JourneyOnline
The new Uniting Church youth camp Easter Madness was a great success. Journey reports
Over 100 young people from across the Uniting Church in Queensland celebrated the Easter weekend together at the inaugural Easter Madness youth camp in March.
The Easter Madness Appeal also meant that 13 young people, including two leaders, from rural and remote Queensland were able to attend the camp held at Mapleton. These generous donations paid for registration and full travel subsidies for young people from Napranum in far north Queensland, the outback town of Chinchilla, Blackall in central western Queensland and Ingham in north Queensland.
Queensland Synod marketing and fundraising manager Raushen Perera was very encouraged by the response to the appeal.
“I would like to extend our deep appreciation to the donors for enabling such a fantastic opportunity for these young people,” she says.
“It is a clear indicator of the value placed on the spiritual development and leadership of youth in our community.”
Easter Madness key organiser Rev Beth Nicholls says the camp was a great success.
“We had an amazing weekend and want to thank everyone involved for their participation and for making Easter Madness such an awesome time for everyone,” she says.
“We spent time getting to know one another, encouraging each other, sharing our life stories with each other, and helping each other to grow in our faith.”
Beth says some of the weekend highlights were walking through the events of Easter together, interactive worship, experiencing indigenous cultural dances from some indigenous attendees, creative activities like building a solar oven from scratch and a bush dance.
“It’s hard to be the only young person at your church, so it’s good to mix with others and to meet others who are also the only young person at their city church.”
Beth says the young people were touched by the donations made by people and churches across the Synod to make Easter Madness happen.
“The youth of our church have people who are cheering them on in faith even though they may not know it.”
For Katelyn, a Chinchilla Uniting Church member, the journey from her hometown to Mapleton may have been long but it was definitely worth it.
“Many aspects of the camp have resided with me, and I can truly say I am a better person because of it. The camp overall was a catalyst for my journey with Christ and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have attended and also to the people who sponsored me,” says Katelyn.
“I honestly hope that everyone who contributed to both the camp and fundraising realise what a major impact this has had on my life. Thank you.”
