Seeing What God Sees
Since the last two-night retreat for our high school was in 2019, it’s safe to say that there was a good amount of apprehension from both the 63 SMCA high school students and their 12 chaperones who boarded the buses bound for the Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center. Two days later, that apprehension was completely forgotten as seniors marveled at enjoying the experience, as chaperones reflected on their small group discussions and the previous night’s laughter, and as others basked in the new confidence from the numerous team building activities and rope adventures.
On the way down we stopped for several hours at Faith Landmarks Ministries, a large church that had been contacted via a web search when trying to come up with an activity before our retreat center check-in time. Wow–love how God orchestrates our paths! We’ve already mentioned going back next year! Their Solid Rock Youth Leadership Team of eight gave us such an extremely warm welcome! It was evident that they understand helping youth deepen their faith is a marathon rather than a sprint. Attentions were captivated as they took turns speaking about integrity, true identity, being under authority, choice & compromise, and value, and as they literally would stop mid-sentence when their five minutes were up. Afterwards we did several team building activities–”River Crossing” and “Electric Fence”–and enjoyed their basketball, gaga ball, pool, and ping pong facilities.
The staff at Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center were similarly welcoming. For about five hours on Thursday we enjoyed their ropes course–specifically their zipline, tree climb, super swing, and team building games. The most notable team building activity involved transferring a ball balanced on a plastic ring attached to twelve strings from one PVC pipe end to another; ohhhhh the emotions that sprung from trying to work together in order to transfer the most times!
As each student filed into our four chapel gatherings, they placed their phones in baskets at the front. Wow to hear afterwards that some students appreciated that so much that they want us to collect phones for meal times next year! Mr. Owens focused on James 1:22-25 in our first session by challenging students to consider what they see in the mirror when they look–do you see what God sees, or do you see what the world sees? In an impromptu session Mrs. Crawford reminded us that the enemy only knows what we’re thinking by what we tell him and focused us towards 2 Corinthians 10. Mr. Shelton developed the identity theme by directing us to John 1 and Luke 1 while being aware of the devil using us for identity theft. Coach Nelson reminded us that being different comes with a price and questioned why we go without our weapon (the Bible) every day when a soldier would never go to battle without a weapon.
One teacher shared, “I found out this week that retreat is NOT just for the students! Wow! God extended His hand toward me in every message I heard this week. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to connect and laugh and grow with students I don’t currently teach. And I’m BLESSED to be surrounded by such God-honoring coworkers.” Another chaperone said, “It was a joy to connect with both staff and students. I do believe we saw some significant growth and maturity as disciples of Christ. The food was great, the activities were super, and each chapel session stretched us to model the Lord in all aspects of our lives. It was encouraging to hear of several salvations and numerous re-dedications. The church that hosted us on the way was first class and God used them to minister to us all.”
-Jennifer George, Events Coordinator