what a perfect weekend.
it feels a little odd, however, as i sit here finishing off my Fruit-on-the-Bottom yogurt in my office. the last time i was sitting here, i didn't anticipate eating for another 15 hours. i officially went 34 hours without food. i really don't know what the hang-up was with that, because i generally handle not eating pretty well. i used to do it all the time in school simply because i didn't have time to eat all day. then, at 10:30 p.m., i'd realize the concave nature of my abdomen and the cramping was probably caused my lack of nourishment. but it doesn't really phase me that much, surprisingly, considering my love for all things edible.
on the bus ride up to the camp, i sat with another leader and discussed our common affinity for graphics/design. always good for the heart. we dropped off our luggage in brand-new cabins (clean carpet, fully functioning plumbing fixtures, firm mattresses and only minimal amount of strange unidentified odors=camp heaven) and headed right to our first session. we opened with corporate pleading with God for whatever it was we were desperate to see Him do that weekend. then we split into four groups. each group went to a different station in sequence for a 20-minute focus time. our first station focused on the cross and its effect on our attitude in prayer. we watched a clip from the passion and identified four areas of suffering that Christ endured and examined how we might handle each of those areas. then we went to a station on sacrifice and what it takes from us to have the kind of thriving prayer life we desire and God designed. the third station was on forgiveness and our need to get rid of the "luggage" in order to practice effective prayer. the last station was confession, where we nailed our most pressing spiritual struggles to a cross. at the end of the evening, we watched a jim cymbala message on prayer. it's really amazing to me that 40 high schoolers can handle this without a)falling asleep b)being annoyingly distracting c)being so completely overwhelmed that everything is lost. it was probably 1 a.m. by the time our cabin was asleep.
in the morning, we headed to breakfast at 8:30. my entire cabin decided to forego showers except one girl, so we had slept in until about 8:10. we then had an hour-and-a-half solo time where the first half-hour we couldn't talk to anyone, including God. we were just supposed to listen. it was a beautiful morning, and kris and i sat outside the cabin in our sleeping bags under the "porch" roof staring at the multi-colored trees, nearby lake and slowly falling rain. the tapping of the raindrops on the fallen leaves was so soothing, and pretty soon it started raining pretty hard. we were completely dry under the overhang, however, and spent the entire time there snug as bugs. i would pay some serious money to be able to do that on a regular basis. somehow the sirens, semi-truck engines and ghetto music don't create quite the same soundtrack for spiritual awakening. at least not in my heart.
we had another session of prayer for our church's missionaries and couple of mini-sermons on other facets of prayer, then the jr. highers joined us for lunch. we had another prayer session for the people in our care groups (each person had been asked to give a prayer request that we could be praying about at the retreat) and then specific church concerns. we had a little break for about a half an hour, then came back to wrap things up. we had thanksgiving/adoration with some singing and had to squeak out of there at 4:45 with no chance of making it back at the designated time of 5, but we were only 15 minutes late.
some specific things God had in store for me were:
being grateful for not choosing the "quiet room" where i certainly would have been more comfortable with the people, but instead getting exposure to some of the girls in my new care group ... and having quite a good time doing it
being blessed by the prayers of some of the girls in my accountability group and others i normally will not have the chance to hear pray
avoiding distraction in the forms of other leaders, annoying teenagers, desire for sleep and being hungry
getting a refresher course in what it is to have any kind of prayer life and even one that God blesses
having my heart broken and cleansed from a recurring issue that i've never been able to figure out how to deal with until this weekend
realizing that i'm not confused at all about what i want from life but that i've let other people's opinions/perceptions confuse me and i need to stop letting them
well, that's the prayer retreat in a not-so-succint nutshell. there's more from Sunday coming soon. (did you think God stopped there?)
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