160 young people from across the Diocese and beyond gathered joyfully for this summer’s Ripon Venture camps, which combined great activities with Christian engagement.
Guided by 80 leaders, two week-long residential courses at Ripon Grammar School for 11 to 18-year-olds included team-building exercises, such as gorge scrambling, cave exploration and group games.
“As ever, it was a privilege to be part of an impressive group of young people, out to make friends and explore their faith,” said Revd Claire Corley, who was one of the helpers, along with husband Sam, Rector of Leeds Minster.
“It was a delightful, inspiring and rewarding two weeks," she added.
“People often ask us for stories, and we can tell you many of the big ones: the night when 12 members, after many years of love and teaching from their local churches, suddenly grasped what this whole Christian thing was about and gave their lives to Christ.
“Then there’s the time when at the end of camp, you look over a sea of members and leaders praying with each other, seemingly "unaware of their age or background, just ministering to each other as naturally as we breathe.
“There’s the music workshop, which encompasses an unruly gang of members and a smattering of leaders, playing and worshiping away as if they’ve been together for years.
“Or you look over the dinner table and see hoards of faces laughing and joking as if they had been friends from birth, rather than meeting each other a mere six days ago.
Claire said it was often the small stories that captured the hearts of the leaders:
“There’s often a group who have been dragged along by their friends, coming more for the activities than the ‘God Stuff.’
"But by the end they are asking so many good questions and exploring faith in a way that they would never have considered at the start of the week.
“And of course, each year, members commit their lives to Christ.
“It’s the one of time of camp when you feel particularly small, when you get to sit alongside someone confident enough to say "yes" to Christ.
“It never stops being an incredible, humbling moment,” said Claire, pictured right with Sam.