A couple weekends ago, our Selah Youth group traveled up to the mountains at Arrowbear lake for a exciting retreat. We stayed in a big house the roomed 26 people, so this was perfect for our little group. The house was located by the creek for beautiful hikes and quiet time.
We started out on friday night by paying ultimate frisbee down the street at the park and then coming in for a home cooked meal of spaghetti (thanks to our wonderful ladies). Afterwards, we gathered in the living room to worship our Big God and have a discussion on what it looks like to trust him. These teens were troopers as we had a discussion until after ten at night.
The next morning, we all arose to the smell of sausage and eggs cooking on the pans. After breakfast we had another session with Adam Everheart and then played a game with Oreos (funny stuff). Our friend Abraham came for a visit from Mosaic in LA and shared about the mind of men and women of faith, which was our eternal home- Heaven!. These sessions was preparing the hearts of all of us for the spark we would finish the day on.
Spark is a time where we all share what we could to better ourselves and help others by doing acts of kindness or other acts of love to others in family, church, or community. The teens responded very well and even followed up on it throughout the week. As some reconciled relationships with family or wanted to help the elderly in their community. The next week at youth study, Abe come back out to hear the stories of each teen for follow up.
We also burned a lot of energy with games of crash and football followed with cranium or risk. We ended the amazing weekend with wonderful delights of In-N-Out burger where some of us witnessed Shannens' first bite of an In-N-Out burger.
I believe this weekend has set new goals and vision for the future for 29 Palms and the whole desert....
