The WA Easter youth camp at Lucky Bay, outside Kalbarri National Park, was previously planned for 2020, at the same time as the regional border closure. Because of the delay however, we were happy to have Lidia and Joe Voncina visiting in time for the camp.
Most families started arriving around 4 o’clock Friday afternoon, and we set up camp before worship and opening Sabbath.
Sabbath School the next morning was taken by Luke Kneebone and included a very long discussion, since no one except Luke had a Sabbath School lesson.
In place of a sermon, Gerson Robles, Cameron Brown, Luke Kneebone, and Catherine Robles gave instruction on how to prepare a sermon or worship, designed to help the youth with presenting worships or talks. They were all very helpful, and they showed a variety of methods and styles. This may have been in response to previous comments from the young people that they were given worships to take without any previous training. The youth were then given an opportunity to put their brand-new training to use by being placed in groups of two and taking a worship each for the rest of camp.
After lunch, and an unfortunate incident involving Dina and her lunch’s closer acquaintance with the ground, we set off for the lookouts along the coast. We stopped at the Natural Bridge and Island Rock, as well as the Eagle Gorge lookout and beach, but my favourite was the Grandstand that looked down on a tiny rocky cove. After the lookouts, we went to Pot Alley, apparently named after the local crab fishers lost one too many crab pots! We stayed until after sunset and enjoyed climbing around the rocks and watching the rescue mission for the shoe that fell into the ocean, before closing Sabbath there.
On Sunday morning worship was given by Dina and Jhana, and after breakfast everyone got ready to leave for Kalbarri National Park. Like smart Western Australians, we left around 11, to a place where one of the walking trails closes at 7 am due to risk of heatstroke and death if walked later in the day. On the way there we went past the turnoff, which we blamed on the leading car’s driver rather than the navigator, since there was a very big sign.
The first lookout was the two skywalks, which some enjoyed, while others, including myself, avoided looking down and left as soon as possible! After that was the walk to Nature’s Window, which was beautiful, but we were beginning to understand why people didn’t go there in the hottest part of the day.
After lunch at the Z Bend lookout, the more adventurous members of the group took the trail down to the river and then met up with the rest of the group at the lookout (Except Johnny and Luke who climbed up the side of the gorge to get to the lookout, naturally). After that was a swim and kayak at the mouth of the Murchison River.
On the way back to camp there were some frantic preparations for a worship that was moved to an earlier time to fit all the groups in. After both worships were presented by Isaac and Esther, and Hannah and Johnny, camp was officially closed, and some people went to bed. But since camps do not usually end once they are closed, a discussion started up about the camp. This led to further discussion on who got to be classified as youth. It involved the disadvantages of an age cut off, what happened when non-youth came to a youth camp, and whether or not WA youth were boring for not having had enough near-death experiences. Those in the discussion that had aged out of the 13-30 age bracket were generously assured that they were not in the non-youth group and were a joy to have at youth camps. The discussion wound down at 11, and Jade and Luke kicked us out from under their caravan awning.
Those who went to the camp had a wonderful time, and there was a big round of thanks to the field youth leader, Inneka, and her assistants, Johnny and Jade, for organising it. We also thank Joe and Lidia for coming. Their presence was very much enjoyed, and it was strongly and well-argued that they should make a permanent visit.
Hannah Lausevic
