Classis Eastern Canada Fall Retreat @ Circle Square Ranch 2014 - Part 1

October 17 - 19, 2014

Time for another Classis sponsored fall retreat at

Circle Square Ranch, Arden, Ontario.  

John and Deb were in charge of registrations once again.  Deb looks REALLY excited to be doing this again.  : ) 

The main entrance way for CSR. 

We've been coming here for several years now. 

CSR has just had a management change in the past year, so they were still quite new to doing weekend retreats. 

John and Deb registering churches. 

The main hall set up and ready to go. 

I'm set up and ready to go too, apparently. 

Oh yes....

I forgot to mention.

THE FIDGETS are back again by popular demand. 

These guys (one missing), have become more like family to us than a comedy trio....

Just John (left) and Dave (right) saying hello in their own way.  

Our schedule for the weekend.  

Apparently John went missing...hmmmmm

Christine and most of Calvin's youth praise team did the music for the weekend.  We've done it in the past as well. 

Simon and Jonathan getting ready to go.  

Keeners ready to go too. : )

Simon testing out the piano.  

Jonathan testing out his guitar.  

We imported a drummer from Dixon's Corners.  Dan seems to be giving him pointers or something.  : ) 

Everyone arrived by about 8 pm, and we got things underway. 

As chair of the CYMT (Classis Youth Ministry Team) I welcomed everyone.  

hmmmmmm, 

I must have forgotten something. 

Joe, our secretary is informing me of something. 

What....I really can't remember.  : ) 

Then it was time for praise and worship.  

Christine and Sarah on vocals

Jonathan on guitar

We had about 60 people in total. 

A pretty average size, but different people every year. 

Oh, and I might as well take the time to tell you that there were A LOT of pictures (which is why I probably didn't blog LAST year's fall retreat)  so I've split this weekend up into three different posts.  Just an FYI.  

Here's a better picture of the room and group.  

And the praise team.  

Alexa on Keyboard and Carraugh on Flute.  

Some of our songs had actions too. 

Some of our leaders who didn't seem to want to DO the actions.  

Jeannine....a GREAT youth leader.  

With Elayna.  Another Great youth leader.  : ) 

After worship it was FIDGET TIME!  

Chris is on the far left.  

They are always a HOOT!

Dave and John explaining their opening game.  

Rock, paper, scissors.  

Reuben and Chris duking it out.  

More of our group.  

Here are the survivors of RPS.  

They did a RPS finals.   Lots of fun to watch. 

Dave being... Dave!!

I think Alexa won here...but didn't make it to the finals.  

Our Winner!!!!!!

The Prize?

A FIDGETS wrist band......

Next game...

Questions only!

So in this game you can only talk in questions.  

Guys against the girls, of course.  

Elayna held her own.  

Then it was time for THE FIDGETS to do something. 

A game in which Chris and the group send John and Dave out and we come up with two things you would never expect to be returned.  

We picked 

1.  a swan ice sculpture

2. the millennium falcon (space ship) 

What a hoot in trying to have them guess. 

Here's a short video clip of John Trying to guess the swan ice sculpture

Here's Dave trying to blow up the millennium falcon. 

Here's a short video of John getting his swan ice sculpture and Dave trying to guess the millennium falcon.  

After THE FIDGETS we had our first speaker. 

This year we stayed local (geographically that is). 

Our theme for the weekend was: "What's Your Story?"

Dan shared his life story with us.  

Quite a powerful testimony. 

Dave's recovering from his stint.  : ) 

Dan continues with his "story".

After Dan spoke we closed with a couple of worship songs.  

But some of us continued with our antics......

Alexa must have just made a mistake.

She smiles whenever she does that.

well, not really....but maybe....?

More action songs.  

Kyle getting into it.  

As are the rest of the group. 

Stretch WAY back.  : ) 

All serious now Alexa.....

Time to relax and socialize. 

Snack time....

Time to get to know THE FIDGETS again.  

Nice faces Chris and William.  

A view of the dining area. 

Chris....deer in the headlight look....

and I didn't even notice the other things going on around you... : )

Every year we have the standard youth leaders meeting to go over rules and select those who need to stay up to make sure our YP go to bed.  

Somehow THE FIDGETS never do this...

Being family and all, I think we need to change that next year?

Jeannine and Dave catching up.  

It's morning now.  

Larry and I are somewhat awake.  

It was raining all night long but seems to have stopped for a bit.  What follows are some pictures of CSR on the outside. 

Hey Dave...

Time for breakfast eh!  

Lots of good food at CSR. 

Elayna and Jeannine patiently waiting for food.  

Good morning to you boys.  

Hope you slept well.  

Christine and Deb and John doing what they do best....converse.  : ) 

Hey Sarah, and Alexa and Carraugh avoiding the camera, as usual.  : )

Simon waking up on the keyboard.  

Jonathan too....

Alexa tinkling the imitation ivory

So that's what it looks like when you are playing Alexa. 

I always wondered how you got all those notes right.  

William handled the projection of songs.  

hmmmm, this looks like "Day of Elijah"

Behold he comes...riding on the clouds...shining like the sun.....

at the trumpet sound....

lift your voice.......

it's the year of jubilee....

out of Zion's hills, salvation comes! 

Dave took a bit of time, but after a couple of choruses, he got the hang of it.  

John and John are still trying to figure things out....

Dan has it down!  

oh, they DID figure it out...

well, sort of. 

Awe...a cute picture.  

I see there are people in the background trying to steal the limelight.  

Time for another FIDGET introduction game.  

You look at the fact that they present, and you decide if it's true (thumbs up) or false (cross your arms in front of you).  

If you are wrong, YOU sit down. 

Here we gooooo

This one was "before serving up some great movies,
James Franco (who's that!) served up lots of McNuggets to pay the bills......true or false?

Hey, John and Chris, you guys know these answers...cheaters....!!

These guys think it's true...well, Jonathan doesn't actually.  

Or maybe he does....

Answer was.........TRUE!

And then it was on to THE FIDGETS antics......

This game was called "Change"

Here a topic is selected, place, etc...

The setting was in the bullfighting arena with two bullfighters (John and Chris) wanting the love and affection of the same girl, Bonita.  

They talk together and as they speak Dave will randomly say CHANGE and that means that the last sentence just stated needs to be changed...usually three times. 

Hilarious.  

Take a look

And the crowd thought so too.  

Always applause at the end of a game.  

And lots of laughter.  

hmmmmm, what's happening here?

oh yes...person, place and thing. 

The audience select a person, place and thing. 

In this case it was Chris getting these three things. 

Then Chris had to explain to Dave what they were by only using jiberish to talk and body language to get things across. 

Then Dave, once he THINKS he knows what they are, needs to make John understand what they are.   

Crazy funny.  

After THE FIDGETS, it was time for Joe to share his "story". 

He talked about his life journey into the ministry.  

I think Joe put us into small groups to talk about stuff too....

So here we are.....

Well most of us.....

Nice face Chris.  

A touching story I think. 

Really hitting Chris... : ) 

Ok, so that's part #1 done. 

Go to entry #2 to continue on..............