April 01 Volume 3.1
1 - From…
- Grumbleface and Slop
YOUR MISSION, if you choose to accept it, is to dump the school textbooks and homework – and check out this years first Senior Breakaway Herald. There are heaps of good things inside this Herald.
At camp this year, it was HOT! Real HOT! So HOT, Bruce the DJ didn’t show – but we had an excellent game of Leaders versus Campers volleyball instead. Everyone agreed that Andrew should not touch the "Red Eye" drinks ever again. This was followed by a sensational movie (requested by Jeremy and Slop) called, The Gods Must Be Crazy.
Of course we had a full day at Bendeela and we went to Kiama Beach. At the Beach, only the brave went any deeper than their knees – any further and the waves would pick you up, hold you under, and woooshh you around a few times.
The 4Wdriving was great (as always) and we played some excellent wide games. Remember the one with the Mad Fireman?
Of course, the missions made the camp special. Who can forget the Glad Wrapped Cars (and tractor); the missing right shoes; the missing socks; the missing dining room; the posters saying "You’ve been GOT by Room ?"; Breakfast served in bed (sort of – it was in the dining hall on beds); the individual missions – Cameron had to get the signature of the McDonalds drive-thru chick (and failed); Josh only had to successfully sneak out at night (and also failed).
The Feral Games were so feral that a couple of campers feinted dead away. The Roy and HG night discovered some closet actors. The leaders won the Water Fight (of course).
Jenny and James told us their personal stories and told us how God really impacted our world when he chose to live among us as a human being.
In this issue of the Senior Breakaway Herald, we have an interview with Jeremy who is working overseas as a missionary. Also inside are everyone’s names, addresses, and phone numbers. There are some photos. And there is a puzzle for you to work out and a prize to be won.
What about the web page? It has lots of new photos from camp – and we have a new guestbook for you to put your messages in. Its time to start sending messages to each other through the guestbook again. If you have an e-mail address, post it in the guestbook and we can start sending messages. If you have some good photos that you would like to show everyone, please send them to Andrew and you will see them in the next Herald and on the web page (Thanx to Nicole already). Don’t forget the web page address is: -
http://www.geocities.com/breakawaycamp/ Enjoy it.
Now that you have everyone’s phone number and address, I know the leaders would love a letter or a phone call from each of you.
See ya’s later and God Bless,
Grumble and Slop.
2 – An Interview With Jeremy…
Grumble: Jeremy – You and Jonny have been living in Canada for some time now. Why?
Jeremy: I’ve been working in an Urban Mission in Toronto.
Grumble: I didn’t know that they needed missionaries in Canada. What is the mission all about?
Jeremy: The aim of the mission is to reach young people before they end up on the streets and before they end up in gangs. It is a ministry solely to "at risk" young people in low income areas, and dangerous areas (dangerous because of drugs, violence, strip joints, prostitution, etc.)
The ministry is in three areas - Camden (USA), Vancouver and Toronto in Canada. In Toronto the work is divided into three sites. I work in an area known as Warden Woods - the most difficult of the three Toronto sites. It has the poorest people. They are mainly Jamaican.
Grumble: Hey Jamaica!!! Why are the people in that area so poor?
Jeremy: The government divides the poor into "pockets" surrounded by richer people. The people are therefore very aware of their poverty and they are harder to minister to because of being spread out in these pockets.
Grumble: So what sort of things do you do with them?
Jeremy: We do four different things with them… We run a Drop in Centre for young people in their 20s.
Grumble: Really?
Jeremy: Yep. We make sure that no drugs or weapons are allowed in the centre. That is sometimes a problem.
Grumble: Wow. What else do you do?
Jeremy: We run Summer Holiday Day Camps. This runs from 10am-5pm each day for 6 weeks of the holidays. This is run from our community centre and has about 50 children attending each day. We try to have as much contact with the parents as possible during these camps. Children who make a commitment to Jesus Christ are linked with local churches wherever possible. However, because of the difficulty of poor children fitting into "rich" churches, a local church as been commenced to nurture these young Christians.
Grumble: 6 weeks of camp? Sounds like fun. What else do you do?
