The year started off with a bang! I was on holidays in Hawaii. Yes, I relaxed on the beach whilst watching my beloved Stanford win the Rose Bowl Game.
Then it was back to the routines of my life as the months went by with both Youth and a regular Bible study – I'd grown in my faith at a rate that was hard to describe and this led to me taking steps of professing my faith and being baptised.
I went on a number of weekends away, such as the Chrysalis weekend which really gave me a better understanding of Psalm 46 verse 10 "Be still and know that I am God".
It was a retreat in the Hawkesbury Region where I experienced some solitude as a way to reconnect with God and at the same time, taking in the talks that helped me grow in my faith. I also attended KYCK in the Blue Mountains with several thousand Youth – this was a fantastic weekend of fellowship and spiritual awakening whilst living in a village of tents.
Outside of youth/church my other activities were watching the Penrith Panthers (NRL) have another "re-building" year only this time the results showed on the field – our team missed out on the finals by one win – watch out for Penrith in 2014! My mates and I then enjoyed the annual trip to Bathurst for the Motor Race.
The trip to Melbourne in September (Press Service International – Christian Today Young Writers Conference) was a great experience, meeting other young writers. It was superb especially the meeting and greeting each other. I tell the editor often what a great time it was. Everyone felt the same, it so special to me personally. It was my first trip to Melbourne, therefore a tour of the MCG was on the to-do list.
As 2013 draws to a close, strangely it's not the fan fare of Christmas drawing my attention – rather we at our Youth Group have already started planning for 2014.
Discipleship will be a big part of our program as we look to mentor 'one-to-one' with another member of the youth, in order to help them grow in their faith – particularly for many going through the hard years of High School. Mentoring – this is what Mr Tony Dunkerley spoke about at the young writers conference.
With this, my final article for 2013, it closes out my third year as a young writer. I've enjoyed this immensely and again the young writers conference was great!
I'm headed to Tasmania over the summer break for a Convention as part of my Church group – this event is on every two years. It is a full week in Hobart which commences at the start of January. It is bound to be a fantastic trip (always has been) … and no prizes for guessing my first article for 2014.
Christopher Archibald lives in Sydney and is an under-graduate student.
Christopher Archibald's previous articles may be viewed at
www.pressserviceinternational.org/christopher-archibald.html