Fall Retreat

Dear Team, 

I spent Columbus Day weekend in Switzerland with a group of 25 high school students and 4 other staff. We had a great fall retreat. During our morning and evening devos, we went through the book of Ephesians and talked about community and being a part of the body of Christ. We spent one afternoon hiking up to a waterfall and another afternoon watching clouds roll into the valley over the mountaintops and mist fall from the sky as we played games inside of our lodge. At least half of the students were fairly new to our group. It was a good connection time with so many new faces. Praise the Lord, everything went smooth travel wise and that relationships were built. Here's a few pictures from the weekend ... 

^Taken just outside of our lodge.

^ Our lodge came with a fire pit. We roasted marshmallows on Saturday night, the sky was super clear and it was awesome. Since we were talking about community, I used the fire as a teaching illustration. I talked about how important good community is for spiritual growth. I pulled one log out of the fire and we watched how quickly it burnt out. As soon as I placed it back in the fire pit - it started burning again. As believers, it's helpful to surround ourselves with other believers who will help us stay on fire for the Lord! 

^ One Saturday afternoon, we all hiked up to a waterfall. One of our students is in a wheelchair, and wasn't able to do the long hike. So I drove her and her sister to parking lot near the waterfall and we did a shorter hike to it. I'd done the hike before, and it was a bit more rocky that I remembered - but we got that chair up to the waterfall! I think Christie enjoyed it.  

^ All of us at the waterfall!