Camp 2009 – A New Venue (and new forms)

The whispers you’ve heard are true – Camp 2009 has moved to a new venue.

Unfortunately, despite the early planning and hard work of the Camp Working Group, the people in New Milton messed up.  We booked the site, and then when we didn’t receive a confirmation from them we contacted them again to double-check that everything was ok.  But they had double-booked the site.  So instead of heading to New Milton in July we’ll be heading to…Folkestone, Kent.

The Camp Form has been updated and can now be downloaded from the Latest News page (same is true of the Staff Invitation letter).  If you’ve already handed in a completed “New Milton” form, don’t worry, you don’t need to complete another.  Please note that forms and deposits must be handed in by 29th March.

Some random facts and memories from when we were last there in 2006:

• the Camp theme was The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
  
• a group of campers/Asst. Staff sang Hallelujah at the concert (since “made famous” by Alexandra Burke)
• [watch the Hallelujah video here]
• the Camp uniform was purple and at Church we were described as Ribena people
• we had a wintery themed banquet
• it was attended by Father Christmas and he was voted Best Camper!
• we went boating on the military canal
• one of the cooks actually lost it, big time
• the Chaplaincy team introduced formal Bible Study sessions
• we had a Hawaiian Beach Party
• the Marquee was posh with windows and an east wing
• Maddy spent the whole of Camp hiding in the grass – and no-one realised she was there
• Matt D was outwitted by a football [1 : 2 : 3]

Share your memories of Camp 2006 in Folkestone below.  What was the best thing about Camp @ Folkestone?

Slowing Down; Reaching for God

When you find the time to pray do you find that your brain starts working overtime and flooding your mind with all the things you’ve got to do and all the people you need to contact, etc.?  This month at The Hub we were exploring why that happens, and trying a new practice for helping to calm the brain down, or more correctly, give it something else to do, so we could simply rest in the Lord’s presence.

We started by looking at what exactly is happening in the brain which causes it to spring to life when we sit down to pray.  There was only time for a quick summary at The Hub, but if you’re interested in more details take a look at this New Scientist article entitled “The Secret Life of the Brain” – here are a couple of quick quotes:

People have long envisaged the brain as being like a computer on standby, lying dormant until called upon to do a task, such as solving a Sudoku, reading a newspaper, or looking for a face in a crowd. Sokoloff’s experiment provided the first glimpse of a different truth: that the brain enjoys a rich private life.

The brain areas in the network were known and previously studied by researchers. What they hadn’t known before was that they chattered non-stop to one another when the person was unoccupied but quietened down as soon as a task requiring focused attention came along.  All of this poses the question – what exactly is the brain up to when we are not doing anything?

Introducing our discussions of the brain I showed some pictures of brains and related stuff, and made mention of a guy who photographically documented the surgery he underwent to remove a brain tumour.  I exercised a bit of editorial authority and decided not to show the gruesome photos, but the majority of people seemed genuinely disappointed.  You’re all responsible young people, so I’ll put the link here and you can make you’re own choice.  Beware: they’re very graphic – only click if you’re not sensitive about such things – you have been warned!

At the end of the devotional time we had the opportunity to practice a technique known as Centring Prayer, which has been practiced by Christians for hundreds of years.  Below are the slides which will act as a reminder about how to practice this for yourself:

Please leave a comment below to let me know how you got on with it and whether you’ve tried it again, and what you think of the current series of devotions.

The Hub – 18th January

Happy New Year!  I trust you enjoyed your Christmas and New Year break and that you’re raring to go in 2009… now less than 200 days to go to Camp!

We continue our devotional series entitled “Stop” at this month’s Hub with “Stop and Reconnect”; the activities will be focussed on Camp – including some favourite Camp activities, Camp themed refreshments, and the premiere of the Camp video Part Two.  If you know someone who would like to come to Camp 2009 please encourage them to come along and find out what we get up to in the Summer – it would be great to have them join us.

Please note that the latest details of Camp 2009 have now been updated – with one significant change (see if you can spot it) which will be explained at The Hub.  Anyway, here are the details of the next Hub:

Date: Sunday, 18th January
Time: 7:00pm until 9:30pm
Where: Water Eaton Church Centre, Bletchley [MK2 3RR]

{ click to enlarge }

Note that you can click on the Hub logo in the left column for all the Hub dates and venues for the year.

If you have any questions please get in touch any time.