Thank you for helping young people like Tom experience Christ’s love

Thanks to your support, thousands of young people have been impacted through Youthworks camps, as they experience quality Christian care and hear about Jesus.

Steve, a Youthworks Christian Outdoor Education leader, shares how your generosity helped Tom, who has been completely blind since he was 18 months old due to cancer:

“He was amazing. The teachers believed it would be the right thing for him to do all the activities, including things like archery, abseiling, canoeing, and jumping off the jetty.”

Steve explains how the Youthworks staff assigned a teacher to be with Tom and adapted activities so he could enjoy the fullness of the camp.

“If we were showing harnesses for abseiling or things like that, we’d get him to feel the harness and all the equipment, making it more hands-on.

“We organised for him to have a braille map, so the whole site was mapped out and he could feel through that. The key was letting him feel things and using sounds, so for archery we let him have a feel of the target and hear the noises, so he could know what to listen for.

“We also counted how many steps before he had to jump off the jetty and supported him to do it! So we just needed to adjust the program to make sure we were explaining things and they made sense for him as well.”

The time, patience, commitment and love displayed by Youthworks staff throughout the camp let Tom know just how deeply loved he is. God’s love was clearly in action and Tom was able to understand the gospel and to know God loves him and is walking with him each step through life.

Thank you for helping Youthworks camp leaders like Steve go the extra mile to care for and include young people like Tom so they can experience Christ’s love in action. It’s your support that makes life-changing moments like these possible!