Weekend Youth Retreat

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to help lead a group of high schoolers to a youth retreat at a camp a couple of hours from our church. I wanted to go on the retreat as a camper last year, but I was saving money for my summer missions trip. Since I was asked to go as a leader this time, I didn’t have to pay. I can’t argue with that!

Eight of us (3 leaders and 5 high schoolers) met at the church Friday evening. Once we had things packed up in the two cars, we drove off! We stopped at Raising Cane’s for dinner and then arrived at camp around 8:30 p.m.

We checked in and unloaded our things to our cabins. Then the kids made their way to the sports field for a snack while the leaders had a brief meeting. We went to the gym for the first session.

Every time we had a session, we leaders formed what was called the “gauntlet.” We would line up on either side of the doorway and the kids would run through us to get in. Meanwhile, we were dancing, giving high fives, etc. J It was pretty funny!

After the camp staff welcomed everyone, we played a life-sized game of battleship!

The kids piled into the kayaks and played guys against girls. Several people on either team were blindfolded and had nerf balls to throw. If they hit one of the boats, they were out. The guys won of course!

After that we had a time of worship. The band—The Avid Light—is a local band, and very talented! They did a great job leading our group in worship. Next we heard the speaker. He was very good and engaging. His first session was focused on the gospel. He really knew his Bible well and had the kids constantly flipping back and forth between passages.

After the session, our youth group broke up for discussion time. Basically the girls went back to their cabin and the guys went back to theirs (it was a little too cold and late to stay outside for our discussion group.) We made it to bed around 12:00 a.m.

Saturday morning, I got up around 7:30 a.m. to shower and do my devotions before breakfast at 9:00 a.m. All the leaders came into the dining hall before the kids. We stood on top of chairs and they played “Good Morning” by Mandisa as the kids came in. J

The food at camp was quite good! After breakfast, the staff made a few announcements and then dismissed everyone. Campers went to have quiet time while the leaders had a meeting.

Then we all went back to the gym for our next session. The title of the message was “The Bible Isn’t Boring.” The speaker did an excellent job of making certain mundane parts of the Old Testament come to life! He even made a human timeline to illustrate some of his points!

We had our discussion time as a whole group. Pastor D really challenged us to think about how everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus. After that we went inside the dining hall for lunch. Then we were dismissed for afternoon free time!

About half of our group had signed up to go tubing on the lake. We donned swimsuits and lifejackets and headed to the dock. We had to jump off and swim out to the boat. It was a little bit chilly!

Believe it or not, I grew up in Michigan surrounded by the great lakes . . . but . . . I had never been tubing! I really enjoyed it! Since we were already wet, we decided to take a dip in the pool and go off the high-dive. Once we weren’t dripping anymore, we popped into the camp store.

Then we dried up and changed clothes. We still had a little time, so we headed over to the zipline. The only zipline I had done was very small and tight, so this was a new experience! It required me to temporarily suspend my fear of open heights and free falling. ;-)

Ready to go up the tower!

Getting ready to jump. I shrieked like a girl during the free fall. J (Those of you that know me know I’m not a screamer at ALL!)

Part of camp. You can see the sports field, the lake, and the dining hall.

After ziplining, we adults went to another leaders’ meeting while the kids in our group headed back to the cabins to nap before dinner. Dinner was quite tasty, and welcome after such a long, active day!

After dinner, we had another session.

They started off by asking for one leader from every church. Pastor D wasn’t in the room at the time, so I got pushed to the front by my group. Turns out, they wanted to have an Oreo-eating contest. Needless to say, I did NOT win! That was followed by having one girl from every church come up, get blindfolded, and then attempt to brush the leader’s teeth and gel their hair. Oh, and the staff was so kind as to mix chocolate syrup with the hair gel. :-P It was a memorable game for sure!

We had a session on God as our Father and how we are to view ourselves in relation to Him. We had a great discussion time as a group. Then we quickly ran back to our cabins to put on dark clothes for the upcoming game of Espionage.

The kids went out on the field for a snack and then into the gym for their instructions. We leaders went to the bottom of the huge hill in camp. In this game, the leaders take flashlights and go hide all over the hill. The kids receive a pinto bean at the bottom of the hill. Then—without flashlights—they have to try and sneak to the top of the hill without getting caught.

When they were noticed, a leader would shine their flashlight on them. The leader could either take their bean away (then the camper had to go to the bottom of the hill and start over) or they could make them do something before they let them pass. Most people made them sing something. I hid at the very top of the hill and was 50/50 mean/nice. J I sent about half of them back down and let the other half go after they sang something. The kids that reached the top got a wristband to commemorate their success. J

The game was really fun! Most everyone has some sort of bruise or cut to remember the night by. We went to our rooms to clean up and then headed to the bonfire where we enjoyed s’mores.

It was pretty windy that night, so standing around the fire wasn’t too pleasant. So our group went up to the game room and played Spoons.

Part of our group playing spoons.

I think we went to bed around 1 a.m. Of course, everyone wanted to shower after Espionage. We fell in to bed quite tired!

I slept in until almost 8 a.m. Sunday morning. I was so sore and tired from the day before! But I had to get up and pack since we were supposed to move out before breakfast.

Before breakfast we went out and took a group photo! I’m so glad I had the opportunity to get to know these guys a little bit better. J

After breakfast, we had one final session, which was on the Holy Spirit. We had one final group discussion, which was really good. I think a lot of us felt convicted over the weekend that God is so much bigger than we realize. He is in control! We all came away with a desire to spend more time in the Word and in prayer as well.

After a quick lunch of pizza, we left camp. We made it home later that afternoon, and were very thankful that we didn’t encounter any bad weather. I am so glad I had the opportunity to go on the retreat, and I look forward to going with the middle school group later this year!