Easter’s Great Youth Happening

The team behind Easter Camp 2017 are really getting going with preparation of the welcome to more than 3000 participants, prior to the spring’s great youth event starting up on Saturday.


By: Johanne Reiersrud – Photo: BCC

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Hilde K. Johnsen – Photo: Oslofjord Convention Center

The happening of the year for very many BCC youth is just around the corner and BCC is in the process of putting in the finishing touches together with Oslofjord Convention Center, where the Easter Camp is being held. Hilde Karine Johnsen, the project leader at Oslofjord Convention Center, believes they are well prepared. – We are framing our event apparatus for the big push, she tells us. – All apartments and cabins that are available are fully booked from Saturday to Thursday. We are also making huge preparations on the kitchen front, where we will be serving the young people three meals a day, in addition to banquets at the opening and closing feasts, were we will be serving approximately 3400 guests, says Johnsen.

Huge Army of Mentors and Volunteers
For the occasion, BCC has rented the entire conference facility at Oslofjord Convention Center. Many preparation have been made with the organization of all the activity amenities and sports events that take place right up to Wednesday evening. Over 3.000 young people will be kept busy both during the day and the evening, and a huge apparatus has been instigated, including a number of volunteer parents and friends as well as about 800 young mentors who are along in contributing.

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Soon, the large conference area at Oslofjord Convention Center will be packed with more than 3000 young people

Built on the Churches’ Beliefs
The Easter Camp should be a safe and multifaceted opportunity for the young people who take part, and the entire program is founded on the churches’ beliefs. In the daytime, there are wide-ranging activities, and in the evenings, there are interesting events with varying content. BCC focuses very much on the care side of youth work, and the theme evenings during the camp should also be an inspiration and instruction on the whole matter of mentorship. Several adult BCC members will also be along, and together with the youth, they will talking together, competing and communicating about the Christian gospel.

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Interesting evening events will be taking place in the conference hall, with themes that matter to the young participants 

Putting Focus on the Youth
The main target group for the event is youth between 13 and 20 years of age and there are great expectations in connection with the Easter week. The first time the Easter Camp was arranged in 2015 it was a trial project. However, the backing was such that the success was repeated in 2016, and now it is being arranged for the third time.

For BCC’s part, it is quite ambitious to implement a five-day activity marathon such as Easter Camp, just before the great and long-established Easter Conference. The latter begins on Good Friday and has just over 8200 visitors from the whole world. This requires good planning and makes demands on the logistics for the many people involved.

Great International Participation
The extensive youth event represents a cooperation between BCC, the Christian association Xercize and Brunstad Youth Club. As previously mentioned, it was started up as a trial project three years ago, and was an immediate success. For the first year just Norwegian youth were invited, but because of the great interest, it was opened up last year for international participation. The flood from abroad was not small! Of around 3000 participants, almost 1200 came from countries outside Norway, from Europe, Africa, Asia, New Zealand, and almost 90 people came from North America alone.

Several older youth will also be coming from countries such as India and Cameroon, and they will learn more about working as mentors among children and youth. They will rotate on the various activities and participate in the theme evenings so that they can be inspired in their local church work.

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Youth from around the world gather at Brunstad during the BCC Eastercamp

Live Broadcast Sports Activities
The activity amenities on offer are more extensive than ever before. Xercize has responsibility for the tournaments for ice-hockey, football and volleyball, and many have enrolled here. In addition, Brunstad Youth Club has contributed by providing a broader scope in the facilities offered, so that young people are able to choose between 25 different options, such as Art School, Riding, Flying, Dancing, Song and Music, Free Running, Design and Redesign. Instruction is also given in programming, TV and multicamera production. A dedicated “activity market” in the conference hall will ensure that all those who haven’t enrolled can make use of a more flexible offering.

Something new this year is that BrunstadTV has moved its training course in multi-camera production to Tønsberg Skating rink, where broadcasts are sent from the ice-hockey tournament. In this way friends and those familiar with the hockey teams can follow along live from their sofas at home.

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BrunstadTV will be producing live broadcasts from the popular hockey tournament

Good cooperation with Local Participants
BCC and the associations that cooperate in regard to the event have a good collaboration with several local participants, who contribute to make the project possible. Cooperation with various parties contribute to make the activities on offer even more varied. For example, Grorud farm in Andebu is responsible for the riding option, with professional equestrian training for those who are interested in riding. In addition, BCC will be renting several different sports halls, and works well together with such places as Tønsberg and Sandefjord municipalities.

It’s not just the BCC youth who are looking forward to the Easter Camp. Those in Oslofjord Convention Center also have their anticipations. – Our largest events are at Easter, and during the Easter Camp we are expecting up to 3.400 visitors, Hilde Karine Johnsen tells us. – Many of the guests have travelled a long way to come here, so we must do our best to make it as good an experience as possible, she underlines. – This event is very wide-ranging, and almost every square meter of the conference center has been made use of in order to encompass all the activities, so good planning has been totally critical. However, we have prepared ourselves well, so we believe this event will be a high point for us as well!