Jeremy: We also run an After-School Program. We do this 4 days per week with a small number of children who are divided into two groups: 5-11 years and 12-16. I look after the younger group. The program provides games and craft activities, and help with schoolwork. We also take the children on regular outings with their mothers. (There are very few fathers - they desert their partners).
Grumble: What else do you do?
Jeremy: We have developed a Street Leader Program. Young people are chosen for their maturity and given a part-time job in the summer holidays to help with running the camp program. They are not necessarily all Christians. The aim is to train them up in discipline and social skills so that they might become leaders and role models in the community.
These four programs are run out of a community centre that is provided by the government. The government likes us there because the community centre is being put to good use. There is no problem with speaking about Christianity quite openly.
Grumble: Tell me about where you live.
Jeremy: I live on the top floor of a church building. Next door is a strip club.
Grumble: Hhhmmmm. It sounds like a really dodgy area. What can we do to help you?
Jeremy: I would really like your prayers. Jonny does too. Handling really violent kids is not easy. Sometimes it gets really difficult. One of our 7-year-old kids tried to commit suicide. Jonny has had to confiscate guns and stuff.
It would be really good if people could write to us about what’s happening at home.
Being a missionary doesn’t pay very well. I don’t have anything much in the bank. I am hoping to pick up some part-time work in sound engineering this year. But if people can help… that would be good.
Grumble: Hopefully we will see you next year. See ya later.
Jeremy: Bye
You can contact Jeremy and Jonny in the Guestbook on the web page…
www.geocities.com/breakawaycamp/
3 - The SoapBox –
This is where you have your say about whatever you like or ask whatever you like… send your stuff to Andrew.
"I love the way the leaders played pranks on each other."
Anon
"The Beach and Blast were excellent and inspiring."
Anon (Again?)
"The best thing about Senior Breakaway was the night missions, the team games, the worship and singing."
Love Ibid (Who’s that?)
"I liked the way Andrew stuffed up all the time."
Anon (What!!! – That’s it – I’m going home)
4 – The Story of Sean Who Got Lost
Have you ever noticed how hard it can be to get to sleep some nights??
Especially when you know that tomorrow is going to be really busy and you really should have fallen asleep a long time ago.
Especially when out in these fields it can be so cold at night-time.
Especially when you can hear many, many strange (and kinder scary) sounds in the deep night that surrounds you.
Especially when your best friend who is next to you fell asleep first; And he SNORES.
Especially when you are a SHEEP.
(I mean what do they count?)
Sheep can’t count. It’s a well-known fact. For a sheep anything that is bigger than the number four is "many". But then mathematics doesn't really play that big of a role in a sheep’s day to day life. What they are concerned with mostly is grass. Green, yellow, dark green, dark dark green, it doesn’t really matter as long as it has that general grassiness like nature.
There is however something that they love even more - Daisies. This is the chocolate of a sheep’s world. In fact they like it so much they have an old saying about it that goes along the lines of: "baaaaaaa baa ba baaaaa ba baa baa baaaa" which unfortunately not being a sheep I am are unable to translate.
SO apart from this fatal attraction to grass & daisies, what do they do?
Like you and me they spend their days playing games. For example: sticking together with the other sheep (its um, supposedly harder than it sounds), Or the all time favourite - playing follow the leader (no one wants to be a leader).
AND, of course, staying close to their human.
Every flock of sheep has its own human. Funnily enough every human has got the same first name "SHEPHERD"
Shepherd is who looks after them, protects them from wolves, makes sure there is always enough to eat, and decides when to move to other fields. He has a name for each sheep and loves every one.
Sean realised that he must have fallen asleep at some point in time because he woke up.
It was still early morning but it was already getting hot. And the air was sticky. The way it gets before a storm in summer. If he had a better sense of smell Sean may have even been able to smell the oncoming rain. But then again I think he probably would have only been able to smell the other sheep.
Being a well-educated sheep he started the day off with a healthy breakfast of.... grass.
Followed by some oz-aerobics. (It was going to be a long days walk so it was a good idea to stretch and limber up)
"HEY YOU TWO HURRY UP… YES I MEAN YOU SEAN AND ???"
