Ben and I returned from the youth group retreat on Sunday! (And then we watched the Rockies game, which was impressive. I was so tired, however, that I could barely keep my eyes open.) It was fun! I stayed awake! I even participated!
We departed the church at 2 pm on Friday. When we arrived at Highlands, we unpacked out stuff … and then Ben led some games. :) The first game involved swatting people on the head with a handcrafted newspaper swatter; I saw the swatter and announced that I wasn’t playing. I HATE games where you do stuff like that. However, when I realized that it involved only one swatter and not a whole slew of them (11 kids with swatters = chaos, screaming, eventually crying — a whole bunch of NOISY chaos), I relented and took a seat. It was a game that introduced everybody: got swatted? Say your name and some other random facts about yourself (where you live, what school you go to, what toothpaste you use, what color underwear you’ve got on … I must say that last one took me by surprise). It was actually rather fun to get to know the kids (and adults!) this way.
Then we had dinner, which was surprisingly delicious. I don’t know how the cafeteria workers do it, but they had protein (and lots of it!) and it was good. They even had plain salad, of which I also partook! They also had reasonable potions of everything; it wasn’t like Lutheridge, where you’d ask for more French toast and they’d return with one sandwich (two pieces of Wonderbread) cut up into five pieces. The kitchen gets five stars from this critic.
I led Vespers the first night we were there … I read “The Tale of Three Trees”. It’s a story of three trees who want to grow up to become the a treasure box, the strongest tree, and the tallest tree. But their wishes don’t come true; the first is cut down and turned into a feed box, the second is made into a wimpy fishing boat, and the third is cut down and turned into a cross. Of course, the feed box holds baby Jesus, the fishing boat holds Jesus when he calms the storm, and the cross becomes a symbol of the resurrection. The trees are happy. The discussion went okay. (”What does this story teach you about humility?” “That if you’re, like, working at a McDonalds, you should keep working really hard so that you can eventually get into management.” “Did the trees work hard?” “Uh …” “Well, it’s definitely a good idea to work hard, but I’m not sure that this story is specifically advocating that. Any other ideas?”)
I was drained after that. Reading a story aloud, slowly enough to be comprehensible, and leading a discussion about it — without hurting anyone’s feelings and waiting for the KIDS to come up with the answers — is extremely difficult. It was bedtime, thank goodness. Unfortunately, despite my exhaustion, I couldn’t sleep. Maybe it’s being in a strange place and sleeping on the equivalent of a stack of newspapers, but whatever it was, I felt like I was awake the *entire* night. When I was awoken the next morning at 7:05 I wasn’t ready to get up. However, breakfast was calling, so I eventually got out of bed and got dressed.
After breakfast, we had two “sessions” — time in which we discussed the Topics to Be Discussed. The weekend’s theme was “beans.” We had jelly beans for snacks and seed beans (beads) for crafts. We made bean bags to learn how to juggle with. You get the idea. However, there was actually a point to all of this. There are tons of kinds of beans — lima beans, cocoa beans, green beans, etc — but which is God’s favorite? The human bean! I, regretfully, don’t know how I did at leading the discussions, because our “pod” (get it? bean pod?) always finished early, but I think we did okay.
After lunch, we had free time. Most of the kids ran around outside and played with some playground balls that Michael scrounged up somewhere. I led some crafts, which was fun. I didn’t know lanyard would be such a big hit! We also made the bean bags using old pantyhose, which was totally fun, if you ask me.
After dinner, we made smores by the campfire in our cabin. That was pretty fun. Then, Don led a game — I can’t even remember what it’s called — that had everyone SCREAMING. I think it was a scavenger hunt of sorts. The checklist included things such as “Find a man willing to do five push-ups for you,” and “Yell while you do jumping jacks.” I would have loved it when I was in eighth grade. Now, though, I just want to run away. And I mean it. I sat there, silently, and watched the chaos from within my stroke cocoon. I didn’t say anything to anyone. I don’t want the kids to know that anything’s wrong. I don’t think I fooled everyone, though, because Don apologized afterwards.
“How’s that for your stroke?” he asked.
“It sucked, thank you,” I replied.
That night Ben led the group on a trust walk. We all got blindfolds, and very slowly, we walked around camp. At one point, I slipped on a rock and fell, but only about a foot and a half. I was still in one piece. (Thank goodness. I was slightly concerned about this walk; I felt like I might slip and knock my head and get a concussion and have to go to the emergency room and start therapy all over again. But I didn’t. It was all in my head.)
And then it started snowing. =) We didn’t get as much as predicted (30 inches), but we did get 3-4″, and the kids were *thrilled*. It was a good way to end the weekend.
