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NOYE '02
Youth Coming Together Camp
STATEMENT OF FAITH
1st – 5th December, 2002, Gerroa, NSW.
Camp Gerroa, a camp without fear, a camp without beer; of early mornings and late nights and supposedly no pillow fights. Camp Gerroa, a point to which youth flooded, from five parishes across the nation, Vic, NSW and SA.
We were given the opportunity to form close friendships with new people and re-acquaint with those whom we'd met in the past. We grew in a deeper understanding of God's love for us through sharing and discussion. By spending time in community, through chatting casually, trips to the beach, shops and group activities, we felt a sense of belonging that we ourselves had created.
On our journey together as a Christian community we recognised the importance of letting our light shine and, as the salt of the earth, to flavour the world while strengthening our faith. We do this through our ability to express ourselves in appreciating differing views and by displaying our commitment as the youth of the church.
We, the Oblate youth of Australia, being sensitive to the needs of others, confidently commit ourselves to enrich our local communities by sharing the light of Christ within us—our faith. We do this through our gift of self and our talents, thereby enabling our communities and ourselves to further discover God's call in our lives.
Now safe at home, greeted with open arms, our pledge remains firm that we will not lose our flavour nor let the darkness consume our light.
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Day 1
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SUNDAY NIGHT SUMMARY
Day 1: 1st December, 2002
Greetings to our Oblate world from Youth Headquarters, Gerroa!
The "angels" arrived in dribs and drabs last night (Sunday 2nd December, 2002) for the annual "Youth Coming Together" retreat.
After the initial excitement of seeing old faces and saying hello, nature took over and food became the priority. As some had had a MAC attack (the group from Melbourne), the others made do with 7 pizzas—hard done by, eh?!
After our repast, the mighty Fin (alias, Fr Christian Fini OMI) welcomed everyone. Then Lisa and Daniel took over and caused great embarrassing amusement as we tried to get to know each other through ice-breakers. These included: Bang-Bang, relationship games, "toilet seat-elephant-traffic lights" (don't ask!). Following these "embarrassing-moments" which caused great laughter, Fini tried to lay down the law (the rules of engagement for the next 4 days). One of the notable prohibitions was no pillow fighting—but if you have to, make sure there are no shoes in the pillows (thanks for giving us the idea Fini!). We were a bit worried about Fini at one stage, he was laughing so much he almost had a hernia. On more serious matters, the opening talk by Fini led us into the spirit of the retreat: we are the salt of the earth, the light of the world (taken from the world youth day theme). We then had small group discussion groups on this theme. The night "ended" with evening prayer and supper…
Well, more later.
Enjoy the pictures.
The Fini Dream Team.
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Day 2
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MONDAY SUMMARY
Day 2: 2nd December, 2002.
Greetings to the outside world, We struggled out of bed to self service breakfast followed by morning prayer which focused on the theme “you are the light of the world.” Following this Loretta shared her experiences of light in the darkness of Kenya and encouraged us on how to find the inner life within ourselves, we then broke up into smaller groups and shared our own experiences.
Each group was allocated its own activity “Gods Milo” prepared the prayer, “The Big Ranjll” prepared the delicious food and “The Bakers Dozen” sat around and watched everyone else do the work and commented on the aroma and mouth watering delicacy that was going to await them!! It was then time for the brave ones to conquer the ferocious two foot waves of Gerroa beach while the others laid down soaked up the sun and enjoyed free exfoliation provided by the sand blast!
We showed our artistic flair and decorated our candles to represent our own light. The salt was then added at the appropriate time under the supervision of the reverant father . The pasta was superb and the bolognase and carbonara was even better!
We then piped down reflected on our day and in a long snaky line walked past very confused fisherman down to the beach. We then focused on how we can show our talents and shine our light to others.
We finished the night of with Trivia which “Da-Rejects” won so enthusiastically.
Farewell from Oblate Youth Headquarters,
Gerroa, NSW
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Day 3
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TUESDAY SUMMARY
Day 3: 3rd December, 2002.
In the beginning there was the group then came the bishop, and the Claws, then came the highlight. With trumpets flaring the chariots of fire music began to play, with great anticipation eyes lit up as a distant figure cast a looming shadow over the ever changing sand dunes of the 7 mile beach. Shielding our eyes from the merciless sand we gather full vision of a man, a handsome young man from EagleVale.
Lonely nights previewed lonely days will be no more as salvation has been found in the arms of BRENDAN by one of our, now, more happy companions [Petrina]. Afternoon blissfulness was only found due to the wise words of Bishop Peter Ingham, Bishop of Wollongong. Our young, energetic group was dumbfounded as the Bishops words cut through our ‘appear ignorant’ defence.
