Spring Retreat 2011

It’s funny how peaceful our youth ministry’s Spring Retreat has become for me, considering how it used to stress me out so much.  It was the biggest event that Greg did by himself for the youth group, and for some reason, we both used to feel huge pressure.  Now, even though we are just as committed to making it a great experience for the teens, the pressure and stress are just not there.  I guess it helps having done it for eight years now!  Regardless, I can say definitively that this has been the year that I prayed the most for the retreat, and worried the least.  And it was a wonderful, peaceful experience from beginning to end.  (Even when the handle of the spigot came off the back of the staff cabin, soaking Greg and temporarily flooding the immediate area, we didn’t freak out.  It’s not the first time we’ve had water line problems, and it won’t be the last:).  Instead, I resisted the urge to run and get my camera, as Greg was not incredibly amused, and instead went to get a flashlight so he could go under the house and figure out how to turn the water off.  Added bonus:  we now know how to shut off the water to the entire camp.  I’m sure that will come in handy on our next water pipe adventure!)

As usual, we left early on Friday and got up to the camp well before the group so that Greg could get everything set up.  Our speaker, Jeff, was already there when we arrived, and he and Greg got the electronic stuff set up while the kids and I played and relaxed:

We also enjoyed the scenery:

During this time, Luke found a caterpillar that he proudly named Butterfly.  Butterfly immediately became Luke’s pet that he kept with him through the entire weekend.

After they got things set up, we drove to Traveler’s Rest with our speaker to eat dinner.  Then, we came back and got the kids bathed and ready to bed.  I went to bed with them, so we missed the teens arriving around 9:45 in time for an evening session.

The next morning after breakfast, Luke worked a puzzle with Daddy.  Or not.

Then the kids played with Mr. Catfish:

Here are three of the five members of my cell group, before the morning session.  Are they not adorable??

And here are some of our goofier teens before the session:

After the session, we had discussion groups and quiet time.  Also, Greg found a really cool turtle:

The turtle immediately became Luke’s second pet.  He named it Humongous Peanut.  From that time forward, Butterfly and Humongous Peanut accompanied Luke everywhere.

After lunch, we had a nice chunk of free time, and my cell group girls and I hiked up to the high falls, along with a couple other teens.  It is a long hike, but totally worth it. 

One of the chaperones snapped the picture of me, and I was glad to have it, as it comprises one half of the photos I’m in from the weekend.  Plus, it is a good reminder of the peaceful, refreshing feeling of being cooled off by the mist from the falls and watching my wonderful girls have so much fun being silly. 

While I was on the hike, Luke and Anna played with Mrs. Linda, or as they came to call her, “Aunt Linda.”  They both love Aunt Linda, and when Anna got tired, she even asked to crawl in Linda’s lap for a story:

The snuggles were interrupted, however, when she heard it was time for slip-n-slide kickball.  Before the game started, Luke had fun spraying Greg, but when Greg sprayed him back, he got upset.  Greg and the teens quickly thought of a way to make him feel better, however:

Ah, the joys of having dozens of teenagers and your beck and call!  After everyone was hosed down and slippery, the games began!

Here are the littlest slip-n-sliders:

Something about the baby shampoo made Anna’s eczema act up, though, and I ended up having to go put her in the bath to make it feel better.  She spent the rest of the game watching with Mr. Dale:

When Luke got tired, he played with Peanut:

Our teens found other ways to entertain themselves:

By then, it was time to get ready for dinner, and shortly after dinner, it was time for the kids and I to begin the bedtime process.  Because I went to bed with them again, I missed the two evening sessions, but I heard they went well.

On Sunday morning, we woke up, packed, enjoyed a delicious breakfast, had a communion service in the pavilion, and headed home.  Neither Luke nor Anna was ready to leave; Luke had whined every time we mentioned leaving during the weekend.  He was especially sad to say goodbye to their pets, but they really needed to go back home.  And so did we.

All in all, it was a great weekend that reminded me how much I like being a youth minister’s wife and how much I like being a mom.  If possible, I came home loving Greg, my kids, the teens, and God even more.  The weekend was a blessing, and a spiritual “retreat” in the truest sense of the term!

Spring Retreat 2010

Yesterday, we got back from the youth ministry's annual Spring Retreat at a beautiful campground in the mountains upstate.  I could go on and on about the retreat, but I will instead simply discuss my two favorite parts:

1.  The theme.

Like all of our Spring Retreat themes, Greg and I brainstormed this one on a road trip, this one either during the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays.  My favorite themes are the ones that are both deep and shallow at the same time.  They are deep in that they address core issues with which the teens struggle, and they are shallow in that they have a lot of fun stuff that can go along with them.  My favorite theme ever, for example, was "The Reborn Identity," which we did in 2006, a year in which one of the Bourne sequels came out.  The messages centered around our true identity in Christ, something the teens really needed at that time,  And alongside the profound message also came a lot of fun stuff:  a killer intro video Greg made of clips from several spy movies that centered around identity; note-taking booklets designed as dossiers; silly spy-type names for our regular events, like calling quiet time "Solo Ops;" and an ongoing, weekend-long game of Assassins, which was tons of fun.

