The Value of Outdoors

Year 9 Wilderness Camp

Rachel Arsenis - Head of Year 9

Another year arrives, bringing a new cohort of students who were ready to tackle the physical and mental challenges of a week in the wilderness up in the Bogong High Plains. 

The week began under stormy skies and in cold temperatures, but our students rose the occasion, with grit and determination. We were thankful for the sunshine when it finally arrived! 

We are so proud of the resilience and courage that each student demonstrated, and our prayer is that as they were stretched, their reliance on God and understanding of His world were strengthened. Some student reflections from the week: 

Before the trip I was a bit ungrateful - the things I had and thought most people had - to go to school, eat food, sleep in a house and have fresh water.

However, after Wilderness I have grown to realise that the things we have are a privilege and that we should be content with what we have instead of wishing for more. 

On the first day I was physically challenged through the hardest hike of the week. This, as well as people in my group talking about how hard it was and how they wanted to go home, really put me down and made me upset and homesick. 

But the next day, we realised that talking negatively just made it harder to push through, so we changed our mindset and tried to think and speak positively.

Wilderness has helped me be a better person in many ways, both physically and mentally. Through this experience I have matured mentally, socially, emotionally, and spiritually in times of hardship, and growth too. 

Year 10 Murray River Camp

Jo Evans - Christian Studies Coordinator

The Sound of Distant Thunder

“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.”

Lying in my tent, lit up by lightning and counting the beats until the thunder answered, I said a prayer for all the groups and then lay grinning in the dark. Nearby, 24 students were giggling, gasping, and making sounds of amazement as we all shared a 4.00 am thunderstorm from the cozy comfort of our tents. 

In the morning over breakfast in the washed-clean air, we checked the pace of the river’s currents and shared our recollections from the storm. 

Sharing moments like these is the reason we dress up in unusual clothes, carefully pack our gear according to the list, and surrender our bodies to small plastic canoes on the mighty Murray River.  

As the current carries us downstream, our conversations carry us closer together, over stories recounted, funny moments shared and discussions that range from faith to favourite books to the best Marvel movie of all time. 

It’s not until we step out of our comfort zone and into places we don’t control that we realise we never had control to begin with. The Author of rivers, skies and trees paints daily sunrises over all our comings and goings, and faithfully calls us, as He has always called His people, to come to a place He will show us, a place of freedom, beyond our comfort zones.