Words flared, women fainted and heathens were converted as we like Mark and Linda cutting feet on coral, had no idea what had hit us. As his amazing string of words came to an end as a buzz of questions, queries, and somewhat pointless posers where lashed upon the defenceless Bish. But his return game was even better than his service, so again, we as youth were left memorized exactly he had just said.
The beach, a time of friendship, relaxation and fun. A time where Australians can gather to enjoy our national pride, our treasures, our beaches. A time where, the sun, sea and sand meet as one haven for holiday goers, freed from their suburban prisons.
The beach… 40 young adults, 3 tennis balls, a vortex, a soccer ball, buckets of sun cream….mayhem. Dry sand became mud, and with mud comes mud fights. Our group soon erupted with squeals from Fini, and the victorious laughter of Tiffany. But to put a sad note on a day which already had so much love and friendship, our vortex will no longer be with us. So to all my faithful readers, a memorial service will be held at SJV, followed by tea, scones and biscuits with pictures of classic catches.
But as darkness becomes light people become hungry so a lavish BBQ feast was provided by the very professional and competent group, Gods Milo, no expenses spared. With dinner happily digesting, we were called by the group formally known as the Bakers Dozen, called us from the wilderness to join out the front of the property. It was there that with ribbons we were chained together and led inside desperate not the break the chain of friendship we had established so far. Encircling four of our seated companions we were invited to release our sins in the symbol of tying knots around the seat of our seated companions.
Salvation was found and we were given the chance to free our comrades and our own hearts from a sin that had tied us down as well. In lighting a candle for another person, we showed the sign of helping others light the way from their own sins. This was followed by tying our ribbons together to again form a chain, this time of forgiveness. Prayer session was immediately followed by Reconciliation offered by Fr Christian and Fr George who joined us for dinner and the rest of the evening.
Given the chance to find salvation in our friends, we were know given the chance to find it in God. With the large room left for spiritual meditation, the youth initiated games of “bottles”, “uno” and cards. Child advisory is to be recommended when playing bottles since frostbite has become an afflicting injury competing with sunburn and mossie bites.
Amen.
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Day 4
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WEDNESDAY SUMMARY
Day 4: 4th December, 2002.
For some reason, most people enjoyed themselves until late in the night as though it were the last day… but roll call in the morning brought all the sleepy lambs back to the breakfast table, followed by morning prayer and a stirring talk on the Oblate founder, Eugene de Mazenod, by Br Gerard (alias Gezza Bell) and Daniel Kelly. This provided an insight into the difficulties of St Eugene's life and how it can still inspire us today. Lisa Faulkner (Vic), Greg Gardner (SA), Helene Costin (Vic) and Damien Coyle (SA) gave a brief over view of some of the organizations around our cities which we can all get involved in (Edmund Rice Camps, ROSIES, Antioch, Marist Young Adult Ministry, Disciples of Jesus, etc.).
After the talks and a cuppa, the big group broke into the sub-groups for Liturgy prep, Cooking and Cleanup. After lunch we had some group photo sessions, followed by the beach for a few hours. At 4:40pm we regathered to summarise our experience this week into a Statement of Faith. This was a great time of sharing and inspiration.
After a dinner (served on time for the first time this week by Group C—guess who's writing this!) of roast chicken, Jonno wedges and salad, we cleaned up and prepared for the grand finale of the week: our shared Eucharist.
The newest Oblate priest in Australia, Fr Paul Smithers OMI (or less formally known as your Lordship), joined us for dinner and Eucharist, where he gave the final blessing. He was touched by the spirit and enthusiasm of the youth gathered at Gerroa.
We started celebrating our Eucharist gazing out over the beach in the early darkness, with a raging fire visible only a few kilometres away over the bay. It gave a very spiritual setting to the end of a awesome week of community, faith and friendship. The fire, reminded us of the need to strip away all the deadness in our lives so that new life can spring up in our hearts. We began singing The Summons, during which Lisa and Lauren walked slowly through the group touching people on the should and raising them up—this had a very powerful effect on many of the group, as though God had touched them and was calling them. We then processed down to the beach and celebrated the Rite of Reconciliation by blessing sea water and being sprinkled to remind us of our Baptismal promises. This was followed by the Liturgy of the Word, Homily by the Fin-sta (in bare feet on the sand, just like Jesus) and prayers of intercession.
The singing during Mass was brilliant, but the closing hymn, Shout to the Lord, went off with a bang! This carried on into an all out singing and dancing frenzy with modern music. After the buzz settled a bit, a couple of young talent time gigs were performed by the Vic's and South Aussies (who took the micky out of the Vic's in spectacular fashion).
The youth then sang their way into the wee hours of the morning—some managing to escape sleep altogether and still function the next morning! Must be the Power of Love!
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