1 John 2:15-17 "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever."
First, I have to start by saying that this was, by far, the very best youth retreat I have ever been on. And I've been on a lot (like, maybe seven of the eight years it has existed). The talks were amazing, the set-up was hard but fun, my tent girls were a lot of fun, and relationships were developed and expanded. However, it wasn't all easy and fun for me. As I am processing the week, here are a few of my thoughts and reflections as to how everything went.
As a bit of background, I went this year as a college kid...my second official initiation into being considered "college-aged." As part of my job description, I got to lead a junior high girls tent. Also, I got to go down to camp a day early to help set up, and I was able to serve in various capacities throughout the week. Maybe, though, on the offchance of someone reading this blog who has no idea of what the Youth Retreat is, I'll offer a short explanation of the actual event. Our church's youth group spends one week of every summer down at a camp in New Hampshire. We have a theme to follow each year and Bible studies to do each morning, followed by a Bible study before lunch and then a talk in the evening. In between, we have tons of fun swimming in the pond, playing volleyball and ultimate frisbee, taking walks and runs, and having meaningful conversations. It's a huge operation; this year we had 85 campers with a ton of "adults" (yeah, I count as one of those, now). The most we had at one time was 130 people. Wow! I can't even begin to explain how blessed I am because of our youth ministry and our leaders, as well as the amazing servant mentality that all of the adults had/have towards everyone, both other adults and kids included. (Um, just to let you know, this might get a little long...)
O.K., back to reflections...
1. The theme this year was centered around 1 John 2:15-17, talking about "wine, women and wealth." We spent a day each on the "lust of the flesh," the "lust of the eyes," the "boastful pride of life," and the "world is passing away." The talks were very well done by our pastor, youth minister, and an elder. The talks were convicting, especially the one about the boastful pride of life. I was convicted of more pride in my life (big surprise) and was shown a little more clearly how that pride plays out in my life. Hard stuff, but very good.
2. This year's group of junior high girls is a large group, 20 total, and a hard group. They are all wonderful girls who have sparkling personalities and are a lot of fun to play with. However, there are only three Christians in the group, and the rest seem disinterested (but I obviously don't know their hearts). This made for interesting but discouraging Bible studies and discussion groups. One of the studies I did, focusing on the Boastful Pride of Life, was a complete flop. It was very obvious that the girls were trying to avoid the study at all costs. One excuse was that they needed more than the hour allotted to them to finish their study, which had previously taken between 5 and 15 minutes to finish. I found out later that they had employed their time by making friends with the squirrels that had been visiting the inside of our tents on a regular basis. During the actual discussion, I finally just said: "Ok, let's just close up our Bibles and studies and let's talk about what's going on. *cheery smile, try not to look too desperate* So, whatcha'll thinkin' about?" One girl was studiously following an ant around the table and finally succeeded in squishing it. The conversation that followed went along these lines:
"I'm thinking about squishing ants." (the ant squisher)
"Oh?" (me)
"Ewww...." (other girls)
"Um, just what about ant-squishing intrigues you??" (me)
"Well..." (girl)
"Well, there's this food chain thing going on. It's kind of weird. There are these animals that eat other animals, and then are other animals that eat those animals. And hey, humans are on top of it all!" (another girl)
"Hmm...How do you think this whole food chain thing fits in with God's plan for us??" (me)
"Well, we certainly aren't like ants." (another girl)
"Or, maybe we are kind of like ants in God's kingdom, cause we're kind of at the bottom." (me)
"What??!" (other girls)
"Well, we are all these little specks running around on earth." (me)
"But we aren't squished." (girl)
"Well actually, I guess you could say that ultimately we are squished in hell, if we haven't given our life to Christ." (me)
"You know, I really like how you turned that around so we were talking about God again..." (another girl to me)
Oh, was it that obvious???
3. In light of the studies, I was reflecting back on my days of being in junior high, and actually came away more encouraged than before. I was remembering what an ugly sinner I was (and still am, though in a more nuanced way) and how that affected my relationships. I was a brand new Christian back then and I still had a long way to go in the area of pride shown in my bossiness. Seeing some of myself in these girls, I was encouraged, because these girls could have beautiful hearts in six, seven, or eight years. They could be the new leaders. They could be talking about and praying for the junior high. Seeing it all in that perspective was uplifting, both in seeing how far God has brought me, as well as seeing the potential in these precious girls. God was kind in opening my eyes to this.
4. "Maybe God has chosen to use your experiences this week to grow you, not to show immediate growth in the girls in your tent. You might be planting seeds, you might be watering, but maybe this week is more about Elisabeth's relationship with God than anything else." These are some wise words spoken to me by my pastor, also helping with the discouraging factor. And he was right, to some extent. Though the serving factor was great, I could not neglect God's teaching in my life.
I'll end there, for now. Thanks for reading through this!
To read a day by day reflection/journal, go here.
To see two ridiculous pictures, go here (2006 Youth Retreat in the bag). You might have to scroll down a bit.
BTW, I'm a little baffled. How does calculus fit in theology?? I thought I had escaped that for the summer!
7 comments:
Nice job with the ant-squasher. I thought it was going to sound a little forced at first, but sounds like you handled it well.
yeah, I don't know what I was thinking, but I hope God will use that to some end.
Wow, awesome reflections. Isn't it amazing how God uses our opportunities to serve Him to bless/challenge/grow us sometimes? Thanks for sharing. It sounds like it was a great week, focused on an excellent topic. Wish I could have been there! ...except then I wouldn't have had the fun opportunity to hang out with Samuel and Gabriela for 3 days. :)
Wow, Elisabeth, those reflections were pretty awesome. I hope you made a difference in the JV girls hearts.
Mary-Margaret - you must of had a full house!! From the pictures, though, it looks like you guys had so much fun!
Hannah - thanks :)
Elisabeth, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for serving our girls for the week. I can imagine that it was a difficult group to get studying, but I know that seeds were planted. Be assured it wasn't a waste. I know of at least one young lady who was made to think about some new ideas and to grow up a little bit. :-)
Mrs. S, I had an awesome time watching your daughter blossom through out the week! She was so shy at first, but by the end was initiating conversations, playing in the water and going tubing, and then saying she didn't want all the fun to end. It was a lot of fun, as I'm sure she told you. :)
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