This past weekend was the 8th Grade Confirmation Retreat. All 19 students were able to attend!
We went to the Peaceful Valley Camp in St. Mary's MO, about 10 miles NW of Perryville. We arrived on Friday night at around 5:30. We (the adults) started our campfire and unloaded groceries while the students claimed their bunks and started 'moving in'. We were all in one building, boys upstairs, girls downstairs.
The first night we mostly just sat around the campfire, talked, etc. Most of the kids ended up falling asleep somewhere in the wee hours of the morning!
Saturday morning Pastor Marks led a morning devotion, after which we began our Faith Olympics. The students first played two games of chain tag to help build them as a team. It definitely got the kids up and moving after their semi-sleepless night! Chain Tag and a couple get-to-know-you games took up most of the morning, so we saved the rest of the Olympics for after lunch.
After lunch we played Eagle's Egg. We divided into two teams and played a game that can last anywhere from 5 minutes to....? Our game ended up taking over 2 hours! There were some great saves and lots of strategy planning. Definitely a game worth remembering! After Eagle's Egg, the students were divided up into teams of 4 and we had a volleyball tournament.
Points were tallied throughout the day and the winners will be announced shortly!
Saturday evening after dinner we had another campfire, devotions, and s'mores. The students declared the prank war on each other which made for a shaving cream silly string filled night. The days events took their toll sooner on Saturday night and many students were asking to have the lights turned off by 1:00 am.
Sunday morning we had a worship service at 7:30ish. After breakfast the students cleaned their dorms and got their belongings packed up. Parents started to arrive at 10:00 am to shuttle students back to the church parking lot for their parents to pick them up.
It was a great weekend with no serious mishaps! Praise the Lord!!! The PHS and ILS seemed to really bond and get to know each other much better, and that's a big reason that we have this retreat for every class!!!
In His Grip,
Kristi
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