Avalanche Over
Wow. I'm home. What a crazy weekend. Even though we were only there from Friday night to this afternoon (Sunday), it was easy to forget what real life is like. So I'm still kinda digesting the weekend, and being back home as I kill some time before the evening service.
There were 600 kids there this weekend and I don't even know where to begin. It's all kind of a blur because there wasn't much time to rest. All the kids were divided into four groups for the weekend: Ice, Moose, Blast, and Storm. Just about the whole weekend was planned around these competing teams. We sat with our team during meals, the teaching sessions, and other activities. Our youth were on team Moose.
The speaker, Phil Cann, was fantastic. Very very funny, and so engaging. So raw and transparent. Not to mention that he has a great English accent. His message for the weekend was to make sure that we "don't treat God like a skank." That we don't love Him and leave Him. That we don't go to a retreat or church or youth, love God intensely, and then throw Him away. It was an interesting way to look at the 1-day a week Christian syndrome that we all go through at times.
The sessions when Phil spoke were something else. They normally started off with plenty of yelling and screaming and loud music. Lots of hyping up the teams for some gross-out type games. Cans of Coke were consumed through other people's socks. Happy Meals were blended up and chugged. Eggs were dropped onto teammates lying on the ground wearing goggles with tubes attached to try and catch the eggs. You get the idea. Definitely fun to watch and glad I wasn't chosen to participate. There were programmed lights and even pyrotechnics. The coolest had to be fireworks spraying down onto the stage from above and confetti bombs raining confetti on us all.
The band was great and so was the worship. It definitely left me wanting for more because there would generally only be 5 or 6 songs per session. But oh well, the band, Esoteric was solid and the sound mixing was great. They had great energy.
I tried my hand at rock climbing for the first time. For one of the choose your own activity sessions I decided to hit the climbing gym. It definitely wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. My body just wasn't meant to contort like that. I wasn't able to get all the way to the top of my run because the rope got twisted which means I had to do the bottom half twice. Once I got to the part jutting out from the wall I didn't have any arm strength left to pull myself up from under the ledge. I also discovered that your body gets uncontrollable tremors when you're precariously perched on a toe and three fingers.
Our youth were pretty good for the most part. Putting up with some of the whining can be a little trying when they don't want to participate in the planned activities. It's not that I don't have the patience, but it's really hard to find a way to distract them and steer them in the right direction. I had a death grip on one guy's jacket because he tried to get away from me and wasn't listening.
One of the girls had to go to the hospital because she fell hard on her hip while roller skating. There's a very slight chance she cracked her pelvis but it's more likely a deep bruise. But the amazing thing was hearing that the rest of the youth group got into a circle and started praying for her after it happened. Steve, Alana, and I weren't even there, they just did it on their own. Talk about cool. Steve was pretty blown away by that. It's one of those moments when you're definitely torn between giving glory to God and pointing out the fact that they are your youth. Steve immediately gave it up to Him. As Phil, our speaker, would say, "Right answer". Heh heh.
The food was excellent. Some of the kids were picky but I can't talk too much since I used to be like that to a degree. The weather was just about perfect. Sure it was cold but hey, it's a winter retreat. We even got some fresh now Friday night which was sweet. The only thing I don't like about retreats is the washrooms. They always get nasty and this time all the toilets nearest to our cabin were plugged by this morning.
That's about all I'll say for now. I'll have to get some pics from Steve. In three weeks we'll be taking the high schoolers to the same place for Blizzard. Hopefully by then I can catch up on my sleep and my aches and pains will heal. ;)
Matthew.
There were 600 kids there this weekend and I don't even know where to begin. It's all kind of a blur because there wasn't much time to rest. All the kids were divided into four groups for the weekend: Ice, Moose, Blast, and Storm. Just about the whole weekend was planned around these competing teams. We sat with our team during meals, the teaching sessions, and other activities. Our youth were on team Moose.
The speaker, Phil Cann, was fantastic. Very very funny, and so engaging. So raw and transparent. Not to mention that he has a great English accent. His message for the weekend was to make sure that we "don't treat God like a skank." That we don't love Him and leave Him. That we don't go to a retreat or church or youth, love God intensely, and then throw Him away. It was an interesting way to look at the 1-day a week Christian syndrome that we all go through at times.
The sessions when Phil spoke were something else. They normally started off with plenty of yelling and screaming and loud music. Lots of hyping up the teams for some gross-out type games. Cans of Coke were consumed through other people's socks. Happy Meals were blended up and chugged. Eggs were dropped onto teammates lying on the ground wearing goggles with tubes attached to try and catch the eggs. You get the idea. Definitely fun to watch and glad I wasn't chosen to participate. There were programmed lights and even pyrotechnics. The coolest had to be fireworks spraying down onto the stage from above and confetti bombs raining confetti on us all.
The band was great and so was the worship. It definitely left me wanting for more because there would generally only be 5 or 6 songs per session. But oh well, the band, Esoteric was solid and the sound mixing was great. They had great energy.
I tried my hand at rock climbing for the first time. For one of the choose your own activity sessions I decided to hit the climbing gym. It definitely wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. My body just wasn't meant to contort like that. I wasn't able to get all the way to the top of my run because the rope got twisted which means I had to do the bottom half twice. Once I got to the part jutting out from the wall I didn't have any arm strength left to pull myself up from under the ledge. I also discovered that your body gets uncontrollable tremors when you're precariously perched on a toe and three fingers.
Our youth were pretty good for the most part. Putting up with some of the whining can be a little trying when they don't want to participate in the planned activities. It's not that I don't have the patience, but it's really hard to find a way to distract them and steer them in the right direction. I had a death grip on one guy's jacket because he tried to get away from me and wasn't listening.
One of the girls had to go to the hospital because she fell hard on her hip while roller skating. There's a very slight chance she cracked her pelvis but it's more likely a deep bruise. But the amazing thing was hearing that the rest of the youth group got into a circle and started praying for her after it happened. Steve, Alana, and I weren't even there, they just did it on their own. Talk about cool. Steve was pretty blown away by that. It's one of those moments when you're definitely torn between giving glory to God and pointing out the fact that they are your youth. Steve immediately gave it up to Him. As Phil, our speaker, would say, "Right answer". Heh heh.
The food was excellent. Some of the kids were picky but I can't talk too much since I used to be like that to a degree. The weather was just about perfect. Sure it was cold but hey, it's a winter retreat. We even got some fresh now Friday night which was sweet. The only thing I don't like about retreats is the washrooms. They always get nasty and this time all the toilets nearest to our cabin were plugged by this morning.
That's about all I'll say for now. I'll have to get some pics from Steve. In three weeks we'll be taking the high schoolers to the same place for Blizzard. Hopefully by then I can catch up on my sleep and my aches and pains will heal. ;)
Matthew.
1 Comments:
Oooo-ee bro. Glad it was so awesome!!
Tobs
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Anonymous, at 10:59 AM
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