"OI. EWE AND EWE AND EWE. STOP TALKING GIRLS AND HURRY UP"
" *Whistles* ROUND THIS WAY"
In every flock you always have a few stragglers. Part of a good shepherds job is to try to keep them all together on a long move such as today’s. Its a bit like trying to manoeuvre a shopping trolley which has 100 sets of legs all trying to move in different directions.
And it was important to keep them moving because a storm was fast approaching from out in the west. The shepherd was hoping to reach the valley for shelter.
"DONT SLOW DOWN OR WE WILL NEVER GET THERE"
"HEYYY THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF TIME TO EAT THE GRASS WHEN WE ARRIVE"
He had to shout. It was the only way to be heard.
Whenever they went on these long marches - to what seemed like the other side of the world - to help pass the time Sean & the other lambs would sing songs.
Songs like... "10 green lambs sitting on the wall"
Now when singing this sort of song things like - staying in tune are not that important at all. BUT what IS important is - things like being the loudest, OR persisting in singing the same tune over & over & over again.
Eventually even Sean got bored and started to look for something else to do during this long walk.
(News reader style)
The number one cause of preventable deaths among sheep today is due to straying away from the flock.
For this reason from a very young age they are told time & time again
"DO NOT STRAY"
"ALWAYS BE IN SIGHT OF THE FLOCK"
"ALWAYS"
Just to the right of where the main flock was heading Sean noticed a field.
Not just any field but one covered in daisies.
Big ripe daisies.
Just waiting for a sheep to come along and eat them.
Maybe a sheep like Sean.
Of course he knew he wasn't allowed to leave the flock.
For any reason.
That was the rule.
But still... they were nice daisies.
If he was quick he could eat a few and get back to the flock and no one would notice...
The rain that had been promised started to fall onto a large woollen blanket.
A large woollen blanket with 396 legs & 198 ears.
A large woollen blanket called the flock.
The shepherd was relieved to have reached their destination just in time.
The rain fell everywhere.
Unaware of the fields it landed on.
Unaware of the creeks it filled.
Unaware of a lonely lost sheep it drenched.
Have you ever been in a shopping centre, turned away for a only a minute and LOST whoever you were with? Do you remember how scary that can be?
You get this sick feeling in the bottom of your stomach.
Times that by 1000 and your getting close to how Sean was feeling.
Not only was he lost, but he felt guilty and knew he was in trouble for sneaking off.
And it was getting dark which meant wolves - or worse -
He was very scared.
It was around this time that the other sheep noticed that someone was missing. To be more particular it was one of the older sheep whose name was RAM that noticed first (probably because of his good memory)
The shepherd was counting his flock for the third time.
Still he ended up with only 99.
One was missing.
You might think that he would decide to forget about the lost sheep.
I mean 99 out of 100 is a good score to get. It ain’t that bad.
And it was raining.
A Lot…
And it was dangerous because of the wolves out there.
And it was dark.
And it would be like searching for a needle in a wool stack.
The good shepherd put on his coat and went searching into the night.
At night there are a lot of scary sounds if you are a lost sheep, all alone.
Sean tried to squeeze further under the tiny bush he was sheltering in.
SHHHHH
What was that?
Sean held his breath for the longest time.
A dark shadow moved across quietly, evilly, just in front of him.
For a long time after it had left he froze, not daring to move.
SEAN S E A N
The shepherds voice was hoarse he had been calling for so long.
Finally he heard a weak baa in response.
He had found his lost sheep that he loved so much.
You can find the end of this story in the Bible – Matthew 18.
5 – A Puzzle
Get an A4 sheet of paper. Cut a 2cm diameter hole in the middle of it. Now try and push a 50 cent coin through the hole. You are not allowed to tear the paper. You can fold the paper.
How is it done? All correct answers in Andrew’s letter box by May 17 will receive two tickets to the next City Youth Convention May 26. 6:45pm-9:30pm at Wollongong.
What is City Youth Convention? CYC involves great Bible teaching, interesting interviews and vox pops, guest musicians, competitions and great music. This time, they will deal with the theme of "Heroes Live Forever…?" They will be looking at the great Australian obsession with sport. Now that the Olympics are over and Juan has gone home, we can all take a deep breath - what was it all about? Think of the millions and millions of dollars that our governments poured into it? Was Fatso the real star?