It was such a blessing to see how willing they were to communicate and their level of focus during
these. Then they would head back to their activity until 4pm, which was home time… for the kids.

So yeah, this week we’ve seen so many answered prayers between having about 50 kids coming every day, to the weather being great for the rest of the week after Monday and the kids being able to go outside for 4/5 full days, to the good health we’ve had which allowed us to serve, to safety, the kids attention and so, so much more. TSC is always a great opportunity for all the younger leaders to share but also learn from other team members. One of the opportunities I had to share with the kids was doing the memory verse, which I enjoyed doing. To finish, thank you to everyone who has prayed, provided and prepared food, brought their kids or given support in anyway this week as it is greatly appreciated. As always it was so encouraging for all of us to see how TSC is a full church effort and just what an amazing family we have here.
And of course, a massive thank you to Vicky for everything she does for Trinity Summer Camp, between planning and leading, as none of this could’ve happened without her. Thank you.