Youth Retreat

I had the privilege of going on our church's youth retreat this past weekend, and basically spending the whole weekend playing around. I didn't really go on all that many youth retreats growing up since most weekends were usually spent either at soccer tournaments or piano related things, so I didn't really have the experience from a child point of view. But working at PBC and this past weekend has shown me some of the things that I probably missed out on. Our "your professionals" group had about 6 of us out there just helping out with our main purpose to be there and to hang out with the kids. The majority of the group was comprised of middle school aged kids, probably about 2 to 1 for high school aged people. The theme was following the voices you hear, related to sheep and their shepherds. This was used to facilitate building relationships not only with the elders of the church (who were out there for the majority of the weekend as well), but in also realizing the importance we each have in helping guide every other brother and sister to be more like Christ. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend.

One thing that I learned not related at all to spiritual matters is that Mandi is ruthless at Knockout (where you've got 2 basketballs and the person that shoots second tries to make their basket first and get the person in front of them out). She went on a hot streak, and got about 7 people in a row out (including me) on her first shot. She'd just step up and drain it. She ended up winning that round, but it was pretty impressive. And it's not like she was just beating up on the 6th graders, as there were adults playing as well. I also learned a game called Ha! Yeah, that's the name. I can't really explain it on here...it's basically just a game of reactions with as many people as you want. And weird posing. And lots of yelling...like a ninja.

Patrick Mead is here this week at Highland View in Oak Ridge. I had heard him last spring when he had come to Farragut and really enjoyed his lessons. This week he is talking about the Battle being the Lords. We missed Sunday (due to the retreat and soccer), and Monday (since we were getting Mandi a new car). Yesterday's talk was on the Lord of Hosts and basically was about how there are times when God is that kind, meek person that you see depicted so often, but that at many other times, he is a warrior, a general, who commands legions of angels behind him to do his bidding. He's Irish, funny, engaging, and usually puts a new spin on things that you've heard many times before. I look forward to his lesson tonight on the Angels of the Lord. For a glimpse in to what he's like, check out his blog.

Dad gets home from Japan tomorrow at 5 PM, probably after flying for about 24 hours (or more depending on delays and such), so remember him if you could in your prayers. Mom comes home about a week and a half later if all goes to plan. My reign of terror at the house is coming to an end. I better get to work on getting things looking like a semblance of how they were before they left. It's really not that bad, I promise.