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Do you know anyone else who will pray for camps? This week:
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It's cold and dark outside and yet you're receiving a Camps Prayer letter. Isn't it the wrong time of the year? Well, work on EMW camps continues all year round and we need prayer now as much as in the Summer. In fact much of the fruit from the Summer comes from the sowing and watering that goes on from September. Venues, leadership teams, brochures, teams, training, booking, planning all form a major part of the final output. So please take a moment to read the comments below and pray about them. As a Camps Committee we have the real privilege of reading through the leaders reports at the end of the Summer and hearing about all that the Lord has been doing. We have so many encouragements and perhaps don't always share those. So I thought I would start by including the testimony of Lloyd Williams given at his recent baptism: I was born on the 23rd of March 1995 in Chorley, England, but I grew up in Southport. I was born into a Christian family which is a great blessing. My father was a pastor and so were my grandfathers so if I had any trouble I knew who to go to! Every Sunday I would go to church and to Sunday School, which gave me a great knowledge of the Bible. I was young and I believed in God and the Bible but I didn’t really understand who Jesus was and what it was to have eternal life. I was more interested in football; that was the number 1 thing in my life. I thought I was a Christian but I wasn’t. In April 2003 my older sister Megan died which was a huge shock. I thought I would never see her again. I was annoyed at God for what had happened. I hated it and started to go away from God. Then this year in the summer 2008 I went to an EMW camp in Wales, which I had previously been to the last few years. The chaplain, Martin Williams, was preaching on Jesus’ death and how much pain he went through. And then he said, “Don’t go out this room without becoming a Christian! You can die at any moment; don’t make it too late.” That really hit me. I was scared, because I knew that was true - how my sister Megan had died so suddenly could happen to me as well. And if I had died suddenly in the past 13 years I would have gone to hell. So I prayed to God, believing and thanking Jesus for dying on the cross for me. Jesus died because I was a sinner and he died to save me from my sins. I felt much better after because I knew it was genuine. I was a Christian. And I realised how it will be in heaven: no pain, no hatred, no death; it will be perfect. Now that I am a Christian I have changed and am still changing from my bad ways of living. It has probably got harder with all my non-Christian friends living a different life to mine. I try my best in everything I do, like it says in Colossians 3:17: “Do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God through him.” I try to set a good example around my friends and trying to share my faith with them. It is also hard at school when it is being taught that evolution and the big bang is a fact. That really tests my faith, but the Holy Spirit is always there to help me. Therefore I am no longer scared because I am a believer in Jesus Christ and one day will be in heaven with him. Like it says in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Please pray for Lloyd and many like him who have professed faith in recent years through the camps work. Pray that they will grow strong and mature in the faith and will in turn lead many others to Jesus. You may be wondering why the brochures are late again this year. You're not the only one! Plans began back in September so the brochures could be out before the end of the year. Sadly we have had real problems with venues this year because of the inconsistency between the school summer holiday dates set by different Local Authorities. Various of the venues we use have problems keeping their commitments to their regular users and we have had more disruption to our venues this year than for some time previously. As a result leadership teams have been disrupted and it has taken a lot of time, effort, sacrifice and patience to be able to put together the summer dates. We are finally there and the brochures should be out any day. In the meantime the information below lets you know when and where the camps are happening so you can be planning your holidays: Bryn-y-groes, Bala Dyffryn Ardudwy, Barmouth - OUTDOOR Llys Andreas, Tal-y-bont - OUTDOOR Dolgoch Falls - OUTDOOR Quinta, nr Oswestry Bryntirion, Bridgend Pentrenant Hall The coming months are crucial in getting everything together for camps, Please pray for: Leadership Teams as they get their teams of officers and cooks together. Camps Committee as they run the Training Day on Saturday 14th March at Malpas Road Evangelical Church, Newport. Office Staff, especially Rhian Middleton, as they process large amounts of paperwork necessary to make camps work. Mickey Webber as he handles all the booking forms. Young people, parents, grandparents and youth leaders as they try to persuade friends, children, grandchildren and those who attend youth groups to attend camp for the first time. Camps Work is always a team effort and we appreciate the various parts that people play. Could you: Pray for us? Encourage new young people to consider camp? Help on camp as an officer or cook? Help with the cleaning on two changeover Saturdays at Bryntirion? Contribute financially to keep camp prices down and enable us to offer discounts to those finding the credit cruch is biting hard? If so, please do get in touch, we'd love to hear from you. Thanks so much for all your support. May the Lord bless His work and may all the glory go to Him Paul Gamston, Chairman, English Camps Committee |
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