AUSTRALIA—Sixty-five Philadelphia Church of God members and families from the Brisbane congregation camped at Camp Bornhoffen from June 26-29.

The camp began with a Sabbath meal on Friday night, and numbers swelled to 90 on the Sabbath for a pre-recorded Bible study from headquarters Preaching Elder Mark Nash that encouraged members to love one another, a sermonette by Local Church Elder Brian Sherwood on being guileless, and a sermon by Preaching Elder Aaron Hudson about how teens can exercise living faith.

After Saturday dinner, entries in the dessert competition, one of which took 10 hours to create, were judged according to two categories: creativity and taste. The Bullock family won the creativity category with a gingerbread house, and the Eames family won the taste category with a chessboard cheesecake, complete with chess pieces.

Teen Eden McKee said, “I was very impressed by the amount of work and the creativity that had been put into the desserts.”

The night ended with a dance, including musical chairs, “Knights, Mounts and Cavaliers” and a freeze competition.

On Sunday morning, member Colin Morris helped racers with their pine car constructions. In the afternoon, outdoor soccer and basketball games were refereed by member Jeffery Labao and Mark Costantine. Sunday afternoon was the only sunny and dry day during the weekend.

“The soccer matches were the best I have ever participated in,” prospective member Bradley Smithies said, “and I really enjoyed how the teams seemed to work together particularly well.”

“It was good to have time out of usually very busy weekends at home to have some leisurely talks with my daughter,” member Ross McKee said.

After the pine car race Sunday night, the camp packed up Monday morning. Before breakfast, Mr. Hudson brought attention to the blessing of dry weather and the work deacon Kelvin Eames and member Stuart Winship put into organizing the weekend.

Member Mike Gilmore said, “I have enjoyed the weekend because it has been a chance to be one step from the world for a little while.”

“I can really see the benefit for the youth, as it allows them to experience a godly sense of fun away from the world,” Sydney single George Haddad said. “It kind of refocuses everyone’s perspective on the God Family.”