After his first summer as National Director, Dave Newton reflects on some of his highlights from visits to many of our holidays and missions…
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Scroll to the end of the page for a gallery of fantastic snapshots from the summer
So hungry for God’s Word
At one holiday, a teenage girl came racing across the field waving her yellow Bible, wanting to ask me a question about Isaiah.
I answered her question as best I could. Then I asked her, ‘How come you’re reading Isaiah?’ She said ‘Well I’ve read the New Testament, so I thought I’d better read the Old Testament, and this is where I’m up to.’
So then I asked, ‘How long have you been a Christian?’ From the state of her Bible, which was clearly well used with lots of scribbles in the margins, I presumed she had been following Jesus for some time.
She told me she had come to faith three months previously, and had been given the Bible at her baptism six weeks ago! What a huge encouragement it was, to meet a young person new to faith who was so hungry for God’s word!
Putting wind into the sails of faith
Mallards is a Scripture Union sailing holiday for 11- to 14-year-olds. Each of the ten white-sailed wooden boats had an adult skipper and mate who were just as passionate about Jesus as they were about sailing, and a crew of three young people.
I joined a small group of them and for five hours we sailed up and down the waterways through stretches of reed-fringed meadows and woodland. I thought it would be an adventure to go sailing, but more fantastic still was having conversations about life and faith that flowed as easily as the water under the hull. The young crew were discussing various Bible stories and the implications they had for their own lives.
Before they disembarked, the crew of each boat would write their own log for the day – stories of sailing woven with spiritual reflections. What had they learned? What had they found? What had they understood? Then they went back to the campsite where they were staying and shared those thoughts with the rest of the group in the evening.
Sailing together really fosters a unique sense of community and camaraderie, and being on a boat offers the time, space and a perfect opportunity for youth mission and ministry.
Leading and learning
The scenic Peak District near the start of the Pennine Way is the base for Scripture Union’s Edale camp. It’s run by Rob Steward from the North Regional Team. I joined for one of the four days and was thankful for the mild weather as I got thoroughly soaked in a water fight!
But what was really special was seeing children aged 8-11 and teenagers engaging with Jesus in the same space. The teenagers were there as junior leaders and helping to run the camp. Our Mission Enabler Geoff Brown also ran a special programme for them to develop their leadership skills and faith. They had a great sense of servant leadership and had such a strong desire to learn more about Jesus! At the end of the week, one teenage leader said how much he had appreciated being able to talk openly about faith and to learn from others who are further along on that journey.
A sacrifice of love
Having spent most of July and August on the road visiting a variety of Scripture Union holidays, camps and missions, I was really struck by the incredible commitment of volunteers. Over 60 Scripture Union camps, holidays and events take place across the country, every single one of them run by volunteers who give up their own time and recruit their own teams. This year, more than 1600 volunteers served in this capacity. Many of them have full time jobs, some are students, all of them willing to sacrifice their own time and energy and use their skills to pass on faith to the next generation. One young man I bumped into had specifically trained to be a pool lifeguard so that he could serve at a particular location for the whole summer, covering four SU camps back-to-back. And he didn’t just serve as a lifeguard, but as a young leader too. That is incredible dedication, and it speaks volumes about the passion that our volunteers have for sharing Jesus with the next generation and the lengths to which they will go!