Lives of children and young people are changed as they are given the opportunity to discover Jesus and grow in faith. Check out the stories below to read about the young lives impacted through SUNZ ministries.
SUNZ Scripture Union NZ are committed to our camp ministry for children and young people to find and explore their Christian faith in the great outdoors.
Our camp ministry is run by paid staff and an army of volunteers who financially and prayerfully support camps, assist with logistics, cook, clean, and help lead camps.
Oversight of camps has been managed by our SU Youth Team Leader, who is needing more time to focus on other youth ministry needs.So, after many hours of discussion and prayer, this work has been restructured and shaped into a new role of National Youth Camps Team Leader.
The process of planning this new role has been challenging and exciting.So much, that one of the planners has decided that “hey, I’d love to do that!” SUNZ agree, we’d love Natalie to take on this work, and affirm that God has called Natalie Duchesne into this national leadership role.
Natalie is currently the North Island Camps Facilitator (with occasional camping on a South Island camp!) and she is boldly and prayerfully stepping up to team leadership of SU Camps. She has been with SUNZ since 2019 and has shown incredible relationship-building and discernment of what our young people are wanting and needing. She has shaped SU camps as nurturing times for youth to explore their personal faith journey while exploring the wonder of God’s creation.
‘Camps provide so much to young people - safe spaces to ask questions and wrestle with hardship, the opportunity to encounter God in unexpected places, being exposed to different expressions of faith, all while having the chance to be challenged physically and grow socially. To be able to do this all in the context of creation just makes it all the greater.’ – Natalie
Why does SUNZ need a National Youth Camps Team Leader?
We recognize the enormous amount of administrative, regulatory and relationship work needed to run our camps across the North and South Islands. We need this position to be visual and the work to be centralized. We want to increase our camper numbers and introduce exciting new camps.
What does the National Youth Camps Team Leader need?
Prayer, practical support, and financial support.
We need RIMA-TEKAU!, fifty generous donors to give $50 per month for Natalie to step up into this leadership position, to help grow SU camps.
Natalie with the Wild Wāhine North April 2023 camp
Natalie with SU campers
See and know more about Natalie in the ‘INTO THE DEEP’ series filmed in May 2022
Click the button to Donate towards Natalie's Ministry
OR to Account 020560 006204 00 with reference ND0823
Thank you for your support of our RIMA-TEKAU! campaign for Natalie.
If you could have any biblical character as a mentor or spiritual advisor, who would you choose and why?
N: My answer changes periodically, but now I'd say John the Baptist, just because I respect him eating locusts (insects - the most sustainable meat!) and experienced wilderness in interesting and rugged ways. I'm intrigued by the ways he set himself up to live differently to the norms of the day and by his connection to creation.
J: I think Moses would be my pick. He demonstrated a deep love for God and others, humility in his approach to God and his own abilities, and was passionate to serve God, and His chosen people.
What is the most interesting or unique way you have seen someone share their faith with others?
J: The most unique way I have seen someone share their faith was at Southern Easter Camp. A young person joined our youth group a couple of weeks before EC, so he didn't know many people or have any connections with our leaders. Camp Dad got right in there beside him and built this amazing friendship. This kid really needed a mentor in his life. After EC, this kid is still connected into youth group, coming to church, and Camp Dad is taking him out on fun outdoor adventures and helping him with his study. To me this is sharing faith, sometimes it's not spoken but in the actions we do.
What is one thing you wish non-Christians know or understand about your faith?
N: I wish it were more well known that expression (and theology) of Christian faith differs person to person. I think it would make for a lot more curiosity and healthy conversation.
J: One thing I wish people who don't practice a Christian faith know is just like any thought in the world, it's diverse. It's the whole thing of 'not all...'. It's hard sometimes to share certain opinions or views around my faith because it's shut down by things that I personally don't believe in, but others think I do.
What is one of your special Bible story or passages, or worship song, and why?
N: I love 'The Road to Emmaus'. It's a rich example of manaakitanga; of both being hospitable in spirit and being hospitable in home/with resources. It's also an example of pilgrimage and walking with intention and purpose - something we like to apply on our camps when we run outdoor activities.
J: I grew up on a wide range of worship music, so choosing one is hard but for the case of a story I'll pick “The Goodness of God” by Jenn Johnson. I spent my summer in Te Anau running SUNZ summer camps. We connected in with the local Presbyterian Church. The Sunday morning before campers arrived, I met the preacher and his wife. I chatted to the preacher for a while and to his wife for only a minute, however that short time, she learned a lot about me. The week after this encounter I received an email from her that was so honest and accurate. She also sent a link of a song that she felt like God needed me to hear.
Any inside tips on the best campsite in Aotearoa New Zealand?
N: I appreciate DOC huts more than I can put to words. Next time you see me, ask me where my favourite hut is, and we'll plan to go together! When it comes to campgounds, it's hard to go past the Coromandel Peninsula - visit Waikawau Bay Conservation Campsite and you will not be disappointed.
