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.
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.
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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Leaving a legacy is another way to make a life-changing impact in a young person's life.
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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