Winter Retreat - Eureka!

Last year's high school retreat was largely about an amazing group of kids getting to join in on the party as brand new friends became a brand new part of the family of Christ. The key words were, "Welcome to the party!" and it was a weekend characterized by wild, giddy, sleepless joy.

The "old" kids made "their" retreat into something largely about others, and it was a good, good thing to watch.

This year, they needed something totally different than that, and, because we have a good God, He had exactly what they needed waiting and ready for them, even at a brand new-to-us camp that had empty chicken coops in the backyard of every cabin and bunkhouse.

This year, the key word was, "Eureka!" It meant everything from, "Eureka! A puddle!" (Which happened to be more than plentiful the first night/morning. Whoot for mud!) to, "Eureka! That moment right there, that was God!"

25 girls worth of shoes in the entryway to our combined cabin

 They came totally expecting to see God move, but more than a little terrified of what that movement might look like. The one thing that united them all was a desperate desire to leave the weekend knowing that, somehow, things were different than when they came. 

What they needed, but would never have said, was a chance, just for a few days, to not have to have all of the answers, a chance to be served, and a safe place to be broken without having to pretend like life was okay. (Because, they are teenagers. Life is never really, "okay.")

And, so, they moshed to dub step, played in inflatables, explored trails that went to who knows where, swam, swung, painted their faces with mud, sang, danced, listened, shared, explored some more, and let God wash them in the truth of His love, the truth of the absolute joy that He finds in them.

And, I think that they found a different sort of joy than what they found last year, a joy that is more raw and open, that carries with it more pain but also more wonder.

The joy that they found is the type that comes home and wants to spill out, wants to change the world, wants to let everyone know that there is more to life than this, that heaven is real, that justice and love can be both present and coming realities, that God is forever and always enough, and, perhaps most importantly for this specific group of kids, that they don't ever have to be afraid.

Because there is love.

I have mentioned before how amazing these kids are at service, how well they love on other people, but, like anyone, they get burned out. Some of them still carried heart wounds from past ministry trips; most were feeling like they were in this alone. Almost all of them were at a point where it was getting harder and harder to see past their own pain to the world around them.

And, so, God brought them to a place of refreshment, where they were surrounded by three bus loads of other people who were after the same thing.

They went home completely raw from having heart wounds opened and scrubbed clean and bandaged, but they discovered joy in the process - jumping up and down, slamming into your neighbor, hands  in the air, eyes closed, face uplifted JOY. Joy that doesn't come from anything except God.

We slept so much more than last year, but you can see, even in the pictures, the rawness and vulnerability that they allowed to take up residence behind their eyes. This was a year for surrender and for exploring what it means to follow Jesus with everything.

(There is this thing whereby, no matter how long camp is or is not, the mast morning is always for taking pictures. Last year's pictures, they are practically pulling each other back down to the ground, like balloons filled with too much helium. This year's pictures are closer, tighter, more on top of each other, like a pack of puppies in a thunderstorm, half in awe and half terrified of the next boom.)

Eureka! We went to the mountains and we found God - not that He was exactly hiding from us anyplace else!

And, we also found some dear meat to roast over the fire, some snow covered trails to hike in Converse and slipper boots, a giant swing that was completed while we were there, and water that smelled like fart (sulfur from the hot springs). "To the adventure!"