Youth Retreat Recap
One of my favorite things about working with teenagers in Arizona is the occasional opportunity to watch one encounter snow for the first time. Without fail the uncontrollable bouncing will begin as soon as the mysterious white substance has been spotted out the car window, and the moment the vehicle is stopped the door explodes open as bodies go flying out into the powder with all the boisterous enthusiasm of a puppy that’s been locked up in the house all day. Such was the auspicious beginning of our annual winter youth retreat a few weeks ago.
After an exploratory romp through the snow of the parking lot, we got down to the exciting business of meeting the members of the St. Luke’s Anglican Church youth group who had come all the way from Pasadena to join us on this retreat. Our partnership with St. Luke’s is some of the first fruit we’ve experienced from a diocesan effort to help connect all of the youth leaders in the Diocese of Western Anglicans.
The teens almost always cite getting to meet other Christian youth as one of their favorite parts of the yearly mission trip, and it has been a long term goal for me to be able to expand that experience by sharing our retreats with other groups. The two groups meshed quickly, and everyone was able to grow from the comments and testimonies of our brothers and sisters from a different state. Their insights and perspectives added even more life to our discussions and lessons and was a real gift to our youth. We are going to build on our new relationship with St. Luke’s and we will hopefully have the opportunity to worship with them again in the not-too-distant future.
When we do retreats as a group we always make sure to include ample amounts of time for silent reflection. I am always delighted to find how seriously the kids take this time and how meaningful it is to them. Although often skeptical at first, after the first session there is near universal acclamation for silent time. Often, some will even request that we increase the amount of silent time. After one quiet time in particular the youth had a lot to say about how peaceful they felt, and many of them reported that the time was allowing them to try and listen to the Spirit in a way they never had before.
Remarkably many of them were developing their own techniques for “being still” which ranged from sitting on a dry rock in the middle of a creek, to finding a good place to walk and watch birds. Their experiences allowed us to have a great conversation about the discipline of being still before the Lord and what it sounds like when He speaks to us. I am continually blessed and humbled by the faith of our teens and their willingness to stretch themselves in pursuit of a deeper relationship with Jesus.
At the end of the weekend, after spending our time alternating between prayer, great discussions on what it means to live out the radical life of love that Jesus has called us to, and epic snowball fights, we returned to Phoenix with much to think about, new relationships, and a deeper bond amongst our own group than I have yet seen. The Lord blessed us with a weekend of wonderful fellowship and growth and we look forward to continuing in that growth as we seek to live out the radical calling that Jesus has for all of us.
Travis Wilson leads the Youth Ministry at Christ Church. Photos by Abbie Carter.