An agricultural lesson!

The work Your way team was yet again very privileged this year to visit Australia and more specifically, Mountain Trails Adventure School (MT) just outside the capital city of Canberra.  It was great seeing some familiar faces at MT, but also to make new friends and build relationships with more of God’s beautiful people.  We spent just over two months at this spectacular facility where the Australian youth have the opportunity to experience the great outdoors through hiking in the hills, horse treks, caving (the great indoors?), dirt bikes, archery and most importantly, hear the Good News. 

Caving and Absailing

Roof of Africa 2012?


Horsing around

We as a team had some great fun here helping out with all kinds of activities.  Apart from volunteering on the camps, we also built a round yard for the horses, filled up the roads, fixed up the bikes and cut wood.  Every activity any warm-blooded male would love to get his hands dirty with.


Firewood, an essential ingrediant of MT life during the winter

The Round Yard

The main focus of the camp site however are the camps and it is then also no surprise that it is the main focus of my blog as well.  During the winter school holidays there were 3 back-to-back camps that we volunteered at.  The first was a senior camp (kids aging from 11 to 16), then a junior camp (8- 11) and we ended with another senior camp.


Caving!!

Gymkana

During the first camp it was the work Your way team’s job to coordinate the focus sessions.  These are the sessions where the children receive a message of some sort with a Christian foundation.  As Australia has sadly gone from a mainly Christian nation to one where atheists, agnostics and even Buddhists reside over the past 3 or 4 decades, it was no surprise to find that the youth has no time for God or Jesus… if they even knew who He was.  These focus sessions were thus perceived by the majority of the children as boring and a waste of time.  However, there would always be the odd few who were believers and really enjoyed these sessions.


Philip leading a Focus session

Bike camp

The Wednesday night session was special.  Just 10min before we had to share something, we had no message prepared.  It felt like Heaven was closed, no word came to us, so we just prayed and prayed.  One of our team members even had a demonic attack minutes before the session.  I had to deliver the message and was pretty nervous as I had to wing it, but the Holy Spirit came through and it was the most amazing interactive session with the youth as everyone joined in and asked questions or gave opinions.  The children were really moved.

The next night however, it was as dead as a doornail.  The kids were sleeping, talking, making a noise and it felt like we were talking to the furniture.

At the end of that camp, we didn’t have any commitments for Jesus, but could see some change in some of the kids.  It was slightly encouraging.

I wasn’t there for the junior camp, but apparently it was a nightmare.  Kids were just unruly and didn’t want to obey a word that was being said.  This resulted in some of the staff getting agitated with the kids and even amongst themselves.  Let’s just say the Devil had a field day. 
This left us very demoralized for the last senior camp and we expected the worst.  As per usual, we prepared as well as we could and left the rest up to prayer and ultimately, God.  Just before the camp I had this sense that there was going to be a harvest, that we had worked hard sowing seed without being able to see the results of our labour.  This camp was one of reaping!

And so it was.  On the second day of the camp, a girl came to one of the female staff and asked her to pray with her because she wanted to give her heart to Jesus.  This was amazing.  The next day 2 more committed and by the end of the camp, there were about 5 or 6.  I can honestly say that it happened without us having to go and dig for it.  It was harvesting time and we were the workers in the field at that moment.

We sowed on the 2 previous camps and someone else will reap.  During the last camp we reaped where someone else had sown.  It was a great experience just knowing that we were part of a greater body of believers and that God’s plan is perfect.

As the Word says in Matthew 9:37-38:  “Then He said to His disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.  Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest that He will send out labourers into His harvest.”  I thus want to encourage you to keep at it.  Spread the Good News even if it seems that your words fall on barren soil.  Keep on praying and keep on working for today you sow, but tomorrow you reap and there are few blessings as beautiful as seeing someone come to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

May the Holy Spirit guide you in your work for the Kingdom of God.