Summer Staff Winter Retreat 2016

The Summer Staff Winter Retreat occurs the day after Christmas and plays an important role in building our summer staff team for the upcoming year, encouraging former staff in their walk with the Lord, and simply bringing kids together in a fun and safe place where they know that they are loved. One of our girl staff, you may remember her from This Post, was certain that she wouldn’t be able to attend this year. She had to work, didn’t have the money, and honestly wondered if God noticed or cared. Suddenly, things began to shift and change in ways she could not explain. Her boss gave her the days off, she received a monetary gift for the exact amount needed for camp, her Dad and sister made changes to their holiday plans at the last minute. There she was, at camp, sitting with us on the couch, flipping through her Bible with tears in her eyes as she talked about the verses that had spoken to her during those few days together. Do not think for an instant that God has forgotten you. He is at work in so many glorious ways.

Fabulous Bible sessions, amazing worship, and the baring of the soul are important … but weren’t there supposed to be some strange and incredible outdoor team building/get-everyone-soaked-in-snow-so-that-their-hair-is-frozen-into-strange-shapes type activities?

Fear not, Scruffy had that covered as well.

Although, Princess Leia felt that this was an activity she should definitely supervise.

Things got a little chilly and snowy and wet and just a tad bit bumpy.

But there were snow ninjas. 

And the scenery was lovely.

If you could see anything between your snow-crusted lashes

No man was left behind, ie Scruff drove slow enough so that you could catch up if you ran fast enough.

Was “mattress sledding” a success?  

Hmmm … let’s see, snow plastering hair into strange shapes, snow on eyebrows, in ears, eyelashes, is that snow in his nose? The kids were definitely drawn closer together as they clung frantically to the mattress. Looks like a success to me. This my friends is what camp is all about. A strange conglomeration of the most serious things in life all mixed up with the simple pleasures of laughter and friends.

Boo Boo

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *