Youth Camp 2024: Relationships
Our youth camp was held in December 2024. For four days, they gathered to learn about what the Bible says about relationships and how to apply it in life. Caroline Cheah, one of the youth leaders, shares with us what they did, as well as ways that they apply Scripture.
What comes to mind when you hear the word “relationships”? Perhaps you think about family gatherings around hotpot, cracking inside jokes with your pals, holding hands with your loved one or if you’re me, complicated Venn diagrams with many intersecting circles come to mind. Relationships are something we all have, you may find yourself thriving in some, while tearfully struggling with others. But have you ever considered what the Bible says about our vertical relationship with God and horizontal relationships with the people around us?
As a team, we recognised that many of our youths, and even ourselves, grapple with navigating relationships. Hence we decided to theme this year’s camp around it. The hope we have is for our youth (and ourselves, along with all who popped by!) to hear from God’s Word what He intended our relationships on this side of heaven to be, and grow in understanding, appreciation and trust in God’s sovereign hand over our relationships.
Learning what God says about relationships
Camp started off with icebreakers, which are always a fantastic way to get people to bond over friendly competitiveness. A bunch of young adults came together to plan and execute the games, which all camp attendees (including some of the church staff who made their way down) massively enjoyed.
Following that was the first teaching session, out of four, titled “Relationship with God and the Church”, taught by Joshua Lowe. He brought us through passages in Genesis and 2 Corinthians where we were led to consider the kind relationships that God created us to have, how the fall ruined them and how Christ redeems them. We saw in Genesis 1 how God made us in His image and that we were made for relationships. However with the Fall, comes ruin. We rebel against God, foolishly ignore His word and doubt His goodness ― destroying our relationship with Him. In the actions of Adam and Eve, we see how they deflect, blame and accuse (the very same things that we do today) ― damaging our relationships with one another.
Yet, in God’s love and grace, He sent His beloved Son, Jesus to take on the consequence of sin on our behalf, grant us salvation and break down the wall of hostility we had with God and one another. Does that mean that things are all fine and dandy now? Unfortunately no, in this still sinful world, relationships are still broken. But Christ has modelled for us what reconciliation is like and we can look forward to when He returns and restores all things, including our broken relationships here on Earth.
With the gospel foundation about relationships set, the other teaching sessions focused on our relationship with authority, peers and how to relate to the opposite gender. In the teaching on authority, taught by Bryan Tan, human authority is defined as the moral right to make decisions within given boundaries. Whereas Jesus’ authority is costly, meant for service and different from the world. We learnt that we are to submit to human institutions (parents, bosses, governments etc), as we submit to Christ. As God’s image-bearers, we are also to steward God-given authority wisely, in the fear of God. Through a series of scenarios, which were acted out by the campers, we saw how human authority can be misused and misunderstood, but authority guided by God’s word can be wielded for good.
The last two sessions on relating to peers and friends of the opposite gender challenged us to consider how we’ve been loving the people around us. Do we treat them with compassion, kindness and respect? What about brotherly (or sisterly) love? The second to last session on relating to our peers was taught by Ryan Ang. He shared about how the gospel should shape our actions in loving one another and how it should motivate believers to bring the good news to all. To end off the main teaching sessions, Gideon Ooi brought us through several passages while highlighting the roles and godly characteristics of men and women. It was not for us to view them as checklists we have to tick off, but traits we should aspire to embody, with God’s help, as we seek to grow in maturity.
Other sessions included 2 workshops led by our own team members, which the campers could decide between. One focused on our relationship with hobbies, while the other took a look at the church’s relationship with singing.
Seeing God’s word applied and lived out
Despite a jam-packed 4 days, the leaders and helpers would come together each night to review the day. The repeated refrain that resounded through our debriefs were about how thankful we were to be able to build relationships with our youth, especially the P6s who will be part of the Youth ministry in 2025. What brought us greater joy was seeing the friendships within our youth group grow, which we pray will be built upon the gospel and will blossom into loving relationships that display Christ. These budding friendships are something we cannot manufacture, but can foster through activities like gathering around God’s word or playing hard through games. As church members committed to loving one another, it is a blessed privilege to walk alongside our beloved youth through life’s peaks and valleys.
One of the things the youth team felt vastly encouraged by, is seeing how the wider church displayed Christ’s love to us by supporting and loving the youth. This was seen through the church staff coming down to play with us and sit in multiple sessions, care groups providing very yummy meals, young adults planning and executing games, speakers faithfully bringing God’s Word to us and helpers giving up their time to connect with our youths. Without all the love and help rendered, this camp would not have been possible.
Through Youth Camp 2024, we were led to see that having a right relationship with God enables us to live out the gospel in all our other relationships. Although life on this side of heaven is marred with pain from broken relationships, we can look to Christ who has modelled for us what Godly relationships are like, has reconciled us to God and promises to make all things new.