Category Archives: Religion & Culture

This Is Love: KYCK 2013

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Over 5000 youth, from over 400 churches, all 1 in Christ Jesus; celebrating love.

Why love? What love? Whose love? All was made clear from April 12 as thousands of young people made their way to the Blue Mountains be challenged, invigorated and humbled by God’s word. This was KYCK- a massive event run over 3 weekends where teenagers from all suburbs, cities and denominations come together for fun and fellowship in Christ’s love together; armed with enthusiasm, compassion and stacks of wooden pegs. Our theme for 2013: This Is Love. God’s love. Speaking from the book of 1 John this year were pastors Jeremy Dunne and Dave Miers, whose talks were challenging, captivating and thought-provoking as we considered what it actually meant to know and love the God whose power is unearthly and awesome. Acknowledging God’s love, recognising Jesus’ very real sacrifice (while slapping YOLO in the face), and acknowledging our identities in Christ was strongly reaffirmed to us through John’s letter, giving us ample opportunity to think hard about the way we live.

KYCK is an extremely full-on weekend, and not just for the speakers! Undertaking the massive responsibility of leading the music this year was Sydney pop/rock band Whitefield. These guys played with wonderful talent and created a great balance with the crowd in hyping them up or keeping the mood grounded and reflective. Their service and true humility was such a joy to share in, I’ve jumped on the supportive bandwagon by buying their CD (see the links below for details). And when we weren’t singing, we were thoroughly entertained by our MC’s, who involved us in games and got us moving with this year’s memory verse (1 John 4:10), done to Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble”.

With yummy food, pegging challenges, seminars, bookshop browsing, interactions with charitable organisations, car-park dance parties, and lots time to hang out with youth groups, the fellowship aspect of KYCK was electric as per usual. Once again, I was struck by how willing people were to serve each other and act on the love shown to us by Christ, something truly staggering in such large numbers, and a great reassurance to know that we’re far from alone in our faith.

I cannot name one highlight of the weekend alone, as there were several. Music-wise, there’s something about the atmosphere of singing with 2000 other voices that cannot be rivalled. Whether we were jumping around with guitars a-blasting or standing still with no accompaniment at all, it was incredible. Another unrivalled KYCK experience is what happened on the Saturday night; over 300 teenagers made the decision to be saved and turn their lives to Christ. How awesome; over 300 new brothers and sisters for the angels to celebrate in heaven!

So, as we headed down the mountain, we reflected on what we had learned, what we needed to do, and how to faithfully act on love. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

Links: http://www.kyck.kcc.org.au/
http://www.whitefieldmusic.com
KYCK Official Photo Album: http://www.kyck.kcc.org.au/g/highlights-2013

 

Leaders in Training 2013

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Picture this: 300 teenagers, five days, one conference. Now imagine all these teenagers hanging out together; singing and studying together, with no fights, no cliques, no bitchiness, no swearing, no awkwardness, no selfishness, and no judgement. Sound hard to believe? Like the kind of perfect world where teenagers actually weren’t such weird un-relatable creatures after all? Well, I kid you not; this meeting actually happened, and let me tell you, it happened brilliantly.

From January 23-27, I was one of the many Christian teens who had the opportunity to be at Youthworks’ annual Leaders in Training Camp at the Royal National Park. Youth and their leaders came from near and far, to be challenged and feast on God’s Word together from the book of John, with talks delivered by our two speakers Mick Hyam and Mike Raiter. Basically, the aim of LIT is to build up young Christians from Yrs 9-12, who have a passion to serve Jesus and others around them; main events were held together, with most other activities divided up into Stages (1, 2 & 3), according to age/year group/experience. Our theme for 2013 was “Believe”, based on John 20:31, which was our memory verse for this year. John says:
“But these things are written so that you many believe that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son, that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Over the course of LIT, our days and nights were full of several engaging activities. For the brave and fit and/or downright insane of us, the infamous “Fitness of Death” exercise regime was our early wake-up call that pushed the limits of our endurance and had us using muscles we thought we’d never use (there were many aching limbs afterwards). Every day was a new challenge of long-distance running, sprints, team games and strength circuits, completed with a swim in the river before heading to brekky at our various sites. Mornings also consisted of Time With God (TWG), which was a great chance for us to individually read and reflect on the Bible and spend some quality TWG in prayer (The Psalms this year were particularly encouraging). These were followed by our Connect groups, which were a great chance to make closer friends, and focus on certain aspects of Christian leadership for the whole week. Including workshops and intensives, topics ranged from leadership characteristics, giving testimony, writing bible studies & talks, skills to teach and serve with, and investigating different types of ministry, like one-to-one and outdoor camps. Led by the adult leaders, it was a great chance for us to learn and explore all the different ways we can spread the good news to others.

January 26 hosted Australia Day celebrations with one of LIT’s infamous Team Building Activities: a special “Advance Australia Fair- Fair”, kicking off with a rousing rendition of the National Anthem. With competitions including three-legged races, shoe-tossing, Aussie trivia, cricket, 200-person tug-of-war, and our gruelling aquathon, competitiveness between Stages reached a wonderful all-time high.

Whether in the pool, on the waterslide, playing sport on the oval, or just chilling in the shade with a deck of cards, free time has always been one of the best places for having fun and getting to know other Christians. Everyone who has done LIT will tell you how exciting it is to bond with so many like-minded youth, because the joy and ease of such a massive-scale fellowship is like nothing else one can describe. The conversations that result from these new friendships are simply fun, friendly, open and deeply honest. I’m reminded of The Fellowship of the Believers in Acts, where despite persecution, the early church were still joyful in their unity of Christ. In a simplified sort of way, we at LiT were kind of doing that too.

By night time, we were all together again for the Gathering in the Rec Hall. Complete with band, tech team, speakers, and fun MCs, the atmosphere inside was always electric. I was personally more excited for these Gatherings than ever; because instead of simply enjoying the talks, this time Stage 3 got to run the whole gathering, start to finish, in every area. Rising up to the challenge certainly made me appreciate how much effort goes into planning a session at church; it takes a lot of teamwork! One of my Gathering highlights was being given the opportunity to direct and perform in a short, powerful Christian drama with some Stage 3 friends, in front of everyone (which was very successful). Memory verse time was also a highlight, with Stage 3 leading everyone in their pumped up rendition of John 20:31 to Psy’s Gangnam Style. The speakers too, were very different, but equally as challenging as we got stuck into John’s gospel and thought about true worship, leadership, and being a committed Christian, with question time a testament to everyone’s serious thoughts on the talks.

As our final Gathering drew to a close, we realised that we would once again be saying goodbye to friends we wouldn’t see for months, or an entire year. Upon reflection with my Stage 3 friends, we were all amazed by the friendships we’d formed as the result of only spending a handful of weeks together. One friend added that what made these friendships extra special and long-lasting was that Christ was at the centre of it all, and we all certainly agree that that unity is something that will last us right into eternity. The five days to three years we’d all spent together at LIT was a truly blessed event, and we continue to praise God for the freedom we have to meet and learn and grow together in Him. LIT is truly a shaping and unforgettable experience, one that we’ll always treasure.

“In the beginning, there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” John 1:1-3

Go to http://www.youthworks.net/ for more info on what Anglican Youthworks is up to in 2013!