Camp Ministry in a Covid-19 World

What Lutheran Youth of Queensland does best is bring young people together in community through its camps and programs, which Covid-19 drastically put on hold.  With a lot of adapting and support, the team has gone above and beyond to continue to connect with young people over the last few months.

“Because we couldn’t meet in person we didn’t want to just cancel everything with no alternatives,” says Sarah Gates, LYQ’s Events Coordinator.  “We were conscious that there was very much still a need for connection and support so we didn’t want to leave that space empty.  So a lot of our attention turned toward offering events online and recreating as much as we possibly could of our in-person camping ministry in a digital space.”

Some of the Junior Online Camp craft pieces.

This involved creating online alternatives for their Young Adult Conference, Kids Camp, Christian Life Week and their Annual Appeal event.

“Afterwards we were really thankful that people reached out to us and said to us ‘thank you for still going ahead despite circumstances and doing what you could do’, and I was really pleased too in that some people’s feedback it showed me that you can still develop community online,” says Sarah.  “It really showed me how God is so present everywhere and that includes online.”

LYQ is starting camps again for the spring holidays which will be in line with Covid-19 regulations, with Central Queensland CLW and a new 3 day adventure camp called Springboard, themed around personal and spiritual resilience.  LYQ’s summer season is looking to be able to go ahead relatively normally also.

“We’re just really thankful for our community through all of this,” says Sarah.  “It goes hand in hand in that we exist to support the young people and broader Lutheran community, but also really thankful for the support we receive back.”

INFO:

Head here for more info and to register for CQ CLW.

Head here (junior camp) or here (senior camp) for more info and to register for Springboard.

SUPPORT:

If you would like support the work of LYQ’s camping ministry, you can either volunteer as a leader for their camps (they welcome applications from all people with a range of ages and experiences), financially, through prayer, or simply by encouraging a young person to come along to a camp.