Soul Care Retreat - 2012

On Friday, Feb 10, six people departed from Calvin's parking lot to head off to Fair Haven's Conference grounds for yet another Soul Care Retreat.  It's a weekend get away for youth workers, both paid and volunteer.  

I thinks it's become a highlight for myself and our youth leaders.  A time to get away, get to know each other better and learn and grow.  

This year it was myself, Janine, Jeannine, Mel, Kevin, and a new addition to OUR group, Dan from Dixon's Corner's CRC.  He's a newly hired Youth Worker there.  

Here are Mel and Jeannine ready to go!  

Kevin took along all the pics and text for a blog entry about the winter camping that had occurred several weeks before.  As you can tell, he got it done during the drive, and I JUST completed putting it on the blog this week.  

Mel and Janine having friendly banter back and forth...I'm not sure what Jeannine is up to...maybe studying for and exam or something.... : )   

Our newest recruit...Dan.  

You know, if he wasn't hired by Dixon's, and if he had a "real job"  I'd love to have him as part of our youth ministry team.  He fit right in with us....a great guy....

I could have driven the whole 5.5 hours to Beaverton in one shot, but, alas,  I have girls with me...so THAT wasn't going to happen.  Mel, you look lost...the bathrooms are INSIDE Tim's..............

That looks painful Mel.....

Driving can begin to cramp your neck, etc...so I did a SHORT stretch of the arms, using my knee to drive with....and wouldn't you know it...Kevin gets a shot of this.....

I was on the planning team for this event (though I didn't really do a whole lot to be honest with you)  so we had to arrive between 6 and 8 pm so I could help out.  I THINK we got there at about 7:30 pm.  We registered and got our rooms and I think Mel is bugging me about my iphone or something here....

Here are our welcoming and register people.  

Always a smile from these two. 

This is Jeff, head person at Youth Unlimited, Grand Rapids. He came for the weekend, as Youth Unlimited hosted this event.  A nice guy that Jeff....

We gathered in the main meeting place for worship and a speaker....and right away Dan is pointing fingers at Mel, accusing her of something....settle down Danny boy!  : ) 

The three stooges...I'll let you figure out who's curly....

Here we are in smaller groups going over some stuff that our speaker, Bart,  wanted us to do.  

We also played some games to have some fun as leaders.  You know, those games that we get our youth to play, but wouldn't necessarily do ourselves.  Here's Janine in the thick of it.  

After speaker and games, it was down time. 

Here's our group, minus Kevin, relaxing and getting to know each other.....

This year's accommodations were MUCH better for Kevin and I (and Dan who ended up bunking with us as well).  We ended up in the hotel section of Fair Havens....

We stayed in a suite of sorts.  Two rooms, with a common living area in-between.  NICE!  

What was even nicer was the room I got, or more or less commandeered....  : )  All to myself.  The bed was really comfortable, and the blankets WARM.  I slept VERY well that night.....Kevin and Dan got the bunkbeds. Who NEEDS Winter Camping.....bahahahahah! 

Seems that the girls got bunk beds as well....

I always love the meal times at this retreat.  The food is GREAT here, and the company is good too.  We met Sarah again and one of her youth leaders.  It sure was fun giving out those wet willies again!  : ) 

Dan and I are getting to be good friends....  : )  

I didn't take this picture, but since someone took the time to take it, I guess I could put it in the blog....  

Nice place mat!  : )  

Breakfast....it was GOOD!!!  

Here's a picture of the dining area.  A nice place for fellowship.  

Here's the outside of the building. On the right is the dining area, the left is where we held our meeting times.  

When we weren't meeting, or eating, there was free time.  Several of our group LOVE settlers......I took a nap....  : ) 

I got the job of moving slides during our worship times.  Easy peasy....

Here's Jeannine going over some personal reflection stuff during our main sessions.  There was lots of time for that this year, and it was good and challenging stuff.  

Here's Dan using his Blackberry Playbook to take a  picture of me...such a boy!  : )  

Like last year, the food was AMAZING.  So, I just had to take some pictures of it.  Here's a great salad I had....

Here is some great fish, and ribs and..well you get the idea.  

There were a couple of people who have Gluten allergies, and they got the BEST desserts.......

Janine being one of them. 

After our morning session, and lunch, it was free time for the afternoon.  Some of us brought skates, and Dan brought his hockey stick.  We went to the rink and laced up.  

I helped clear the rink first....yes, that's me...working...  : ) 

Jeannine got ready to play some hockey.  She wasn't the most stable on her feet, and once she nearly smacked me across the face with her stick. 

Hockey is a dangerous sport. : ) 

We played hockey for a good hour or so.  Switching players, and having lots of fun.  I hadn't played in years.  I sweat like...well, I sweat.    I did get the chance to tackle Dan while playing.  He was quite taken aback by me doing that. I laughed......  : ) 

After hockey, it was time for a shower.  I decided to take a nap afterwards...and Dan went to play Settlers.  When I woke up, I went to see what everyone was doing....they were being suffocated by thick smoke in the basement....same as last year.  

Others were a bit smarter and played games upstairs...

Soon it was time for dinner.  

Dan...you're such a child...I like that....

I mean, look at this mature strapping young Youth Pastor!  : ) 

Finally WE get a good dessert.   Cheesecake with toppings...

After dinner it was time for another session with Bart, our speaker.  He inspired me to write a short sermon on the subjects he was talking about.  Good stuff!  

I wanted to take some time during the weekend to simply talk with my leaders.  After the evening session we had some time, so we sauntered back to our place.  Jeannine and Mel promptly decided it would be better to get some sleep....WAKE UP!   They did, and we had a great time of talking together for a good hour or so.  Sorry Dan, for leaving you alone for so long, but I think you managed ok.  

Kevin and I went to bed after our meeting time.  The rest stayed up a bit longer to play some games.  You can tell they did because they didn't look to happy at breakfast.  

Here's a picture of the buffet table.  

Always something good to choose from.  

Sunday brought about church time.  The tables disappeared.  

We had two great musicians lead us in worship over the weekend.  Brian on guitar and his wife on Viola?  A beautiful combination.  

I never did get a picture of Bart, but here he is sharing his wisdom with us.  

Before we knew it, it was time to go home.  We COULD have stayed for lunch at Fair Havens and had roast beef, but we all wanted to get a bit of an earlier start and get home, so we opted instead for fake beef at McDonald's.  

All in all it was another GREAT weekend.  Too bad YU won't be hosting another one next year, but we'll see if the Ontario Youth Ministry Team can't pull one off.  

Thanks for coming along everyone.  It was a pleasure having fun with you all, AND being serious too. 

Thanks too, Dan for sharing your testimony with us on the way home.  AMAZING.  You need to ask Dan about that sometime...he'll certainly be coming to our youth group to share it sometime soon.