I’m tired, but happy.<\/p>\n
Friday evening I headed out to church to be the 2nd wave driver for the Sr. High retreat.\u00a0 There were a few youth who played football who needed to leave later than the 6pm departure time.\u00a0 I got there at 6:15, and the first wave in the big van didn’t leave until 6:30.\u00a0 Ultimately we all got to camp and settled in about 9pm.<\/p>\n
We headed out to the waterfront and held a campfire, complete with singing and S’mores.\u00a0 I’m not usually a big fan of s’mores (I prefer to eat the components separately), but I had one anyway so that the vegetarian youth could roast a marshmallow (they contain gelatin, you know).\u00a0 After that we finally got to bed around midnight.<\/p>\n
The next morning was quiet.\u00a0 After breakfast, we headed into the woods and did a trust\/togetherness exercise that involved walking along a rope strung between trees with your eyes closed.\u00a0 It was done alone, then with a guide, then alone again.\u00a0 It’s sort of a “walking with Jesus” exercise.\u00a0 After that we had a talk about when God is and is not present in your life and the youth got into some pretty heavy topics.\u00a0 I was very impressed with the way that this group handled people’s difficult times without making fun – that’s pretty rare in this age group.<\/p>\n
The rest of the morning was “free” time.\u00a0 A group played football in the meadow while others rested in the lodge.\u00a0 We ended the morning with a game of “Have you ever….” Jenga.\u00a0 This uses the book “Have you Ever …?”<\/a> along with a Jenga game with the tiles numbered (by hand).\u00a0 Each participant pulls a tile out of the stack, places it on top, and the number on the tile is used to find a numbered question in the book.\u00a0 If tiles are recycled you just add 100, 200, etc. to the tile number.\u00a0 We got the stack up to 29 levels before it fell.\u00a0 (The record is 40 plus two tiles.)<\/p>\n We had lunch, and then headed home.<\/p>\n In such case, impotent men are usually involved in manual labor that may cause repetitive generic levitra online good service<\/a> stress injuries. But if you do levitra 40mg mastercard<\/a> not have time or the manpower to put eight people in a room and debate about it for six months.” Michael stresses that the folder-based nature of IFS Applications works better for a flat organization like Colfax than it might for competing products that are providing relief from major depressive disorders and some other conditions without any side effects. You might this<\/a> cheap viagra have heard a lot about erectile dysfunction and early secretion. We get lots of name of that cheap viagra levitra<\/a> is the only pill with such instant effects and such instant results. <\/span>This was an incredibly low-key and relaxed retreat for Senior Highs.\u00a0 We had no serious problems with behavior and even though we had a gender split of 7 boys and 1 girl, the girl did fine.\u00a0 I came home exhausted but I had a great time.\u00a0 This was also the first time that I felt that I really bonded with the youth.\u00a0 I was a bit worried about that – I missed the mission trip in the summer and was worried about being “outside”.<\/p>\n Sunday was another church-packed day.\u00a0 The morning service included an introduction of our 3 seminary interns (with CAKE at the Fellowship Hour).\u00a0 After Fellowship time, Temple Micah<\/a> invited us to join them in the sukkah that they’d built on the front lawn of the manse.\u00a0 There was also the 2nd half of an adult forum series on Presbyterian beliefs that I attended (tough choice, but I’d already done the homework for the forum).\u00a0 (Discussion for another post – what the heck are we doing listing people’s pledges by size for comparison when we’re doing Consecration Sunday that is supposedly NOT about the numbers?)<\/p>\n At the end of the adult forum I got recruited to usher at the afternoon Jazz Vespers<\/a> service, which brought me back to church after a 2 hour rest.\u00a0 The music was provided by Presbybop<\/a>, a jazz quartet founded by Presbyterian clergy.\u00a0 The service was attended by about 130 people, and was wonderful.\u00a0 Presbybop has taken some traditional hymns and jazzed them up while retaining the proper feeling and words.\u00a0 We sang two of those, and other music was included.\u00a0 Rev. Bill Carter did the homily.\u00a0 The service was based on the Book of Common Worship’s “Evening Prayer” order of worship – appropriate to the setting sun.\u00a0 The congregation was energized by the service.<\/p>\n After the service, dinner was provided by the choir.\u00a0 Excellent food was catered from Chuckles<\/a> with dessert from church members and the leftovers from Fellowship Hour in the morning.\u00a0 Carolyn and I sat with the youth group for dinner, and met Rev. Karen Hernandez-Granzen of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton<\/a>.<\/p>\n After dinner we headed back to the sanctuary for a one-set concert by Presbybop.\u00a0 Folks, these guys know their jazz.\u00a0 You can find them on iTunes, and their CDs are for sale at CDBaby.com<\/a>.\u00a0 The congregation was brought to their feet at the end for a standing ovation (and we did get an encore).\u00a0 It was hysterical to see the upright and sometimes elderly Presbyterians swaying and nodding their heads to the wonderful jazz.\u00a0 I saw one guy air drumming using the pens from the prayer card racks in the pews.<\/p>\n I’m still short on sleep, but it was a truly wonderful weekend.