Daughter 11 wants to go on a Christian camp

seven-day-weekend

Spring Harvest and Greenbelt festivals are fine for a young person of that age. I have been to both and we took our son to them from an early age. Later he went to Greenbelt himself as a volunteer helper.

I have not been to Soul Survivor myself but many of the youth from our church go. They are usually teenagers though, perhaps 11 might be a bit young for this event. On Soul Survivor's website it says it is for young people and younger adults, so seems to suggest that 11 might be a bit young.

chirpychick

I have actually been to Soul Survivor on a number of occasions and I really firmly believe it depends on the adults supervising and the child.

When I went we camped with our friends (and my Mum was relieved to be assured that it would be certain no boys and girls mixing in 1 tent!) I had never been camping before so learning to put up a tent, cooking our own food etc was a valuable and fun experience.
We went to the main morning and evening events in the big tent where we enjoyed the music and listened to various different preachers but it was an all age thing in the big tent so nothing to deep or harsh just mainly about thinking about children in Africa or thinking about making the right choices in regards to sex (and lets be honest thats not exactly a bad thing these days with babies having babies) and there were specific girls workshops which were about building up your self esteem, how to handle bullies and learning to love yourself and not worry if you were spotty or wore glasses and in the same respect not to be mean to those who were different from you - again not something I see as harmful.

During the in between times you dont HAVE to go to different talks etc you can go to the skate park or go have drinks or food or do a bit of shopping.
The place isn't "locked down" as someone described, you can come and go as long as you are supervised - and who wants their 11 year old to be wondering around in a strange place unsupervised?!

The idea is that everything is on site to make it more fun and easily manageable for the leaders.

of course there is going to be a lot of "god stuff" but you lot make it out like it is some kind of weird cult - presumptions from people who have never been.

It was a fun experience for me, I made friends and had a nice time.

Im not a bible bashing baptist but being a part of youth groups and going to Christian camps like Soul Survivor kept me out of trouble when life around me was falling apart and I could have easily have been led in the direction of drink and alcohol at a very young and vulnerable age. Instead I was looked after by the community.

FWIW my Mum at one point did wonder if I had become part of a cult at first as she had no clue about what I was actually doing.

So if you are concerned and its because you don't really know what's going on why not offer to volunteer at the youth group or on a trip and then you can see what your child is actually involved in and then make an educated decision, rather than jumping to conclusions.

I am sure I will get shot down for giving my pennies worth but it always helps to hear the flip side of the coin.

I wouldn't send my child anywhere or with anyone regardless of religion without knowing exactly what it entailed, so talking with the people taking them, ringing up the company, things like that so that you really know what your child will be involved in.

Generally going to seminars is optional and plenty of people just hung around making games like frizbee and football and if we didn't want to go to the big main tent twice a day then we didnt have to.

suki1001

Thank you for posting chirpychick - I won't quote you because it's a long post. I'm glad you had good experiences from it, but I'd like to think that there are other things in life (like my parenting) that will help her make the right decisions.

Although you rate it, I still don't think it's the sort of thing I'd be happy with her going to - I certainly don't really want to take that chance especially given another posters experiences. But thank you anyway.

Torry_Quine

claire16c wrote: »

I'm not sure I'd called evangelical baptists mainstream.

Of course evangelical baptists are mainstream. :eek:

coinxoperated

Just wanted to reply to your original post.

When I was about 11/12, I went to a Christian friend to a religious camp called New Wine with her and her mother.

Firstly, my parents had never pushed any religion on to me, I wasn't raised with a specific 'faith' and had friends from a variety of religious backgrounds..

Anyway, went to the camp. Nothing bad happened. I personally feel it actually pushed me much further away from Christianity as a religion. Although only 11/12 years old, I mixed with some of the older children. After a 'prayer' session where smoe people were fainting because they had been spoken to by 'god'... behind the tent this 'prayer' session was happening, was a dozen teenagers smoking, drinking, snogging and everything else teenagers do.

Something that did seem to be a very clear difference between a general camping session and a religious one, was that all of their parents trusted the children. There was a real sense of 'go, be free! Love god!' all the time. This inevitably led teenagers to do what they wanted, which was not necessarily bible worthy.

Its important that you trust who your child is going with and do not be rose tinted by the fact they are religious or the camping trip is a religious one. The same risks are there. The same things will happen as in any other scenario. The main worry for me would be that the parents didn't ensure your child was 'watched' throughout the event.

In my case, the festival / camping thing had over 100,000 people attend. Imagine all of those people, all trusting one another 100%, and an 11 year old in the middle of that. It's a risk, and in my opinion, a higher risk than a camping trip with, for example, Brownies or something similar.

I'm also without religion now and even after exploring various ones and learning more about them, I've decided I just can't really believe something that can not be factual proven. Be prepared for some interesting conversations when your little one returns.

There were extremely conflicting messages about the religion at New Wine when I went. Maybe I have just always been a bit skeptic about the invisable man in the sky...:rotfl:

The looks on their faces when I mentioned evolution was spectacular:rotfl:

suki1001

coinxoperated wrote: »

Just wanted to reply to your original post.

When I was about 11/12, I went to a Christian friend to a religious camp called New Wine with her and her mother.

The church also go to that one too, you've now thoroughly put me off.

I thought it was only the Catholic kids that did all that - Boy, when I went to Lourdes on a school trip was I fed up of everyone throwing up in the dorms from too much alcohol! That was the wildest holiday I've ever had - made 18-30's look tame! (I have never been on an 18-30's and now I'm past it btw:))

coinxoperated

I wasn't meaning to post a scaremongering post. Sorry if it came across that way. Unfortunately, when someone is known to be a specific religion that has certain nice 'rules' its almost an expectation that they will stick to them, especially from other people who practice that religion.

They ain't all as nice as they seem. Thats all!

On a brighter note, I made a couple of very well-off friends who brought me some fantastic birthday presents afterwards! I also learnt that christianity wasn't for me, it could easily have gone the other way maybe if I had been brought up differently..

Its really just about trusting your child and who they are going with. Thats the main thing here x

claire16c

Torry_Quine wrote: »

Of course evangelical baptists are mainstream. :eek:

Maybe in the USA. The types of people who run Soul Survivor are not what I would think of as the 'average' Christian in the UK.

Torry_Quine

claire16c wrote: »

Maybe in the USA. The types of people who run Soul Survivor are not what I would think of as the 'average' Christian in the UK.

Here in the UK evangelical baptists are mainstream actually and I'm actually shocked that you would think otherwise.:eek:

Soul Survivor is not an exclusively baptist organisation and not necessarily the views expressed in baptist churches either.

Treevo

Torry_Quine wrote: »

Here in the UK evangelical baptists are mainstream actually and I'm actually shocked that you would think otherwise.:eek:

Soul Survivor is not an exclusively baptist organisation and not necessarily the views expressed in baptist churches either.

Maybe to an evangelical, but not to the rest of us.