Summit Lake Youth Retreat

Some of you may be wondering ...

      "just what do those youth do at a youth retreat"

 Some of you who were there may be wondering  ....   "will I ever catch up on my sleep from the youth retreat"

 

Well, the Lord gave us a beautiful weekend at Summit Lake!  Yes, it was chilly, but we had a great time together.  Following is a diary of our weekend, including some pictures and video.

  

Our weekend started Friday afternoon at FBC by loading up Mr. G's trailer with everyone's stuff, sports equipment and goodies.  There were 20 youth!

We traveled about an hour to Summit Lake Camp, in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  It was a beautiful drive, especially when we got close to the mountains!  

We got checked in and assigned cabins and a meeting room.

There was about an hour until supper, so we got settled in our cabins and put the goodies in our meeting room.

Supper was at 7:30 Friday evening ~ late, but since it was pizza, it was worth the wait!  They serve their meals family style, so one person from each table goes and gets the food for the table.  Then someone from the table is responsible for cleaning up afterwards, including wiping the table down and sweeping the floor. 

What a blessing to see our youth working together to clean up! 

After supper, we headed into the meeting room to kick off our meeting time. 

Our Friday night meeting time was kicked off with some singing ~ and of course, what's been dubbed our theme song, Spring Up Oh Well.  Never heard it??  Ask a youth to belt it out!!  Make sure they include the yeehaw!

Then we talked a little about last year's retreat and Do Hard Things.  {Not familiar with that??  You can read more here:  therebelution }  Our goal this year was to challenge them to not be satisfied at saying "oh we did a hard thing, we're good now."  We watched one of the sessions from the Do Hard Things video.  Here's a quote from the video ~ take some time to ponder it for yourself ....

"The challenges you face now are no larger than the challenges you've already moved beyond."

Some key points made in the video session were focusing on how we grow stronger to do harder things. 

* fight sin in our lives  * battle discouragement and complacency  * doing more than is required * getting over our fear of failure  * remembering this looks different for each person  * starting by doing small things {change something!}  * being obedient to God

We were encouraged to be always growing & using God's Word as our standard.

Everyone had a Spiritual Survey in their notebooks and Mr. G asked them to take some time before Saturday morning's meeting time to answer it honestly.  {want a copy? just ask!}

We had some snack time and headed back to the cabins for the night.  A few got some sleep .... most didn't!

SATURDAY ...

Saturday morning started bright and early with french toast, cereal, apples, bananas, juice .... and coffee for those needing it.   Then we headed in for our second meeting time.  Yes, we started with song time again.  We spent a time on our knees in prayer for each other ~ what a blessing to hear a room full of youth praying for one another!  

Mr. G talked about knowing who we are and where we are headed.  If you were dropped in the middle of the woods with only a compass, you'd have to use it to find your way home.  As believers,  God's Word is our compass.    We took some time to work in 1st John and look at what evidence or fruit there should be in a believers' life.  Again, we had to honestly look at whether that fruit was showing in our own lives.

There was another survey in our notebooks for us called What Do I Really Love?  This was to again help us look at ourselves honestly and see where we are spending our time and energy.  {want to see it? just ask for a copy!}

Around 11:00, we had some snacks and headed up the hill to the ropes course.  We spent some time here working as teams trying to beat the course. 

The first challenge was to see how many youth they could get on a small square pad....

Next they had to balance the wooden balance using their team members ....

The rope wall was next {this one gave Ms. Becky more gray hair!!}

Getting the entire team over the climbing wall was the next challenge ~ this took some thinking ahead!

The final challenge was trying to get the whole team across the wire path between the trees.  This proved to be the most challenging for all of them, but they stuck with it and kept trying different ways to do it.  We had to leave for lunch before they mastered it, but many of them chose to come back up here on Saturday and Sunday afternoon during their free time and keep trying to beat it!!



Saturday lunch was chicken, mashed potatoes, corn and applesauce. 

 After lunch, we had the gym reserved ....  so first we had some fun with the scooters!

First was scooter soccer:

 Scooter Soccer Video (# 1)

 Scooter Soccer Video (#2)

Then it was The Great Pool Noodle Battle ....      {they had to hit the other person's shoe}

Great Pool Noodle Battle Video (#1)

Great Pool Noodle Battle Video (#2)

Gym time was completed with some scooter relay races and a jousting battle ....

After this, we had some free time.  Some chose to go to the ropes course again with Mr. G, some stayed in the meeting room and played games with Becky G. and some went back to the cabin with Ms. Becky for some peace and quiet.  Later in the afternoon we all met up again and inflated the big ball. 

The sun setting through the trees on the ball field was awesome!

We got the ball deflated and put away and headed in for supper .... spaghetti, salad and applesauce cake!

After supper, we had some more free time.  We hung out in the meeting room playing games {and yes, eating snacks AGAIN!} Mr. G and some of the guys went and got the campfire all set up.  Wish  I had pictures of that because it sounded like quite an entertaining trip!



Apples to Apples




Mystery Museum




Hot Potato



 Later in the evening, we had our next meeting time.  We talked about having a clear conscience, why it's important and some obstacles to a clear conscience.  We took some time then to be quiet before the Lord and asked Him to search our hearts for unconfessed sin.  Those things He brought to mind were then written on the bottom of a page and torn off to be thrown in the campfire later ~ this was a symbol of our giving it to the Lord, leaving it at the cross and seeking to follow Him wholeheartedly.   We compared a proud heart with a humble heart and read 24 ways they are different.

Everyone went back to the cabins to get dressed warmer and we headed up to the campfire.  The night sky was beautiful as the stars stood out among the trees.  We took some time for reflection and then made smores before heading back to the cabins for lights out.

Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful with the sun coming over the mountain ...

A highlight of Sunday morning was getting to sleep in an extra hour!

We headed down to a breakfast of eggs w/ bacon, cereal, toast, juice .... and coffee and then into the meeting room for our last session. This morning we talked about what it means to do harder things ... where do we go from here.  We watched two short clips from the Do Hard Things video and had some sharing time to wrap up our time together. 

Finishing packing, cleaning up the meeting room and cabins and loading the trailer took the remainder of the morning before lunch.  There was salisbury steak, potatoes and salad for lunch.  After lunch, we walked around the lake a little.

and this is what a weekend with the youth group could cause ....

Hope you all had as much fun as we did ~ but most of all, we hope you were challenged in your walk with the Lord .... keep looking for those harder things God wants you to do!