“Malo ‘aupito and thank you” – Siosaia Funaki Jr reflects on UYC23

UYC ( Uniting Youth Camp) is a church camp that is aimed towards highschoolers from all uniting churches across New South Wales between the ages of 13 all the way to 18. Representing our church, Warnervale Uniting Church, was myself, Siosaia Funaki, and my sister Fepaki Funaki.

This youth camp happens yearly and contains a myriad of fun things to do with-in the span of 4 days. The main things that happened at the camp are fun activities, challenges, church-themed quizzes and worship every day, which happened when we woke up and just before we went to sleep. Each year there is a specific theme that the church camp is mainly focused on throughout the whole thing. The theme that was picked for this year’s camp was “That’s my team”.

This year’s theme mainly evolved around team-work, meeting others who believed in the faith and helping one another with certain challenges we had to face during the camp. Personally, the youth camp this year was an eye opening experience not only spiritually but also mentally and socially. A memorable moment that i had at the camp was the last night we had there. On the last night of the camp, the leaders had put together a somewhat of a performance night where anyone could perform a certain act, dance or song with as many people you wanted to. Before the night I had met a bunch of boys who I had never met before, But as the camp continued on we connected more not only through the faith we shared, but also through the diversity of our cultures. As the camp progressed, we all went from strangers to close friends within just the time of three whole days.

While connecting, we had all found out about the performance night and all wanted to perform not only for our culture, But for our faith. So when the time came to perform our song, we performed a song dedicated to the lord called “ I know the lord”. This song sings about no matter how hard of a time you are going through or how bad it is. If you know the lord, He will make a way for you no matter what.

While performing the song I reflected on the short amount of time we have had together with each other. Just a couple of days ago we had been total strangers to each other, not knowing a single thing about each other. Now in this moment, we are all closely united together. But how? How in such a little amount of time have we managed to become this close with each other? The answer was quite clear for all of us, and it was our love and passion for our faith and belief in our Lord Jesus the Christ.

In conclusion, you could be different to everyone, A different age, a different ethnicity or even different denomination. But one thing in common that brings all of us together is our love and dedication towards our Lord Jesus Christ .

Malo ‘aupito and thank you.

Siosaia Funaki Jr