Unifying young Christians at SYG

After two years of cancellations, State Youth Games (SYG) returned this year, and SU volunteers and participants joined with hundreds of young people from across Victoria. 

SYG is an annual youth event where kids, youth groups, and churches from across Victoria camp together for a weekend, competing in sports and worshipping God.

“It was such an awesome time,” says program director Kyle, who started this partnership with SU after seeing a need to bring young Christians together in his local area. 

“Our initial goal was to bring local churches, who were too small to compete by themselves, together into one team to attend State Youth Games.” Due to a number of factors, it was difficult to coordinate. That’s where SU came in.

“We asked SU because of the way they run camps and missions. When they said yes, our vision changed to bring together churches statewide—especially in country churches where youth numbers are low—to unite and be in community with other young Christians.”

Kyle remembers being a kid from a small church and walking into SYG for the first time. “It blew my mind—being able to show young Christians they’re not alone.”

Thanks to our amazing SU volunteers, Kyle saw God at work in the young people who attended. Campers were “absolutely glued” to the team devotional sessions held by the SU volunteers, he says. 

“We saw 10 kids having a chat with a leader, coming to him with all sorts of big life questions, really engaged and wanting to dig deeper.”

“Seeing the kids embody the spirit of the program—encouraging and supporting each other, willing to get in and help others, cheering from the sidelines, and making new friends—all the little things made it so good.”