Call Me Chef Clemster
Another youth retreat has come and gone and we leaders are left with a satisfying tiredness. The weekend was definitely challenging for me in a few respects. The four of us (Steve, Lesley, Val, and me) are meeting tomorrow night to talk over how the retreat went. Things we'd change for next year. That kind of stuff. Lesley and Val were fantastic on the weekend. Steve and I are hoping they will continue to help out with the youth and I'm sure our youth do as well.
We had a group from Big Brothers tag along which was pretty cool. Definitely a challenge though cause we weren't expecting them to be as young as they were. We expected to have to deal with a bit of attitude so those instances were no surprise. But we didn't expect grades 4-6 when our youth are grades 7-12. It made it pretty tricky for Steve to make the lesson times applicable. The majority of the kids were great. You can tell they are just starving for attention, especially male attention. My heart definitely went out to them.
The majority of my weekend was spent in the kitchen. Lesley, Val, and some of the youth were a big help. I'd never cooked on that level before, for so many people. It was a cool experience, but it was also hard not to take it personally when some of the youth refused to eat the chili we made Sat night. Steve and I had thought about making an alternative at one point, but we decided to put our foots down and they could either eat the chili or go hungry. The worst was having one of the leaders from Big Brothers cave to whining and hand out bowls of Fruit Loops and then having one of our own youth give me the smuggest look ever as if to say, "Looks like I don't have to eat your crappy chili after all." I was pretty close to taking the bowl out of his hands and dumping it in the garbage. All the other meals went just fine.
The four of us and two of the youth went outside and just laid in the snow, taking in all the stars on a crystal clear night. When we first plopped ourselves down it was about five minutes before the first person talked. I know I needed the silence, especially after the tension of the chili meal. Once we started talking though it was non-stop laughter for about 30 minutes - another good way to release the tension. Lesley had just picked up a new digital camera so we took some pictures in the dark with it. From what I saw on the display they should turn out great. I hope to post a few pics in the next week or two.
It's been strange being back at work after the weekend. I'm definitely in a good mood after the weekend, but I'm feeling kinda lonely. It's a normal reaction for me after a retreat. After being around people nearly 24/7, even for just two days, you start getting used to it. Especially when they are people you actually want to be around.
Matthew.
We had a group from Big Brothers tag along which was pretty cool. Definitely a challenge though cause we weren't expecting them to be as young as they were. We expected to have to deal with a bit of attitude so those instances were no surprise. But we didn't expect grades 4-6 when our youth are grades 7-12. It made it pretty tricky for Steve to make the lesson times applicable. The majority of the kids were great. You can tell they are just starving for attention, especially male attention. My heart definitely went out to them.
The majority of my weekend was spent in the kitchen. Lesley, Val, and some of the youth were a big help. I'd never cooked on that level before, for so many people. It was a cool experience, but it was also hard not to take it personally when some of the youth refused to eat the chili we made Sat night. Steve and I had thought about making an alternative at one point, but we decided to put our foots down and they could either eat the chili or go hungry. The worst was having one of the leaders from Big Brothers cave to whining and hand out bowls of Fruit Loops and then having one of our own youth give me the smuggest look ever as if to say, "Looks like I don't have to eat your crappy chili after all." I was pretty close to taking the bowl out of his hands and dumping it in the garbage. All the other meals went just fine.
The four of us and two of the youth went outside and just laid in the snow, taking in all the stars on a crystal clear night. When we first plopped ourselves down it was about five minutes before the first person talked. I know I needed the silence, especially after the tension of the chili meal. Once we started talking though it was non-stop laughter for about 30 minutes - another good way to release the tension. Lesley had just picked up a new digital camera so we took some pictures in the dark with it. From what I saw on the display they should turn out great. I hope to post a few pics in the next week or two.
It's been strange being back at work after the weekend. I'm definitely in a good mood after the weekend, but I'm feeling kinda lonely. It's a normal reaction for me after a retreat. After being around people nearly 24/7, even for just two days, you start getting used to it. Especially when they are people you actually want to be around.
Matthew.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home