Maranatha! – Come Lord Jesus

on July 12, 2006

Ancient Aramaic is not generally my forte, however one thing I did learn about our recent YF camp was the meaning of the above phrase. And a poignant phrase/motto for the weekend (or at least, for the t-shirt) as the talks from an ‘old’ YFer focused on the last days and our bible studies focused on Joel and judgement

The camp site was a site we attended three years ago – the Lutheran camp site in Koojarewon, 10 minutes from Toowoomba. It wasn’t as cold as I remember it being in 2003, however the nights were much colder this year (or it could have been my sleeping location – away from the main dormitory and in a rather big room with only two other people for company). That aside, we had the return of our favourite camp cooks; the O’s, who cooked up a storm and had us eating non-stop for the whole weekend.

Shte1 and I had also prepacked some ‘survival packs’ for each member of our bible study group – a great idea (if I do say so myself) to help our members bond together as well as provide snacks and sugar during the studies to keep them awake. I was generally quite pleased with how the bible studies went for our group and was encouraged to see and hear the involvement of relatively quiet people throughout the difficult studies.

Some of the challenges/encouragement/insights I came away with that weekend included:

Being reminded that God’s sovereignty pervades everything, that our best efforts will only go so far and we need to trust that God will do the rest
Soaking in some more theology of the incarnation – again being reminded how essential it was for Jesus to be both God and man not just before his death, but also in his resurrection and ascension: because Jesus is both fully man and fully God he brings humanity into the Trinity…great news for us because His resurrection is the first fruit of our resurrection – a resurrection into perfect fellowship with God the Father as Jesus has now!
Seeing the growing enthusiasm in the eyes of our bible study group as they were able to piece together a very difficult part of the Old Testament and see how it pointed (and was fulfilled) in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
Being able to praise God for the growth of some of the guys on camp – guys we have been praying about for a number of years and are beginning to see the fruits
Praising God for changing the lives of people – and bringing some into his family!

Much to give thanks for, which we will in a few more nights at our annual ‘Camp Reflections’.