I shouldn’t be amazed but I always am!!
Story #4 am!
But I always
A call many many months before we opened the new city venue lead to an amazing
opportunity to work hand in hand with Melbourne School Holiday Club, ( MSHC) to host 3 five
day camps of 65+ campers who were all’ high at risk’ children. ( plus leaders)
This social work is organised and lead from Burnie Tasmania, by an amazing lady called Karina.
The original contact was due to our central Melbourne location and security controls, but as I
worked thru the first week I quickly realised that a majority of their paid staff were dedicated
Christians, and as it turns out so is Karina and her main administrator staff. This discovery lead
to her opening requesting if CYC would be prepared to provide ‘Christian based input’ to their
young “clients’ during their time on camp. Obviously we agreed and their reaction was to book
the facility out for 70-80 campers plus leaders for every school holidays period for the
foreseeable future.
Lloyd, head of the CYC direct ministry team, Jane, CYC city manager, myself and Karina,
will meet together shortly to work thru the
ministry program that Lloyd’s team will
provide to their campers This leaves CYC
space to run their City day camp program
alongside, this other amazing ministry
opportunity. By the way all the kids we
had over summer from MSHC were great
kids!! Simply for high risk environments.
Easy to love responsive and just kids. I
shouldn’t be amazed but…. Glyn
SUMMER STATS (Individual guest’s numbers)
Youth
Adults (no caravaners or cabiners)
Total Guests impacted
Potpourri of
Campers
I sit in my office and look out through the window
to see areas of parched grass, whilst other areas
show long grass, the legacy of 5 weeks of
caravans and tents. It brings back the memories of
people sitting around in clusters sharing stories,
cuppas etc. How do you put a spiritual value on
the fellowship that takes place over these five
weeks? The ‘mature age’ tends to occupy the sites
towards the front of the property whilst some of
their children and grandchildren tend to be at the
rear of the property. It really is a beautiful mix of
people who always comment on the safety,
ambience & spirit that is felt, with the proof of the
3691
1072
4682
79%
21%
100%
pudding being that all have asked to return
next summer!
Primary, junior teens, LIT program, CMS
youth, Single Parent Active Kids,
Tempcare Families and Berry Street
Families followed the CYC family camp,
filling what was a blessed summer
One of the highlights for me was seeing over
a hundred youth taking part in communion on
our front oval and I never cease to be amazed
and grateful to our many volunteer leaders
who make all of our camping possible. The
visi on of our forefathers would be pleased at
the utilization and ministry that takes place on
this beautiful site. Paul Fry - CYC The Island
Story #5
One morning on Junior Teen, instead of a "normal"
studies time, we got everyone on camp to go and
get their bags from their rooms and meet on the
cricket pitch. We had a conversation about our
bags, which ones had been overseas, which ones
were old, which ones were new etc We then brought
all the bags back into the meeting room and said
that this is the baggage that we brought on camp.
But that this was the baggage we could see, and that there was a lot of other unseen
"baggage" that we all brought to camp that was stopping us connecting with God. A
simple illustration, but with a profound impact, with God really working through it in the
lives of many of the campers, as they literally handed their baggage over to God.
Lloyd McLean
Scrapping up a
good cause
During this 2013 Forest Edge
have been saving all our
scrap metal. Items like old hot
water units, frayed metal
cables, various old chairs etc
etc.
Glenn one of our staff
assisted the local church and
raised approx. $600.00
dollars. This money will now
assist 6000 meals for the
Burmese people through
G.L.O. Scrap For Food
program. This is part of
an orphanage in the capital of
Myanmar.
Gary Ablett Junior
shares his faith at
Forest Edge
During the Australia weekend
the Gateway Church (Camp
NO FEAR) attended our
facility for 4 days with 250
young people. Considering we
have 182 beds we all made it
work. The music production
was incredible along with
Gary Ablett Jnr sharing his
faith in the AFL world.
The next day we witnessed 56
young people give their lives
to the Lord. A truly amazing
experience
John Krause - Forest Edge