Every year we give campers and leaders the opportunity to feedback to us and help improve the camp from year to year. Here is a bit of a sample of some of the comments we’ve gathered from emails, texts and our online survey!
It is evident that the Festival once again produced some fantastic outcomes for the
kingdom with a lot of great stories fed back to us by texts, emails and surveys!
The ‘Summer Madness changed me for the better’ email arrived recently as we were
planning the re-
Visit HERE for further snippets of feedback
Summer Madness changed me for good..
Not long before I went to Summer Madness I was a girl who didn't know who she was, I was lost in alcohol, drugs and depression. I had been going to a youth club which worked with unchurched people like myself to get them off the streets and what not .. I went with a group of friends and then stopped going for about 6 months. I then moved house and got a whole bunch of new friends .. ones that actually cared about my well being friends that I could actually trust and be myself around I would not be here today if it wasn't for them and their support and encouragement .
The new leader at the club suggested Summer Madness a few times and I ended up going along with my friend Rachel.. Little did I know I would be leaving a changed person:D.
It was the Sunday night at Summer Madness that I was saved! Jasper was asking whoever wanted to become a Christian for the first time to go up to the front and he would say a prayer with them. I really wanted to go up , like a lot of times when people were going up for prayer too , but i was a bit embarrassed to be honest, I had never been to anything like it before yet I loved it . I felt like a fraud though as I wasn't a Christian so I just stayed in my seat and said the prayer myself. A few minutes later I started to feel shivery and shaky so I told my youth leader and she asked if it would be ok if she prayed with me. As she started to pray I felt this overwhelming feeling of Joy and Peace, I started to cry! ( it takes quite a lot to make me cry lol ). They weren't sad tears though they where tears of joy! It felt As if it was Gods way of showing me that he was there, reassuring me that he really did exist! It was the strangest thing (a good strange though!).
From that night I have realized that the guilt I used to feel after a "Mad" night out was God’s way of "calling me". Since Summer Madness I have been trying to get to know more about Christianity. I am so pleased that I went to Summer Madness and that My friend Rachel came with me as I wouldn't have gone if she didn’t go! I have taken home with me the most precious thing I could have and that is a relationship with God
But its not only my life that has been changed dramatically.. oh no! My dad has been an alcoholic for a long as I can remember .. it had a big affect on my family , my mum and dad separated when I was about 11. I have always had hope and faith in my dad .. never once have I thought he would never change just "I wonder when ". Well this was it I think he had really saw the change in me I have wanted to tell my dad for a long time how I felt about his drinking but never as much as when I got back .. I thought about it for a while and was talking about it and it was suggested I wrote him a letter .. Best idea ever!!!=] I believe this was the start of his journey so I managed to get him along to church.. This was just great ! then he got talking to a few people in church and they put it to him about volunteering in the cafe .. he thought about it and accepted. So my dad was really changed.. I believe this was all God’s work .. working through me to my dad. So not only has he been off alcohol for a month .. been working for the first time in I don't know how long .. oh yea and he’s made a commitment to GOD as well!!!! =] These things only God could have changed and he has. So that’s my story cut short .. I hope you are encouraged.. I sure am!
(Click play to listen to some young people’s comments from 2009)
Visit here for some random comments from this year or read on to explore one young girl’s story which she related in an email to the SM office in back in September, it was entitled......