Sunday, June 17, 2012

The Insanity and Awesomeness of Youth Retreats

Isn't it great to have Esther back?? I certainly think so. Esther, I'm glad that you had a good move and that Daniel, Zach, and C (whoever he is =)) were able to help you. I'm sure that you will be able to become more skilled in your games of hide and seek as time passes and you become more adjusted to your new home. 

So, I had this totally awesome Wordle creation that I made for this blog that I was going to share with you...only I had a few problems in making it into one of the accepted files, so I don't have it for you right now...I will continue to work on it though. 

I'm sure that you all are wondering where I've been for the last few days, because I didn't post on Friday. Well, I was on a retreat with my youth group. This camping, lots of food, way more raccoons than should be in existence, worship, late night pranks, prayer, "sessions" (meaning Bible lessons, which are completely awesome), a challenge team hike, a challenge team obstacle course (I got the part that involved canoeing, army crawling, digging a hole in the sand deep enough to pull someone through it when under a board - sorry if that is confusing - and carrying/passing a crisco-covered watermelon -  and that was only half of it. Our youth group is pretty insane.), s'mores, talking about spiritual gifts, and super-hard ground to sleep on. Needless to say - although I just did -  our youth retreats are intense and insane. They are a complete blast. I have slept almost 15 of the last 28 hours just trying to catch up. Yesterday, Josh, Maggie and I woke up at 6am (EST) to a baseball game by the boy scouts at the campsite next to us. We had been pretty loud up until about 1:30-2am...so it might not have been intentional as a get-back strategy, but they certainly made no attempts to be quiet. 

So what was so important about this retreat? I'm glad that you were thinking this question, because I know that I would be if I were in your shoes right now. The theme for this retreat was "Aware". They wanted us to be aware of our spiritual gifts and that of others, as well as how they relate in the world. The seven gifts that we mainly talked about were the motivational gifts. These are the gifts that people are born with. They include: administration, encouragement, mercy, serving, giving, teaching, and perceiving. Everyone has parts of each of these, and each come with their own strengths and weaknesses. My three highest were mercy, encouragement, and administration. I expected all of these, though I, and others, thought that perceiving would be higher on my list. I guess that we all just saw aspects of that in me. =) 

Sorry that this is a rather short post...I have a lot more from the retreat that I could share, but I am a bit too tired to do so at the moment. After getting about five hours of sleep for two nights in a row, I'm still tired - even after sleeping so much since I got home. If you want to know more about the different gifts, let me know, because I can give you a lot of info about each of the motivational gifts.

Blessings,
Hannah

5 comments:

  1. Hannah,

    Ah, the glories of not getting enough sleep. There is a certain point when you don't get enough sleep that you actually get long bursts of intense energy. I remember this when I traveled in Europe with People to People -- sometimes five hours of sleep or less!

    It sounds like you had a blast! Throwing a watermelon covered in crisco sounds kind of dangerous, although it would make an awesome scene in some Katy Perry music video.

    Esther

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    1. Esther,

      Oh yes. Running on five hours of sleep or less is just plain crazy.

      I did have a blast, though I was ready for my own bed again. Well, we didn't actually throw the crisco-covered watermelon...at least we tried not too. We had to form a line in our teams and pass it alternatively over our heads then under our legs. It was interesting and we cracked more than one watermelon. =/

      Hannah

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  2. Just ask Zachary about how to deal with racoons. He's an expert.

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  3. Daniel,

    We don't want everyone to know this... :P

    Hannah,

    It sounds like your youth retreat was really fun, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself! The team obstacle course sounds awesome, I think that is something I would have enjoyed. The Crisco covered watermelon on the other hand, sounds scary.

    Thanks for another great blog post, Hannah!

    Zach

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  4. Oohhh, guys, you've got me intrigued now. lol. =)

    It was a really awesome time. The obstacle course was fun, but challenging. The hike (which I didn't describe) involved "road blocks" in which people with certain giftings couldn't do things. Like, as an encourager, on the first challenge I couldn't talk. Of course, everything was timed. =/

    The crisco-covered watermelon is somewhat of a tradition at our youth events. Most of our major events involve them in some way. For example, at our annual middle school water party, there is always a game involving tarps, a slight hill, water, lots of soap and oil, and watermelons. A bit scary? Perhaps. However, we are all pretty used to insanity.

    Thank you!!
    Hannah

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