We had a blast on our teen retreat! There is just no other way of putting it, we had a blast! The Lord blessed us with great weather, good fellowship, good food, good challenges from the book of James and plain old fun! Our team decided to do something a bit different this year. Usually we encourage our teens to participate in the annual Carnival retreat put on by our local churches. This year we did our own retreat.
We separated from the world but were not separate from the world. Did that make sense?
Jesus called His disciples from the world unto Himself yet He and they walked in and among multitudes daily. We called our teens apart from their "normal" worlds and to an "abnormal" world that they ended up loving. We were family for four precious days; four days that had an impact on us all.
Let me see if I can piece the retreat together for you. There were eleven of us, four teens and seven adults. That is a great teen-adult ratio if you really want to get into your teen's life, and we did!
Our first day, Saturday, was spent at the falls in Tapirai. The Lord gave us safety and a perfect day of fun in the cool, pristine waters. The day was capped by our first look at James. Our teens quarrel a lot. So, I put a penalty on their comments. Any degrading remarks, sarcasm or jokes about each other had to be paid for with sweat! There would be either ten push-ups or ten set-ups each time that their tongues wagged unnecessarily. The kids came back from the retreat fitter in body and spirit! In fact I had to pay a few push-ups myself!
Day two we spent at the house. The kid's love Dawn's cooking and even helped by making several pizzas. They played table games and talked. We went to church twice and heard two excellent challenges from the word and heard from our visiting friend Wilmar from Curitiba. Monday we were up early to leave for the beach in Itanhaem. If you don't know where Itanhaem is, it's right between Mongagua and Piruibe! After a four and a half hour trip we arrived in the steamy beach town. We had made arrangements with a friend to use his tiny house as our get-away hideout for two days. The digs were humble but that didn't hinder the Lord's work in our midst.
Our first jaunt to the beach was really neat. Though our kids live just 3 hours from the Atlantic Ocean none of the four had ever visited it. Wonder was in each eye as they made their way toward the awesome sight. "It really is salty! REALLY SALTY!" one of them yelled as they surfaced from their first plunge. Maicom found a sand dollar, and everyone found some shells. Gui said that he was going to take some of the salt-water back to prove to everyone that he had really visited the ocean! In the end... he forgot!
Tuesday we got up really early too so that we could walk the beach and see the sun rise. It was lovely. Our time in the book of James was a real blessing too and we all returned home with a new sense of dedication to be careful of how we use our words.
On our way home I expected that we have heavy traffic but the Lord cleared our way. And even though we had a blow-out on the highway, God allowed it to happen at a very safe place. When we arrived home we all said a tearful goodbye to Wilmar and his wife Viviane who returned to Curitiba.
As I returned each teen to their homes Maicom said, "Pastor, what do you say to adopting us all and allowing us to live together as a big happy family of eleven?" I was half tempted! It was THAT fun!
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