Noisy Forest Camp points to quiet trails of faith

With every camp you support, you are helping young people discover the treasure of Jesus

When discussing the unusual name for the ACT’s Spring season mountain biking camp, ‘Noisy Forest,’ Camp Director, Gideon Snowdon, pauses and explains, “It’s a noisy bunch of kids out in the bush, in the forest, where it’s usually quiet.”

While this sounds like a lot of fun, what isn’t immediately evident is that it’s not all noise.

Amidst the adventure, adrenaline and fun of a four-day mountain biking camp for teenagers in years 7-10 –including bush-bashing and making their own trails– other longer-distance trails are being formed, those of friendship, care, and most importantly, faith.

As well as mountain biking programs that cater to a variety of levels depending on experience, other activities include a giant Nerf battle (who wouldn’t want to make some noise doing that!), a talent night, a chess tournament, and even panning for gold in the creek.

‘Treasure’ was the theme of the camp, and included creative activities like a treasure hunt and the chance to win treasure tokens for participation and good behaviour.

But the real treasure was and always is panned for in God’s word, where campers were encouraged to look into Jesus and faith.

“This year, going on from the gold panning, we went with the theme of treasure, and looking for treasure in heaven.

“Each day we had one or two talks run by our leaders on the theme….We looked at a few different characters in the Bible, and what they treasured, as well as at the difference between treasure in heaven and treasure on earth, and also at how God treasures us,” says Gideon.

It seems that the volunteer leaders also found treasure in the “noisy forest.”

“I never thought I’d be running kids programs or even helping out that much –they are hard work –but I love being able to have input into kids’ lives, especially in this day and age. There are a lot of kids who need these mentor figures or spiritual input,” says Gideon.

While for some individuals the impact of being on camps may be quiet, and not seen for many years, for others it is immediate.

“I got some feedback from our Camp Coordinator that some of the kids have wanted to go back to church again and are reading the Bible,” says Gideon.

Now that’s something we can all get on our bikes and make some noise about!