I want you to think about your home congregation for a moment. Are there many people who attend? Are there only a few? Perhaps it is just you and your parents. How about the individuals in your congregation: Do you get along with all of them? What do they think of you? How much time do you spend with them, and how much help do you give them? It’s easy to be deceived by the notion that you are too young—and that there isn’t much you can do for your congregation.

Now think! Where have I been for the past three weeks? Who else in your home congregation has had the chance to go to the world headquarters of the Philadelphia Church of God so recently? Who else in your congregation has had the chance to hear so many personalized messages? Who else has had the opportunity to spend three weeks with 143 like-minded individuals of his or her own age? You have just returned from a tremendously unique and special camp. pyc is not only designed to help you, but also to help your congregation. What can you take from your pyc experience to really help your congregation?

First, bring home the headquarters focus.

In his booklet The Book of Chronicles, Pastor General Gerald Flurry states:

[T]he focus must be on headquarters. What could we accomplish today if God hadn’t established a headquarters from where He can direct all the activities of the Work? It is through headquarters, today in Edmond, Oklahoma, that God anchors our focus in Jerusalem and everything that is about to happen there. God’s house that we have built points us toward the Ezekiel temple we are about to build in Jerusalem!

You have just spent three weeks at headquarters, at the very location of God’s house, the last temple built during this age. What a wonderful and unique opportunity! Make sure that you share that experience with the members back home. Get them excited about the latest news from headquarters. Talk to them about the magnificent buildings and about new projects. Show them all the exciting things that are being accomplished with the tithes and offerings they send! Make it come alive for them. More than likely, many in your congregation have not had the chance to visit headquarters. You might be the closest they will get to headquarters, and their impression of God’s headquarters on Earth will be formed by what you say about your experience there. Don’t be shy and hang back. Take the opportunity to fellowship with the members in your congregation and to bring them the headquarters focus.

Second, encourage the older members of your congregation.

I remember my home congregation in New Zealand giving so much to me. The older members of the congregation spent hundreds of hours fundraising for pyc (in Australia, at the time). Now, returning from pyc, it is your chance to give something back to those members! Whether or not they contributed directly to your attending camp this year, consider all the time the members have spent with you, the prayers they have offered on your behalf and for the success of the camp, and all their donations and offerings that help make pyc a success. All of us owe a lot more than we realize to the older members of our congregations. So spend time with them, get to know them better, and talk to them about your pyc experiences that they helped to make possible. Get them excited to know that their time, money and efforts have been put to good use—and get them excited for pyc next year!

Finally, use your experience to encourage younger children to attend PYC.

The more excited, uplifted and exuberant you are after camp, the more you will inspire others to attend. Readily talk to the children in the congregation about camp. Get them excited about it, looking forward to the day when they may finally be able to attend. I remember, as a young boy, hearing about pyc from one of the teens in my congregation who had attended. We were counting down the years together until I would finally be able to attend with him! Talk to the younger children about the fun you had, about the activities and the messages. Young people can get a piece of the headquarters focus too!

It was a fantastic pyc this year—the messages, activities, miraculous weather—but the experience should not end after only three weeks. And the preparation starts now for next year. Each of you has a responsibility to bring home the headquarters focus, to inspire the older members of your congregation, to inspire the upcoming pyc applicants.

When you came to pyc, you represented your home congregation; now, returning from pyc, think of yourself as a representative of headquarters. Bring pyc home with you, and make it live for the members. You are not too young to make a difference in your congregation.

As Paul told the young minister Timothy: “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example …” (1 Timothy 4:12). Age is no excuse! And so, be an example of how much pyc has changed your life, and use your experience to help change the lives of others in your congregation.