J: One back country hut I love is Goats Pass. It's worth the hike up the rivers filled with giant boulders. It sits up in the mountains on the main divide. The boardwalk trails are a nice treat on the way back down the Minga River. A good camping site in the front country is Punakaiki Beach Camp, this place is amazing, like Avatar but without the blue people. The scenery is incredible. Worth heading to the West Coast.
Do you have a secret snack stash...what’s in there?
N: Dried mango! Roasted chickpeas! Baked pea crisps! Green apples and peanut butter!
J: Inside my secret snack stash is Haribo Gummy Bears, dried mangos slices, Whittakers chocolate berry forest and Pringles chips!
Tell me about finding shelter outdoors (funny tent story, hot tips on camp set up, getting lost...)
N: When I'm hiking, I've developed the habit of scanning my surroundings for natural shelter - whether it be a hollowed-out log, a complex root system, an overhanging rock/cave and more. Would it be pleasant to sleep in there overnight? Likely not. However, it’s a great way to develop your imagination and observation skills, and good practice if you do get stuck in the outdoors overnight and must use what you have on you to build a shelter!
[Another great shelter] is a multi-coloured parachute like kids play with. I get it out of my pack when people least expect it (on top of a windy hill on Pōnui Island was the last time...) and get everyone to grip the sides, pull it over the group, and suddenly we're in a serene shelter.
J: When I was studying Outdoor Education at Ara, we planned to head up Deception Valley. Our tutor liked leaving early afternoon while other groups left early morning. We just thought he loved a sleep in but turns out he loved hiking and navigating in the dark. We were about halfway up the valley and sunlight was slowly fading. Unknown to us we started heading up the wrong river. Our tutor knew but allowed us to figure it out ourselves and find our way back to the hut in the early hours of the morning.
GIVEAWAY! First five people to email Jayden jayden.meads@sunz.org.nz with their own response to any of these questions will each receive a pack of Haribo Gummy Bears! [answer only if you really, really love gummy bears like Jayden does!]
Nō reira, tēnā koutou katoa
It is my privilege to be youth consultant for Otago & Southland while Lizzie Moore is on maternity leave. I have been working with young people for many years (from preschoolers right through to teens and young adults). Most recently I have been a community youth worker in Taieri/Mosgiel employed by a local trust in youth leadership. This role will continue alongside the work I'll be doing with SUNZ. I am also mum to two teenagers, so have a wealth of experience from a personal perspective as well as the professional. Seeing people grow and develop is my passion, and I am amazed by the many ways God works in and through people. Faith in God has carried me through many trials and tribulations, and I know He continues to guide my steps and light my path. While God is my rock, family are my reality check - they keep me grounded!
A note from SUNZ:
Larissa is working 3 days a week for Scripture Union (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday). You can email her on larissa.pearce@sunz.org.nz
We inspire lifelong discipleship - SUNZ
Read the story of Ken’s family across three generations over the past five decades. It shows the impact SUNZ has had on their lives.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR EARLIEST ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD?
Ken: “My earliest awareness of God was in the context of my family, who involved me as a child in the life of our little local church. My early encounters are a little difficult to identify at this distance, but I grew up to be aware that there was a God and that he needed to be engaged with.”
Mark: My earliest awareness and understanding of God was shaped in numerous settings – the church I attended in Titahi Bay; the ‘Happy Hour’ run after school on Tuesdays by a local Christian couple; Scripture Union holiday programmes; Easter camps. It was at Happy Hour that I first remember being invited to consider responding to God for myself. That was meaningful to me, even if by itself it was only ever going to be sustaining in a limited sort of way. But it wasn’t by itself; it took part within a web of sustaining Christian inputs.
There is a very real sense in which that emphasis on fidelity to the gospel and respect for the people we seek to reach is a baton that has been passed on, and the race is still being run – thoughtfully, prayerfully, faithfully, very often undramatically. This work is an enabler of the kind of Christian maturity that has characterised so many SU people I have known and know now.
DID SUNZ FEATURE IN YOUR CHILDHOOD/TEENAGE YEARS?
Ken: Yes and no. I can clearly remember using an orange card, with a full year of Bible reading references on it, and when I look back I recognise the stamp of Scripture Union, but I don’t think I was aware of it at the time. I didn’t attend camps, but I sporadically attended the Crusader group at Hawera High School, in spite of my deep suspicions about its inter-denominationalism. Even then, it was more of a local entity in my mind, SU origins though it unarguably had. My first real involvement came in the 1970s when, as a teacher at Tawa College, I became involved in helping to run the local ISCF group. I was inveigled into that by Paul Thompson, later a Baptist missionary in Bangladesh but then a member of my sixth form English class. I also became involved in sundry camps and conferences, meeting my wife Felicia at an SU conference, and the organisation that is Scripture Union began to assume a clearer focus for me. It turns out that Felicia, as a three-year-old, used to go with her mother to help run a Crusader group at Napier Girls’ High School, so our family is really a four-generation SU unit.
