Deep roots of faith planted at Flourish Camp
What makes a garden flourish? Without proper inputs like water, good soil, and regular care, nothing grows well. This is especially the case for new plants.
So too our spiritual lives. We all need to find the right conditions for our particular season, and camps like Flourish — specifically designed for girls in years 7-12 — provide an excellent environment for growth at this vital age and stage.
With your support, young women are being strengthened for life-long journeys of faith at Flourish camp.
Kate, who has directed Flourish for the past three years, cannot emphasise enough how important it is that young women have spaces set aside like this, where they can step away from the pressures of life and school, and focus on building their relationship with the Lord and fellow believers.
“This generation has so much bombarding them,” explains Kate, citing issues of identity, shame and self-confidence as being huge for girls of this age.
For this reason, this year’s camp was specifically designed to go deeper, with a strong focus on discipleship.
“We took a risk and reframed some of the teaching set and the worship style this year . . . It was more discipleship focused, but we had really involved discussion times, really good practical teaching and equipping around that, focused around being equipped to be a godly woman in today’s society,” says Kate.
Extended worship sessions and prayer; multiple moments of deep discussion and discipleship, heartfelt times of testimony and music on the beach; new and old friendships formed and solidified: it’s hard to imagine that all of this took place over only one long weekend. But, as we know, when God moves, and when we respond, anything is possible.
“We talked about our internal garden, in regards to our emotional state and our feelings and and the way they interact with the Lord, sometimes being pruned and sometimes needing extra fertilizer,” explains Kate.
“How do you bear fruit? How do you change internally so that your external fruit is more in line with God? We looked at changing the root and not just the fruit, because you have to change the root to change the fruit.”
This year, leaders came from all over the region, and beyond, to help support the young campers.
“There was a strong sense of united commitment [amongst the volunteer leaders] . . . we had people from more traditional churches out in the mid-north way. We had people from pentecostal churches in the city. We had leaders from churches in the Adelaide Hills . . .One of them came all the way from Victor Harbor,” reports Kate.
A new leader spoke boldly about her journey with faith and anxiety to campers in testimony time, encouraging those struggling similarly.
Not a moment of the weekend was wasted, both in the immediate context, and in the future.
“I think these camps have the potential to change lives . . . .These girls got to experience the presence of God, [some] for the first time. They got to have conversations with people who think differently and talk differently and act differently to their friends a lot of the time . . . .
“There are those deep moments where you have a personal encounter with him [God], which really mark you as you grow up and grow into who you’re becoming,” reflects Kate.
To find out more about SU Camps in your area and to support and pray for these root-growing, fruit-forming opportunities, please visit su.org.au/camps