Invading the Wye
It’s nearly time for Invading the Wye 2010! The highlight of the Saint Revolution year, youth camp is five days at Hillfield farm in Hereford. I personally first attended in 2006, and this year will be my fifth youth camp. Each year has been different; each year has had a different ‘flavour’. Each year I’ve been I’ve learned something new about God or discovered a new aspect of Him I hadn’t known before.
And each year I’ve made new friends, either through sharing a tent with them or being in their group, or discovering we share a dislike of bugs. (Not that there are ever that many on youth camp, I’m just a wimp, really)
I’ve always come away from youth camp different than when I went, (at the very least, I have a nice tan and I’ve learned a few interesting chants) and not once have I regretted going. It’s brilliant to be able to get away from everything, even if it’s only for a few days, and the site of the camp lends itself very well to peace. Sited as it is on the Wye river, it’s a fantastic spot. It gives you space to think about things, away from the ‘noise’ of everyday life. I don’t mean the physical noise; there’s a fair share of that on youth camp; there’d have to be, with around one hundred young people in one place, not to mention the occasional fly over by BIG planes from the RAF base.
What I’m referring to is the thing that keeps a lot of us from real peace. Whatever it may be; work, school, or just the noise in your own head. Those things lose their power when you’re perched on a grassy hill watching the river. It’s a chance to slow down, and think things through, reconsider some of your choices or actually make some. I know quite a few people who have had the direction of their lives completely changed because of what God told them on youth camp. I’ve had a few of those moments. The underlying idea for youth camp has always been getting to know God. Sometimes that’s hard to do in the noise. I wish I could take more time to get away from things, because it’s in those times I usually hear Him the most.
Sometimes it’s a HUGE realisation, leading to tears and prayers, other times it’s a quiet discovery, and just taking the time to absorb what it means for you. But there’s always something. It might not be a life changing, earth shattering revelation, but it doesn’t need to be. God always gets His message across.
The best part for me is that it doesn’t end when the last car pulls out of the field either. The revelations can be built upon, and changes made for the rest of the year, so that by the time you come back to that field, you’re ready for more. Except now you don’t need to go to the field to hear God, you’ve got the tools to get Him anywhere, but you want to go, because it’s a great week. That’s how it was for me, anyway.
One of my favourite parts of youth camp, apart from meeting new people and experiencing things I’ll always remember, is seeing the changes in other people, that moment of realisation; ‘it doesn’t have to be that way,’ ‘He really does love me,’ ‘So that’s what He wants me to do!.’ Things like that I love seeing.
Being in a team is interesting. There’s usually a few people I don’t know, so by the end of the week I have a new friend or two. And the activities are always good fun. We still talk about some of them….
And then there’s everything else. At first I wasn’t so sure about spending a week in a field with a hundred other people, but five minutes into it, I was hooked. Sure, it can be loud, sure, it’s camping, but I love sharing a tent with six other people, and eating with everyone. One of my favourite parts of the time after a youth camp is seeing the people you camped with; all the in jokes, looking back over the past week, it’s great. And it’s stuff you remember. That, and looking over all the photos on Facebook. There’s something about youth camp that makes people just wear what they like. I know it’s the only time I genuinely need to wear my cowboy hat.
It’s difficult with something like youth camp to really put into words what it is that makes it so great. All I can really say is, ‘come and see.’ You won’t regret it. Yes it’s camping, but we have toilets and showers, and you’ll meet some nice people, eat some great food, and, most importantly, you’ll get to leave the noise behind and meet up with God. Also, there’s a river.
