By Village Church
The Faith of One Child
Out of the 500 children who attended this year’s Village Kids Summer Camp, there was one six-year-old boy named Ryley who travelled from Victoria to attend.
His Aunt Steph had shown him all the story videos from Wild Life 2014, and Ryley decided he wanted to meet Wilderness Willy and the rest of the gang at Wild Life 2015. Even though Ryley’s parents don’t attend church, they allowed him to stay with Aunt Steph and her family so that he could have a week of fun with his cousins. As it turns out, Ryley discovered more than just fun at this year’s camp—although he discovered that too.
As they were driving home from Wild Life on day two, Ryley said,
Hey auntie, can you tell me more about this Jesus guy? I just want to get to know him.
Before Steph could fully answer, her daughter was giving a full explanation of the gospel. Steph says, “I was like wow, she knows a lot of detail… I almost didn’t even need to say anything. It was a conversation between six-year-olds.” While at camp, Ryley also expressed his interest in talking to Jesus and getting a Bible.
However, at the end of the week something interrupted Ryley’s journey. On Thursday afternoon Ryley’s aunt discovered that he had an extremely bad case of pink eye. Steph says, “He was so upset about not being able to go to camp for the last day.” She tried to quell Ryley’s tears by showing him a personal video from Wilderness Willy wishing him well and telling him that everyone at camp was praying for him. When Steph got home that day, Ryley ran to the door healthy enough to come to the Wild Life Wrap Up Party at Splashdown Waterpark. He also attended a Village Church service with Steph’s family that Sunday and now, Ryley is asking his grandma to take him to church and his parents to come with him. On top of that, he’s taken his Bible home and has already made his dad, Steph’s brother, agree to read it with him.
“I’ve been praying for my brother for about six years, since he walked away from his faith,” says Steph “so this feels like the start to something huge”. The last thing Ryley said about his faith was: “I can have Jesus in my heart and that’s something I want to know more about.” He believes that Jesus died for him and he has many questions about the cross and what Jesus’ sacrifice looked like and what it means. Those questions are now being asked in Ryley’s home. The faith of one child seems to be having a powerful affect on his whole family already. This is just one of many examples of how Wild Life and all its volunteers and leaders have impacted children and families for Jesus.