Every summer, YoYo joins the YCYH team (link to website) to help run their XPLoRE (11-16s) and XCiTE (7-11s) summer camps at Whithaugh Park in the Scottish Borders. Over 200 children and young people attend these camps to take part in fun and challenging outdoor activities, great sports, crafts, games, and engaging Bible exploration.

XPLoRE camp

Malc spent his week at camp as a lodge leader for the oldest group of boys at XPLoRE and coordinating the worship bands for evening meetings, so he had a varied, exciting and exhausting week!

The teaching at XPLoRE started with the foundations of Christianity, looking at questions like “Who was Jesus” and “Why did Jesus die?” Then we went onto explore different parts of Christian life and communication with God, including reading the Bible, prayer, church, the Holy Spirit and telling other people about our faith.

XCiTE camp

What an amazing time Jenny and Anna had on XCiTE camp at the start of the summer with 30 excitable children, and 12 even more excitable leaders! We had loads of fun playing games, singing, eating tasty food, getting very wet, or muddy, or floury, and learning about Jesus. This was the first year in which there were two XCiTE camps, and week two was just as much fun, if a little bit wetter!

The theme of both weeks was ‘Transformers’, and we discovered the ways in which different people had been transformed by their encounters with Jesus. We started out with Anna and Simeon, who were waiting with excitement for Jesus to come, and had their expectations transformed when he arrived. Then we met Zacchaeus, discovering that Jesus can transform anyone; the ten lepers, one of whom was given an attitude of gratitude; and the woman caught in adultery, whose life was transformed by Jesus’ forgiveness. Finally, we met Thomas, and saw how his doubt was transformed into faith when he saw Jesus had come back to life.

Now we just can’t wait for next year!

Taskforce

Fiona had a great time with the 16-19 year olds on Taskforce. The hard-working and dedicated young people who come to camp as Taskforcers spend their week cleaning lodges, washing dishes, making sandwiches and setting up equipment so that leaders and campers can spend more time together. In our time off, we also have our own teaching programme so during time off from chores we spent time together studying the book of James and, of course, discussing controversial questions from the Question Teapot! We’re very excited about the new year-round plans for Taskforce – it’s amazing to watch young people grow as adults and move on to be leaders!