‘Jesus our Captain’

Theme of the Middlesbrough Adventist Church Pathfinders and Adventurers Clubs' Camp Meeting

Friday 13th to Sunday 15th August 2010

See Camp Pictures

Friday 13th August 2010 saw the eagerly awaited start of our Pathfinder and Adventurer Club’s camping weekend.

The less experienced campers amongst us displayed various unorthodox tent erection techniques as our canvas village took shape. Most of the tents had been erected with a little help from friends as the rain began to descend. Evening worship had to be abandoned as the marquee to be used for the purpose fell foul of the driving rain. All campers, however, had arrived safely and pitched their tents as a rain soaked Arnold and Andrew struggled manfully to prepare the marquee - the weather won! Although group worship was not held, I think that during the hours of Friday evening to Sabbath morning, there was a myriad of prayers rising from each tent to still the storm as torrential rain and high winds battered our tented abodes. The theme of our camp was, JESUS OUR CAPTAIN and many of us thought a ship would be necessary during the night as we heard the stream at the bottom of the field rushing ever fuller as we lay awake. Our prayers were answered by morning, when the winds and rain had abated and all campers were safe and most of us - Jean excepted - were dry.

With good team work and a happy heart, the marquee was soon erected for our morning worship where again prayers of thanks were said for our safe journey through the storm with JESUS OUR CAPTAIN at the helm.

Our morning service was led by our visiting minister Pastor Volney Ham-Ying and a snail friend, who had us all laughing in the aisles as he told us of the many benefits of laughter to our health and wellbeing. “Fake it ‘til you make it” was the catch phrase, and peals of laughter certainly filled the air from those in attendance. The snail was to teach us that - like itself - we should leave a shiny trail wherever we go to shine out the love of Jesus to others as we travel life’s pathway.

Following lunch, we embarked on an afternoon ‘yomp’ across the moors. The scenery and the weather were beautiful as we enjoyed God’s nature and shared friendship and companionship with our fellow believers. Hannah, aloft on daddy’s shoulders encouraged Ben, “not to be so wobbly Daddy”, as he negotiated a rather uneven and quite boggy sheep trail. The heather was resplendent and the bracken in some places head high for the children who remarked that it was, “like being in a jungle”. A touch of beauty, but we cannot imagine the beauty we will see in our heavenly home.

As the sun set on yet another lovely Sabbath day, a camp fire was lit and the marshmallows were toasted and enjoyed by all. Games were played on the adjoining field by the youngsters, as the not so young amongst us kept the camp fire warm! The pesky midgies also joined us and made their presence felt. A good time was had by all as Christian games played around the camp fire and prayers brought our Sabbath day to a close, and we retired to our beds for a much more calm and drier night’s sleep.

Sunday morning - our final day - came all too soon as we awoke to another pleasant morning and, the Helping Hands’ group led us in morning worship.

Throughout the camp weekend various class activities were undertaken, particularly to teach the wonders and beauty of God’s wonderful creation. Many of the nature honours were completed by the various Pathfinder and Adventurer classes to add to their sashes on Investiture Day. Many thanks to all of the class teachers who attended and did a fine job of keeping the interest and enthusiasm of the children alive.

Sunday lunch was a communal affair following Arnold’s demonstration of how to scoop out an orange, break an egg into it, wrap it in foil and roast it on our open fire, ably tended by chief stokers Ben and Oswell. The resulting lunch with eggs and cabbage leaves filled with peppers and onion was- shall we say- an acquired taste.

The weather again proved to be kind as dry tents were dropped and packed away, much to the reluctance of the Pathfinders and Adventurers who were all for returning next weekend for a repeat performance of the entire weekend of friendship fun and praise in song, word and deed to our Captain as we shouted out together for all other campers to hear JESUS IS OUR CAPTAIN. Let us hope and pray that Jesus stays at the helm, as we traverse the storms of life.

Sincere and heartfelt thanks go to Arnold and Silas in particular, but also to all those concerned in making our first Middlesbrough Pathfinders and Adventurers Club’s camping weekend a success. Satan may try to rock the boat, but with JESUS AS OUR CAPTAIN, we will weather the storm and land safely on the heavenly shore.

Joyce Gilbert.