We came up with this year's theme after deciding that what our kids needed to hear was how and why to stretch their comfort zones.  Greg came up with, "Pop," and it initially seemed silly to me, until I realized the potential.  We could talk about "Pop Culture," but use pop as a verb instead of a shortened adjective, and talk about the need to get outside of the "bubble" reality that culture creates for us!  Once I caught up with Greg's genius, the rest came together quickly.  To the "Pop Culture" message, we added two other sessions:  "Pop Cliques," and "Pop Comfort."  Those are three successively smaller bubbles in which we find ourselves, and even more importantly, they are three points that all start with C!  (I have heard waaay too many traditional sermons in my life.  I now think in 3 point, alliterative sermons:).)  And furthermore, I was just as excited by all the shallow ways we could develop the theme.  Pop Rocks!  Bubbles!  Bubble gum!  Balloons!  Tootsie Roll Pops!  Needless to say, we played many games involving popping balloons and blowing and popping bubble gum bubbles, and we put plenty of "popping" treats in the kids'   We had the same speaker from "The Reborn Identity" back for "Pop," because we knew that this theme had the potential to be deep.  Shawn has a Masters in divinity, and is a great teacher, and we knew he'd do a great job conveying the theme, which he did.

So needless to say, I loved the theme.  Truly, one of my joys in life is to help Greg develop a good theme.  He comes up with the best ones himself, but I help him flesh them out.

2.  The fact that my kids had a blast.

In the past, I have been torn between the youth ministry and my kids.  It seemed like I could not properly focus on one without neglecting the other.  Of course, I usually chose my kids, but even the times that I did drag them along on a retreat or camp, I felt bad b/c it seemed like I was somehow neglecting them.  This year, I had no such qualms.  They loved every second of the retreat, and they did NOT want to leave.  They spent the weekend chasing geese, picking flowers (Anna), trying to climb trees (Luke), playing on playgrounds, and having fun with the kids.  They loved getting to spend so much time outside, and I loved that they were surrounded by such beautiful nature.  The best part, though, was that our speaker brought his four year old son, who is just six months older than Luke.  Lucas was soon christened as Luke's "best friend."  And Lucas was referring to Luke and Anna as "his friends" before he even met them.

Shopping for last minute supplies on Friday.

Helping a straggling Anna after she had fallen behind.  You do remember that she is a princess, right?:)

Taking a walk in the field while eating Tootsie Roll pops.

Spending aLOT of time chasing the goose.  Whenever the kids got tired and wandered off, the goose would start chasing them to get them back interested in the game:).

Perhaps the biggest sign of the kids' comraderie was the sleeping arrangements for both nights.  Here were my bed-mates:

Yep.  I spent two nights sleeping with a 2 year old, a 3 year old, and a 4 year old on two twin beds pushed together!  It wasn't the best sleep that I've ever gotten, but they actually did surprisingly well.  Let's just say though, that when I woke up on Mother's Day in a bed full of toddlers, one of which was lying across me at the time, I certainly felt like a mother!

Throughout the weekend, Luke repeatedly told me that he did NOT want to go home, but on Sunday morning, he finally asked, "Can we go home now?" while eating breakfast in the mess hall.  I thought, "Whew!  He's finally ready.  But nope.  I soon realized that by "home," he meant that he wanted to go back to our cabin and play around the tree!  He bawled like a baby when Lucas left.

So, it was a great retreat.  I can only hope that the teens got as much out of the theme as I did, and that they enjoyed the nature and the fellowship as much as my children did!

Race Relations

The other night, we had a family over to dinner, and Luke and their four children played in his room for awhile.  Later that night, when I was putting him to bed, I mentioned casually that someone had put a stuffed Larry the Cucumber on Luke's bed.  He responded, equally nonchalantly, that, "That white boy put it there."  I had to laugh, but I was really confused because, 1) everyone in the room was white, and 2) we have never pointed out a person's race to Luke or even referred to it (to my knowledge) in his presence. 

Then, this weekend at the Spring Retreat, the issue struck again when Luke asked where that "black lady" was who helped him pick up rocks outside.  Again, it is not inherently wrong to describe a person in terms of their physical characteristics, but it was still bizarre.  To compound matters, there were no black ladies at the retreat!  When pressed for more details, Luke found the "black lady" who had helped him and ran over to point her out.  It was Mrs. Jan, clearly a white woman...who was wearing a big black sweater.  It struck me at that moment that the child Luke described as leaving the stuffed animal was wearing a white shirt that night.  This revelation was pounded home to me when Luke asked the next day at a restaurant who "that green man" was. 

How funny is that.  There is something also kind of beautiful and innocent though, in that Luke apparently sees no color except for clothing color.  He plays regularly with, and is babysat by, people of different races, and he has never commented, asked about, or apparently noticed that.  And maybe he has heard people referred to by their race.  But in my two year old son's mind, the only different colors worthy of comment are shirt colors.

I like that.