More than 100 children aged six to nine years old were exposed to learning about animals and their habitat, craft-making, fitness and fun while sharpening up on their biblical knowledge during the first ever Luminous Youth Federation Adventurer Camp, which was held from July 10 – 12 at the West Demerara Secondary School.
Held under the auspices of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, under the theme ‘Camping With Jesus’, the camp also saw the children involved in an obstacle course race and the award of trophies, medals and certificates at the end.
The campers arrived at the site on July 10 at 3 pm and after the camp was officially declared open by Pastor Oliver Moore, the members of the participating Adventurer Clubs – Belle West, Bethelgeuse, Beulahrites, Diamond, Doxa and Onyx Adventurer Clubs – got to know each other.
The next day (Sabbath), the children led worship and later in the day were involved in a ‘sword challenge’ – finding bible texts as quickly as they could. Twenty texts later, Chief Judge Venisha Chichester announced the results with Doxa Adventurer Club taking first place and Beulahrites and Diamond second and third respectively.
Next, the adventurers earned three awards based on fishes, ladybugs and lizards after they were taught about the creatures, their habitats, lifestyle and lifecycles. The adventurers were also involved in animal craft making.
Even after a full day’s activities, they were ready for a night of games and socializing which lasted an hour, leaving them pleading for more.
Early on Sunday morning was the fitness fun award, which saw them doing various exercises such as shutter run, leap frog, stretches, sit-ups and push-ups. Later on in the mid-morning the adventurers, counsellors and directors had the camp logo printed on their jerseys by artist Mark Knights.
The final challenge was the obstacle course and each club was represented by four participants. The course entailed the adventurers doing a lime and spoon run, then running through tyres, a maze of benches, doing the limbo, crawling under tables, hopping through tyres and finally, fetching a bowl of water to the finish line. The time stopped when the last team member got in. The Diamond Adventurers came out champs, completing the obstacle course with the best time of one minute 8 seconds, snatching the first place prize of the champion’s trophy and gold medals. Bethelgeuse took the silver medals with a time of one minute 14 seconds followed by Beulahrites with one minute 18 seconds taking the bronze.
After a full weekend of activities, the Luminous Adventurer Camp closed with a presentation ceremony awarding the winners their trophies, medals and the distribution of certificates to the various club directors. The camp was officially closed by the camp director Sidney Frank.
In an interview, Luminous Youth Federation Adventurer and camp coordinator Cindy Danraj said the adventurer clubs can be found worldwide and seek to develop children ages 6 – 9 holistically. The club gives children the opportunity to learn skills, go camping, hiking, on field trips and helping them to become future leaders. The adventurer club can be found in almost every Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Guyana of which there are more than 200. She encouraged parents and guardians from any religion, race, class or creed to enrol their children aged 6-9 in the adventurer programme. Each adventurer club has directors and counsellors who volunteer their service and are trained to work with the children.
