Canvas Chronicles

Go ICE SKATING or explore Aussie World on us! A few tiny caveats though, we are looking for 40 adults that have current blue cards and are ADSAFE compliant to look after Juniors on their outing. We are trying to have a 1 adult per 8 juniors ratio.

You get free entry, free ice skate hire, and free time with some energetic juniors having the time of their life. A genuine service.

We’re looking for volunteers to help with our Junior Division afternoon activities!
⛸️ Wednesday: Ice Skating
🎢 Thursday: Aussie World

If you’re available to come along and help supervise a small group of Juniors on any of these afternoons, we’d love to hear from you.

We can’t stress enough, volunteers won’t be accepted without a current Blue Card and being ADsafe compliant.

Click below to register:

After every rousing message in the Big Tent, groups gather to pray in respectful direct connection with their maker. It is a beautiful sight to behold, little groups speaking directly to the God of the universe, the God who can deal with our problems and even make our problems blessings. Some of these groups stay connecting to each other long after most have left.

If you haven’t seen it yet, save this replay to your YouTube watch list. Here are the time codes for some of the highlights.

“You are not what people say you are. You are what God says you are.” — 51:54
“Start before you’re ready.” — 1:00:08
“If you keep waiting for perfect conditions, you’ll never do anything.” — 1:00:22–1:00:29
“The Bible is a map, not a mallet.” — 1:04:54
“Good friends clap when you win.” — 1:08:29
“The reason for everything is Christ.” — 1:23:17
“When you work, you work. But when you pray, God works.” — 1:30:17

Come along for a delicious Chargrilled Corn special, great food, and a wonderful atmosphere. The money goes to an incredible cause, just ask them and they will share just how incredible it is. But the corn is so good that you’ll want to go there even if it wasn’t for a cause. Bring your family and friends. 

2 for $10. Limited quantities available. 

25+ Tent from 6:30pm 

A Prayer Card That Changed My Life

The Most Holy Place was holy because God’s presence was there. Through Jesus, we can come directly to God in prayer. It is an extraordinary thought: we can speak to the One who holds our lives in His hands.

This whole campground is dedicated to serving God, but there is something special about stepping into the 24/7 Prayer Tent. It feels like a place to pause, bring what is on your heart to Him, and listen.

Nineteen years ago, at Big Camp in 2007, I left a prayer card in the tent asking for guidance for my life. The chaplains prayed over it. Later, after a program in the youth tent, the speaker, David Solomon Hall, gave me direct encouragement to go into ministry. He assures me to this day that it is not something he tells many people to do.

That prayer card began a series of events that took me from a comfortable life in Noosa Heads as an IT-focused engineer to training for ministry and, eventually, becoming an ordained minister. The full story is a long one, but I would make that decision again in a heartbeat.

I do not know what God has in store for you. I do know that Jesus welcomes you to bring your questions, your problems and your hopes to Him. I have experienced His power in my own life, and I pray you will experience His presence during this Big Camp too.

Spend some time in the Prayer Tent. Leave a prayer request or a praise. You never know where that prayer might lead.

Leave a prayer request or praise.

The Youth Tent was packed as Michael Lewis took us into the story of Peter’s failure and the care Jesus showed in restoring him. His message carried a powerful assurance: our failures do not cancel God’s calling.

Peter denied Jesus beside a charcoal fire. Later, beside another charcoal fire on the shore, Jesus met him again. Michael drew attention to that detail. Jesus brought Peter back to a setting that echoed his most painful memory, but this time the story would end differently.

Michael compared it to the gradual way someone recovering from the trauma of a car crash might be helped to sit in a car again, start the engine and, eventually, drive. The place associated with fear can become a place of healing. As he put it, “The gospel is cooking on those coals.”

Before Jesus asked Peter a single question, He cooked him breakfast. Michael explained how significant sharing a meal was: Jesus was showing Peter that their relationship was still intact. He cared for Peter before asking him to face what had happened. His questions made room for restoration.

The message spoke to anyone carrying regret, especially those who wonder whether a mistake has disqualified them from serving. Every leader has made mistakes. Yet Jesus placed ministry back into Peter’s hands.

Jesus knew Peter’s failures before He called him. He knows ours too. He meets us where we are and brings us towards where He wants us to be. As Michael reminded the tent, He is the God of the second call.

Your failure does not have the last word. “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

As soon as you line up beside the Primary division the theme begins. Initially greeted with a huge backdrop that looks medieval. Then as you round the corner you are greeted with the mist in the air of ancient Rome morning. Entering you find the hall is transformed to ancient Rome, complete with draped linen, roman columns and even some romans. Some with complete swords, chainmail armour and leather sandals. It’s really something to see. (PS here’s a hint, the main Hero of Rome, was a guy named Paul and his underground church)

The 25+ Tent has helped protect 72 girls from trafficking. The goal is 100.

Behind those numbers are young lives that can take a very different path. Helping girls stay in education gives them opportunities for the future and support to keep them out of the hands of traffickers.

This is an important ministry, and the work continues. There are 28 more girls to reach before the goal is met. Each one matters—not just for the life she can build in this world, but the eternal life in the world that is to come.

God listens to every prayer, and in a bygone era Adventists started a Dial a Prayer service that became so popular it literally jammed up the local telephone exchange. Today the 25+ Tent advertises a service where prayer requests are sent in by SMS, and the team prays over them. It is slightly more modern tech but the same God who cares, hears and answers the prayers of his children.

SMS 0494789373 to be united in prayer with the 25+ Tent Team

The first batch of official Big Camp photos is out. Have a look—you might spot yourself or someone you know!

Tap here to see the photos.