Mark: I used to attend the Scripture Union holiday programme at Easter Camp in Waikanae each year, led by Ron and ’Tricia Fountain. Many of the songs we sang are still in my head now – ‘My hat, it has three corners’ and ‘It was a Good Fri-, Good Fri-, Good Friday…, among others. Later I led on holiday programmes, both at Easter Camp and at Cannons Creek in Porirua.
They were filled with a unique, Fountain-esque blend of manic energy and careful pedagogy. I am bowled over, thinking back, by the seriousness with which Ron and ’Tricia took (and modelled) the task of sharing the Gospel with little children. As a teenager, I attended a handful of Scripture Union camps during school holidays – a bike camp in Golden Bay, a surf camp at Mangawhai Heads, tramping at Waikaremoana. These were like pop-up monastic communities, involving heart, mind, and body in responding to God and to one another, and they encouraged me to think about my own personal response to the gospel.
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More recently, William, my son who is now eleven, has attended a Scripture Union camp in Wainuiomata for primary school-aged children (SUPAKidZ camp). He has also embarked on his first set of Scripture Union Bible notes – though it might be time to dust them off again!
WHAT INTERACTIONS HAVE YOU HAD WITH SUNZ OVER THE YEARS? HOW HAVE THEY BEEN HELPFUL IN YOUR LIFE AND FAITH?Ken: See above and add to that my presence on the staff as National Director between 1989 and 1998. During those years, no aspect of SU at home or abroad was outside my field of sympathetic awareness. They have broadened my appreciation of the body of Christ in 150 countries and in ways of expression approaching the kaleidoscopic. International gatherings of saints from persecuted backgrounds and of sinners from closer to home have demonstrated the great inclusivity of the body of Christ. Most regularly today, I am a user of Encounter with God Bible reading notes, for which I have also written over the years and added to my Biblical literacy in doing so.
Mark: A legacy of my involvement with Scripture Union has been the exposure it has given me to mature Christians. Many such people stayed in our family home when Dad worked for Scripture Union in the 1990s. Many others were leaders on camps I attended or helped to lead. Tim Mora, for example, who was prominent nationally as a Christian voice following the Pike River disaster,led the studies on the first ever SU camp I attended. Such people have lingered in my mind for years, and by serving as camp leaders, they have allowed people like me to live alongside them for a period, and to see up close the impact that a life lived in service to Jesus can have. When William attended the SUPAKidZ camp, I dropped him off at the campground, leaving him in the hands of Andrew Ramsbottom, SU Children & Families worker. Andrew had stayed with us when he first arrived in New Zealand decades earlier, appointed to the SU staff by my father. It gave a new resonance to that Old Testament refrain about passing down God’s blessing and instruction from one generation to the next.
WHAT INTERACTIONS HAVE YOU HAD WITH SUNZ OVER THE YEARS? HOW HAVE THEY BEEN HELPFUL IN YOUR LIFE AND FAITH?Ken: I trust SUNZ with my donations because they work, with integrity, to extend the kingdom of God in a visibly needy world, and such giving enables me to have a small role to play in a great, great mission. SUNZ has stayed true to its mission through the years, without turning the movement into a monument, by working with people of thoughtful faith and honesty of character who adapt their work to the constantly evolving challenges of society. When I announced I was finishing my time as National Director in 1998 one supporter wrote to ask, “Why are you leaving Scripture Union?” and I replied, “I’m not. I’m just stopping being on the staff.” True then, and true still. It is a movement. Mark: I continue to give to Scripture Union because I believe they do good work. I mentioned above the history of sound pedagogy modelled by Ron and ’Tricia at holiday programmes. The current National Director, Hilary Hague, worked alongside Ron and ’Tricia back in those days too. There is a very real sense in which that emphasis on fidelity to the gospel and respect for the people we seek to reach is a baton that has been passed on, and the race is still being run – thoughtfully, prayerfully, faithfully, very often undramatically. This work is an enabler of the kind of Christian maturity that has characterised so many SU people I have known and know now. Donate to support youth and children's workers across New Zealand
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Q&A from Exodus Prime in Waikanae
What are your biggest questions about Jesus and the Bible right now?
WILL: When Jesus touches someone, how does he magically heal someone?
What Bible stories have you learnt about? What did you like about that story?
WILL: When Jesus healed the two blind men. The two blind men are healed now.
What have you learnt about God?
WILL: That he is magical in every way!
ARABELLA: I didn’t forget this, but I needed this as a reminder – that he loves us no matter what. And that God created the whole universe, and he cared enough to create me too.
What’s been the best part of camp so far?
ARABELLA: Meeting people and getting to know my campers and other campers, also getting to know more people.
Would you come to another camp like this?
ARABELLA: Yes, definitely! The people here are amazing and so kind, the other campers are so easy and fun to be around.
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