Over the Easter weekend, while others enjoyed a sleep in or a contemplative Easter service, young people from across the Wellington Diocese gathered at El Rancho for the AYM Easter Retreat for a high-energy, action-packed weekend.

Easter Retreat was dreamt up last year by AYM Wellington when COVID forced the cancellation of Central Easter Camp. It means a smaller gathering of between 200-300 attendees compared to the 2000-3000 of Central Easter Camp but the size gives a much more of a whanau-like feeling.

Relationships are built across youth groups from the whole diocese as we focused on our AYM values of whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, kotahitanga and aroha. Every day we had morning and evening sessions, with worship from our incredible band and preaching exploring the Easter story by some excellent speakers from our diocese. We then got to unpack the sessions in our youth groups, asking questions and praying together.

Other highlights of the weekend include the Top Town games on Saturday afternoon, including a mattress slip and slide and an obstacle course, a Talent Quest on Saturday night, a trip to the beach on Sunday afternoon and a dance party on Sunday night. We were split into elemental teams – fire, water, earth and air – which mixed us up across different youth groups, and we competed in these teams at different activities across the weekend.

It was an awesome weekend, and we’re so grateful to Brenna and the team who put the camp together and to all the youth leaders who served and made Easter Retreat such a blast.

By Amanda Stone

AYM Easter Retreat 2023

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