When we first moved to Malawi, Matt was hesitant to teach the youth at church because he didn’t want to get labeled as “the youth guy.”  Over the last couple years, we’ve joked about this frequently because we quickly grew to LOVE the youth groups!  Matt now teaches one group every Tuesday night, and he also jumps in occasionally to teach the older youth group on Fridays nights.  This youth camp was a combination of both groups, but mostly for the older youth.

The theme for this year’s camp was “Do You Love Me?”  It’s the question that Jesus asked Peter in John 21:15-17, and so we looked both at that and at the book of 1 John asking ourselves “Do I really love Christ?”  It was a great topic for the weekend, and applicable to all of us.

Another element of camp is the Q&A time both nights around the campfire.  The youth submit questions anonymously to the question box, and Matt goes through and answers all the questions in the group setting.  The questions these guys were asking are great!  Here’s a few: 1) How can I truly repent?  2) I have heard that being afraid is not trusting God.  Is that true?  If is is, does that make it a sin?  3) Why did Jesus have to be resurrected?  Wouldn’t he have paid for our sins even if he had stayed dead?  4) When does talking about others turn into gossip or slander?  Matt is careful to direct the students to God’s Word at every point so that the answers he gives come from God’s Word and not his own opinion.  Some of the questions turned into discussions over the next days as the students considered how to apply what they had learned.

You can’t have camp without a little bit of fun!  We had our own little section of Senga Bay at Lake Malawi, with rocks to jump off of and plenty of space for water games.  Not to mention a great view.

Abigail came along for camp too, though she was definitely more interested in the grass, bugs, and sand than in what Dada was saying…