From Saturday 24th July to Sunday 25th July, Bradford Guru Nanak Gurdwara held the Sikh Family Camp for all ages. The Gurdwara Sahib is a youth-run Gurdwara, with it's President and majority of the committee being UK born Amritdhari Gursikhs. The Gurdwara is definitely a role model for Gurdwaras with so many projects aimed at inspiring and serving the Sangat and promoting Gurmat. On August 15th the Gurdwara Sahib is opening it's own gym called "Khalsa Fitness". Only recently, the local youngsters did the seva of renovating the Darbaar Sahib, which looks really nice.
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With Guru Sahib's kirpaa there was a really good turnout at the camp from the young to the old. There were lots of different activities and zones for campers to find out more about Sikhi.
There were four zones - the spiritual zone, open zone, inspirational zone, and warrior zone. In addition to the zones, on Saturday campers had a chance to see and find out more about wild animals like monkeys, tortoises, and reptiles. On Sunday someone brought in falcons and birds of preys for the Sangat to have a look, as Guru Gobind Singh jee used to keep a falcon with him which apparently was brought to India from Northern Europe. |
| Top row l to r: Bhaji Jasjit Singh (Leeds) with family posing with Khalsa jee; Warrior Zone; ; bottom row - clockwise: Superman Singh entertaining the children; 12 to 14 year old group; Parents/adults group; Youngest group; Younger group |
The camp had a really buzzing atmosphere and was very inspiring. I found the "Khalsa Kaur" puppet show to be one of memorable things from the camp (which the younger children really enjoyed - and also the elders!). It was a creative way of teaching children Saakhis etc. Children also experienced how to do different sevas in the Gurdwara Sahib and learnt about the basic Maryada that should be followed when doing seva and coming to the Gurdwara Sahib. May Guru jee bless all the organizers and sevadaars to do more sevaa!