You’re reaching kids in north WA with the gospel!

During the July school holidays, SU Australia launched its first Pilbara Outback Adventure Camp for students in Years 5-8. 

This new camp, which featured five days of snorkelling, swimming, hiking, fire pits, wide games and outback survival skills training, was five years in the making, says founding Camp Director, Graeme. 

“We lived in the Pilbara for eight years and could see a real need for kids up north to have an opportunity to hear the gospel,” Graeme says. 

“There are around 10,000 kids who live in the Pilbara, but no Christian camps that we were aware of – all the camps available seemed metro-focused.”

SU Australia was keen to get on board and help, but it wasn’t until Simon the local minister at Exmouth Anglican community church joined the team (where the camp was eventually based) that things were really able to get going. 

“God also provided us with two leaders based in Hedland, enabling a busload of kids from Hedland and Karratha to get to camp [a trip of 550 km each way. Also, the Pilbara leaders and campers travelled 1,255 km each way]. And when we were getting concerned about the supervision of open water-based activities, he brought along a trained lifeguard to the team.”

Camp focused on meeting Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, with Bus-Church, individual scripture devotions, and small group studies, while also leaving plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful Exmouth attractions, snorkelling, swimming, hiking, bonfires on the beach with lots of good food and conversations.

For one camper, the time away has re-ignited her desire to be part of a church and youth group, something she’s avoided for a number of years. For other campers the fireside talk about God’s forgiveness and his removing our sins “as far as the east is from the west” was significant.

Behind SU Australia’s mission to bring God’s love, hope and good news to children, young people and families is a heart to partner with and through others, including local Christians like Graeme and Sandy and church leaders like Simon, who are passionate about bringing the Good News to kids in their local region.

Thank you for partnering with SU Australia to make ministries like this possible. To help ensure we can keep reaching more children and young people in more communities in the West and across our nation, visit su.org.au/donate.