Earlier this month, our student ministry partnered with two other churches for an exciting and inspiring winter retreat. It was a snowy adventure getting up to the chalet, but everyone made it safely on Friday night for a late dinner and getting settled in. The food was good, and the scenery was beautiful.
On Saturday they had a sled building competition using cardboard, duct tape, and garbage bags. Sled building was a fun challenge, but there were also real sleds available to use on the big hill. The big sledding hill out there was pretty epic, and d.i.y. sleds would probably not hold up well, although a few intrepid students tried it out. One leader said that it was actually pretty amusing to watch teenagers bomb down the hill and crash in a cloud of snow. They played games and had a Saturday movie night, but the best part was the teachings themed on identity in Christ, a subject that one of the high school students said is especially relevant to young people like herself.
One student said that her takeaway from the teachings was, “We don’t have to look at our friends, our grades, our sports, our talents or anything else to define who we are. None of those things can handle the weight of our identity, but we can look to Jesus to identify ourselves,” a good reminder for all of us.
“I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Another student took it a step further saying, that it is too much pressure for us to try to define ourselves or even to try and mold ourselves into who God would have us to be. Through the teaching times he was reminded that God himself will work in us to transform us into who he has for us to be by his Holy Spirit. What a truly freeing thought that is.
The consensus among the students was that the time was too short and that summer camp can’t come soon enough!