Aldridge Youth Fellowship                     Camp 2004    "Through Fellowship, Through Friendship, To Christ"    Check out the site where we have camped as a group for               nearly 30 years.    www.pittoncross.co.uk
	Aldridge Youth Fellowship Camp 2004...        ...was just an amazing place to be!
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There are very few proper canvas youth camps left these days, most have ceased to exist, but AYF bucks the trend, and has an annual 8 day one each year in Rhossili, on The Gower in South Wales.
We set off on Saturday 17th, and returned on Monday 26th July.
Where we stay is a beautiful place. It is on a farm right on the coast at a place called Pitton Cross.
There is a caravan & camping park nearby, click here for details. www.pittoncross.co.uk
There were about 55 of us that literally drove into a grassy field, and using our own equipment, set up home for 8 days of fun, fellowship, and an opportunity to learn more about the christian faith, and whether it's relevant to young people today.

We are delighted to say that Christianity IS relevant to teenagers today, and 12 of them made a commitment of faith to Christ, during the eight days, and we are so grateful to God for His goodness to us.

We cook and wash up for ourselves in cooking teams, and after a cooked breakfast each day, we have structured Quiet Time groups with about 6 teenagers in each one, that meet together to talk through and discuss the spiritual theme of the camp. This year we decided to look at the Alpha course, and we just had an amazing time together.
After the QT groups we move off for the days activities, which, weather permitting, is the beach! At the end of each day, after a welcome cooked meal, we meet together in one of our two marquees for our evening epilogue. Here we worship God, share together; pray together; and listen to one of the Alpha talks, and it's what we heard each night that was discussed in the QT groups the next morning.

Other articles from the teenagers themselves will follow, but for now we just want our church family to know that we are so grateful for all their prayers of love and support, not to mention the cakes you baked or bought for us!

On the next few pages, you will see photographs of just a little of what went on in Rhossili this year. More will be added as they become available.

We are so grateful too, for the tremendous help we had from members of our church family who helped us with transport this year.
Chris Blunt drove both to and from camp with the lorry we use, Kevin Ivory drove one of our mini buses down, and Dave Riley drove it back. The other buses were driven by members of the AYF leadership team, who I think we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude for organising such an event.

Those of us who have done youth camps in the past, will know the enormous amount of work that is involved in such ventures, and without such a dedicated team, we would have had 12 fewer Christians in God's kingdom, and many more wouldn't have had their faith strengthened and increased as they did. So a big thank you to Rob & Annette Cook, Trevor Francis, Matt Emery, Lee & Becky Plummer, and Katie Appleby.

We were also most encouraged again when Richard our Rector came and camped with us for a couple of nights with his five year old son Joseph. Sadly the weather whilst Richard & Joe were with us wasn't the best, but we were so encouraged by the time that they took out to stay with us. It was also a joy to be able to share communion together whilst having our 'man of the cloth' with us! This was the first time ever that we've been able to do this, and it was really lovely. We had intended to have communion on the beach, and Richard was going to baptise two of the leaders in the sea, but the weather took over, so we were confined to the marquee, where we broke bread together, and it was very special time.

Here is a teenage version of the Lord's Prayer that was written on camp.

Here are some photographs as to what went on.

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Check out this website:  www.the-gower.com