When Auckland diocese’s big Life Teen Summer Camp was postponed, the youth group of the St Joseph’s parish in Takapuna decided to push through with their own “smaller” camp.
The Core Team of St Joseph’s youth team originally intended to host a summer camp, but decided to give way to the “bigger” camp. The core team includes Susan Fraser, Joselle Vicente and Romwell Ramos.
“We had some plans in play already which we just stopped. But when the announcement (to cancel) was made for lots of various reasons, Covid being the biggest thing, we were able to revert back (to having a parish camp),” said Mrs Fraser.
The 20-year-old Ms Vicente had to do a lot of the preparation and coordination for the parish camp while on holiday in Queenstown. She only had two weeks to do this.
“I gave up quite a bit of my holiday to run the camp. I was very willing to because it was for our team, for our youth and for us as well,” she said.
Mr Ramos said they felt they had to do this because a lot of young people had already committed to becoming summer missionaries for the big camp. The youth of the parish were also looking forward to the event.
“There was already a fire that we wanted to build on,” he said.
Around 70 summer missionaries and teens participated at the event, held at Sonshine Ranch in Clevedon on January 14-16. Mr Ramos said it was a “transformative” experience.
“All the teens can attest to this because all of them want to go back right now. I think a lot of us are experiencing camp withdrawal,” he said, with a laugh.
Ms Vicente said that, while most of the participants were from St Joseph’s, some young people who were going to the cancelled camp decided to join them.
Mrs Fraser said that serving as the camp cook was her way of ministering to the young people.
“The kitchen is the heart of most homes, so is the kitchen the heart of the camp,” she said. “It’s where ministry happens constantly. Kids come in. They want something to eat, drink or cuddle, just to chat. For me, the highlight had been always being available and they always knew where we were.”
Ms Vicente and Mr Ramos both said that working with the teens was a blessing.
“I think this connecting to Christ with each other and through the Holy Spirit was really touching,” Ms Vicente said.
“The highlight for me was definitely walking alongside these teens. Getting to meet them where they were. Just being their friend, to me, was the most fulfilling,” Mr Ramos added.
Mrs Fraser said that, if the Auckland diocese decides to hold a Life Teen camp next year, they would love to join.
She said the Life Teen resource which they used made the work manageable, and she highly recommended it to other parishes.
“You’re following a programme and it means, for our core team, that a lot of the hard work has been done,” she said. “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
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