‘All the way with Jesus’ Theme of the Middlesbrough Youth Weekend 31st January - 2nd February 2003 As the snow fell, so did our hopes of a good attendance at Middlesbrough’s Youth Weekend. But nothing is impossible with God and by 8.00 p.m. everyone had made it ‘all the way’. The icy weather conditions were forgotten as warm friendships were re-kindled and new ones born as a healthy meal prepared by our chefs de cuisine for the weekend Marie and Jim was enjoyed. Brother Alan Hush was our guest speaker for the weekend. The evening meeting opened with prayer and a short devotion. Following the meeting everyone departed to their respective accommodation. Sabbath morning began with Sabbath School conducted by Ian Cort from Sale church, who urged us to journey ‘all the way with Jesus’ using the Bible as our highway code and map to make the journey to our heavenly home.
									Alan tells a story to the children attending the morning worship service.
Divine Service was an inspiring message from Brother Alan Hush. Using the weekend theme he related some of his personal experiences from his youth, which had turned his life around. He encouraged the youth to work in the service of the Lord.							Carol and Jean Khumalo enhanced the service with their beautiful singing voices.
Daniel Edwards held our attention in the afternoon programme by relating some of his exciting experiences in Pilau whilst working as a student missionary. Alan again urged the youth to experience the joy of working for the Lord.
The voices of the Stockton Central Adventist choir rang out to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. A light hearted quiz and short stories completed the programme.
							After tea and closing of Sabbath, it was time for some social interaction at the Southlands Centre. Various activities from the sublime to the ridiculous were enjoyed by all, with healthy competition and banter between the five teams as creative observation and culinary skills came to the fore.
			The ‘taste test’ was declined by our panel of judges, Ben, Jeff and Alan, when the final haute cuisine was presented by each team.
Maybe the lack of hand-washing facilities had something to do with it, or perhaps the fact that some of the chocolate was melted on the radiators! An enjoyable evening was had by everyone.						From rubbish bags to 'fashion'.
As Alan Hush had to leave early on Sunday morning and S.D.A. youth are notorious for not doing early mornings, our local minister Jeff Couzins brought our spiritual activities to a close on Sunday morning.
A full Sunday lunch was served and enjoyed (quorn mince of course) by all the youth who then adjourned to the Ormesby Sports Complex to run off the Yorkshire puddings playing volleyball, football, basketball and kingball. Sadly all good things come to an end, and at about 4.00 p.m., it was time to say our goodbyes.
										The Organiser
Thanks go to the families that provided accommodation and to everyone who made the effort in the worst weekend of the year (weatherwise) to join us in Middlesbrough for worship and friendship. We hope the weather is as warm as the friendship when next we meet. Special thanks go to Emma Gilbert Youth Co-ordinator in Middlesbrough, for all her hard work, organisation and determination to make the weekend possible.

Poland Camporee 2002

In Norway four years ago, with our large Middlesbrough Pathfinder group, it was announced that the next TED Pathfinder camporee was to be held in Poland in four years time. Everybody was eager to go to the Polish camporee but four years seemed like such a long time to wait. However it soon came around to January 2002, forms were waiting to be filled and camporee wasn’t that far away, but over the four years between Norway and Poland, the large group had thinned out somewhat as people drifted away to pastures new, leaving only a few to travel to Poland. Now you may be thinking that none of the Pathfinders who attended the Norway Camporee were actually Pathfinder age and you would be correct. This meant that having no younger ones to look after we did what we wanted and had a totally relaxed and enjoyable holiday meeting up with old friends and making new.

After a somewhat adventurous trip through Germany and Poland at 3.00 am we stepped off our extremely hot coach onto what was going to be our home for the next week. A good night’s sleep was had by all until we were woken by the heat, which would stay with us for the rest of our time in Zatonie. The opening ceremony was started with the raising of flags, representing each country in attendance, apart from the Pakistani flag, which was lost in Moscow airport. The various countries were: The Baltics, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Poland and Sweden.
Our visiting speaker was Pastor Jonathan Julies, who is currently president of Bethel College and the theme for the week’s programmes was ‘Jesus 4 U’. The programmes were very interesting and were brought across well to all of the Pathfinders. Worships were accompanied by music from a Danish group playing piano, electric and acoustic guitars; drums and also four singers who helped bring the Pathfinders alive and ready to listen to Pastor Julies. Shanique Sanderson, a young Pathfinder from Camp Hill won a competition in which she wrote the words for the theme song, she provided us with a catchy song, which you would find yourself singing in your head all of the time!

Zatonie is in the middle of nowhere so there were no trips off the site. It was a good job that the site was beautiful with its own sandy beach, lake and surrounded by woods. The weather was fantastic until the last day when we had torrential rain and thunder storms which flooded the container that the BUC had taken across with all of the equipment in, but the Zatonie fire brigade were only too happy to help us pump it out until they drove across the flooded field and sank in the mud, as did the bin wagon and one of the NEC’s double decker coaches. A day I am sure all of the Pathfinders will remember!

The week flew by and it was time to board our coaches at 4.00 am to travel to the ferry, which sailed from Cuxhaven, Germany at 6.00 pm, only we didn’t make it in time as our coach was stopped by the police and the driver was fined for speeding. Luckily DFDS kept the ferry back for our 187 NEC Pathfinders, we eventually set sail one hour late at 7.00 pm!Travelling back to Britain by ferry was luxury compared to the week we had just had, we could use a plumbed in toilet not a portaloo, have a long, hot shower, not a freezing cold shower or a dip in the lake and we had a nice soft bed, lovely!

Unfortunately our holiday was over; well there is always Denmark in four years time if anybody is interested!!

Check out the website for Denmark Camporee 2006