2 August 2019 | Ardingly, UK [Victor Hulbert]
Late night at camporee is campfire time. In practical terms there is no need for a fire as the air is warm, yet campers are seeking out national groups that have the best fires, the 
most creative pioneering structures, the tastiest refreshments, and the liveliest games and singing. Campfire is where networking is at its best.
It is the evening of day 3 at the Trans-European Division International camporee but the Pathfinders still have boundless energy after a day when activities started in earnest. Morning and afternoon, organised on a rotating basis, clubs have the choice of 65 activities, including Pathfinder honours, campcraft, creative crafts and various sports. Some go off site for kayaking and paddle-boarding at a nearby reservoir, while others try their hand at pottery, the skill of making your own skipping rope with triple, multi-coloured string, baking bread on an open fire, woggle making, or discovering bugs. Badminton, archery, and other creative sports are also available.
Some honours take a full two-hour session and deepen the understanding of the camporee theme, ‘Exodus’. At the far end of one field a group of Pathfinders are gathered around three tables, learning the details of the Old Testament tabernacle, constructing a model version and learning songs that help them understand the meaning. Pastor Obi from Birmingham is leading the group and sums up the whole two-hour session in one sentence, “It is all about Jesus.”
Quickly slip around the edge of the Danish camp and you can do more than build a model of the tabernacle, you can walk inside it. Pastor Julian Gudmundsson has created a scale model complete with shewbread, laver, and the golden awe inside the Holy of Holies. At night, a 4-meter inflatable balloon represents the pillar of fire that reminded the Israelites of God’s presence.
Those same symbols were demonstrated in a very practical way during evening worship as devotional speaker, Pastor Melissa Myklebust utilised a smoke machine and some sparkling science to re-create these symbols of God’s presence – not just for Israel, but in the lives of Pathfinders today.
She also had the sceptics and grumblers. These were represented by two teens who ‘longed for the food of Egypt’ and couldn’t understand why God had dragged them into the barren desert.
Pastor Melissa carefully explained to them how freedom from slavery had its challenges, but that we need to make choices. We have a choice for good or for bad – but God can help us turn those choices around in a positive direction. She used a one-meter-tall glass vase of water to first symbolise the Red Sea crossing, which then went on to represent baptism, and encouraging Pathfinders to make a life choice to have Jesus as their best friend. Many of those baptismal commitments will be realised back in their home churches, but for some, that public commitment will be on Sabbath.
With the fun and laughter around the campfire, TED Pathfinder director, Peter Bo Bohsen and the whole team are thankful for committed youth from across Europe and beyond, who choose to spend time in a positive Christian environment, getting to know each other across countries and geographical divides, but more importantly, deepening their knowledge of the Saviour, who led the Israelites out of slavery across the Red Sea, and who leads Pathfinders to unite across cultures in a church family who love God and seek to serve Him.
Morning and evening programmes and Sabbath Services are available on LiveStream from our website and the TED Facebook page.
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, editor; Deana Stojković, associate editor
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