The Seventh Day Adventist – SDA Church has refuted allegations that some of its youth camp meetings, which the church regularly holds, are characterized by illicit and at times sexual activities especially by young people, which are now manifesting through the recent tragedy.
An evangelist from the church who was part of the group that attended the five day Youth Alive Camp Meeting in tourism resort town of Siavonga in January this year, which claimed the lives of six young people, said it was not true that the camp meeting attendance by youths is motivated by illicit and sexual activities.
Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, an SDA evangelist said it is evident from the loss of the six lives that the youths behaved badly but nothing evil happens at camp meetings unless people escape the camp, which the church has no control over, as they cannot immediately tell that people have sneaked out.
The SDA evangelist confirmed however that on the fateful day “on Saturday people sneaked out and I heard people say those who were playing in the water were kissing but how do we stop people from kissing if they have sneaked out of camp. Their friends were having bible study, they sneaked out, and when people are in church they cannot control what is happening outside”.
He further said all camp gatherings have a purpose; this particular one was a behavior change programme, and some of the topics taught at the meeting included suicide, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, masturbation and entrepreneurship, which is all, based on behavior change.
“There are topics to do with alcohol abuse because we cannot run away from the fact that people are abusing alcohol, there are people in churches who take alcohol and smoke so that’s the type of camp meeting where they help them rehabilitate, the programme of the camp meeting was based of behavior change”, he said.
The preacher noted that the church could not run away from the fact that a few individuals who may have their own personal agendas as they go to camp meetings might be denting the reputation of the gatherings but the majority attend because of the various educative programmes.
He explained that the team had two days to go to Lake Kariba, which was Wednesday and Friday, and Saturday was purely dedicated to worship but on Saturday, some people sneaked out to go to the Lake, a situation that made it difficult for the youths to be controlled as they had left the campsite.
“On Saturday people sneaked out and I heard people say those who were playing in the water were kissing but how do we stop people from kissing if they have sneaked out of camp. Their friends were having bible study, they sneaked out, and when people are in church they cannot control what is happening outside. They were at the lake while others were in camp and no one knows how they sneaked out, as people were busy with bible study. There is no control over someone who has sneaked out because you may think they are sleeping in the dormitory”, he said.
The six youths who died decided to get on a fishing rig that was parked on the banks of the lake and when the coxswain decided to move the rig onto the lake, the youths jumped off the rig and attempted to swim back to the shore but six of them drowned in the process.
In a separate interview with Jonathan Haajaya, the coxswain of the fishing rig that the six youths who died got on before he decided to move the rig on to the lake said the youths were playing in the water with some boys and girls holding each other.
Speaking to ZBT, Haajaya said, “they were swimming, they were holding each other as though they wanted to kiss each other, the other one standing on one side and the other on another side holding hands as though they are kissing”.
There have been calls for both parents and church leaders to put in place measures that would ensure that youth camps are not used for illicit activities by a few, denting the image for these important functions when correctly held. The SDA church has not issued any revised rules to govern its camp meetings activities. The revised rules are expected to ensure that youths that sign up are adequately parented or monitored to avoid the recurring of such tragedy’s.
The families that allow and make financial contributions for their children to go to these camp meeting expected that their children would be monitored, protected and parented by measures and adults that are charged with the responsibility.
