The Mountain Peak of a Winter Retreat
hehee- Tim Hawkins is a riot! This makes me think of my version of “Ms. Oseni Take the Wheel”
Ok, so, I had this genius idea that our youth would have a retreat for every season this year. Well, Winter is BUSY, did anyone know that? We managed to spend the last official weekend of winter together- and I couldn’t be more thankful for this time that we all had together!!
Have I told you all lately how AWESOME our youth at CVBC is?? Cause they are. They blow me away all the time! I love them more than I thought it was possible to love someone… which has been really good for me right now! And maybe good for them? haha
This weekend though really was great. It is fun to get together and laugh and hang out. The great thing about our youth group right now is that they all genuinely really like each other! They make coming to church a priority- so planning more and more things for them to come to has become my priority too! What a wonderful problem to have- thank you Lord!
This weekend was spent watching some AWESOME Christian Comedians (Tim Hawkins, and Mike Williams), Preparing for our Saturday Night Alive performance (its going to be hysterical… everyone MUST come!), and honestly, the best part, was our discussion time! I had a lot planned for us to do on Friday night, but after dinner and watching Tim Hawkins who was side splitting, we were to break up into our small discussion groups and then come back as a big group. I have started doing this thing where I prepare hand outs with a bible study and some questions and put our youth in to groups of 2-4 people and have them prepare a presentation/lesson/discussion to lead the big group in. I have been pleasantly surprised to see how our group has taken to this. For one, anything they hear and learn from their peers is going to stick with them rather than me tell them. Two, it gives them a chance to be leaders and listeners. Thirdly, it has opened up more discussion based learning rather than sit/listen/be bored learning like I know is so easy to happen with youth groups. This weekends discussion was… wow… well, lets just say God was using this youth and speaking through and to them!! We had “circle time” (Where we sit in a big circle and talk) and hit on some tough issues. This time it was different though. The youth were sharing and we were all having the best time- no side conversations or anything. I don’t know- maybe I’m weird- but when we all laugh at the same thing… that just never fails to make me the happiest person in the world.
Man oh man… I know its tough out there for them… and I know there are a lot of troubled teens in the world today- but some good stuff was accomplished in our youth group this weekend and to God be the glory! Trust me, I’m not oblivious to the fact that our youth group has some problems and quite frankly some big issues that we need to work on… but after this weekend we seemed to get real with each other and put some stuff out there that needed to be.
God is good… God is moving and working. If you aren’t involved or can’t see how He is… open your eyes and your heart! He wants and needs to use us all!
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