Black Rock

Another weekend away from home.  I have not been home for one weekend for the entire month of March.  My house is rather fuzzy and there are piles everywhere whispering my name.  Ugga Mugga!  But my girl and I had a fun weekend retreat with our church.  The middle schoolers look forward to their Black Rock retreat. 

We arrived Friday night to a boxed dinner.  Guess what was inside?  Pickled vegetables....

Not a favorite among the crowd.  Here is a small sacrificial pile.

We studied the book of Jonah during our bible time.

I can't even begin to tell you how IMPRESSED I was with some of these middle school boys!  The Lord is raising some leaders amongst this group.  They were engaged during discussion time and had thoughtful responses.  And prayer warriors...you know I am diggin that!

There is just more fun to be had on the top bunk.  They all crawled up top and played a card game called Mafia.  They ate most of the snacks in one night and felt they should be careful not to leave crumbs or wrappers on the bed so their solution was to...

Pitty they are so shy and insecure.  They need prayer!

Two of our fearless counselors.  We managed to endure until 2:30 a.m. while the girls chatted and giggled themselves into puddles.

The weather was nice, about 48 degrees with a slight wind.  One of the traditions for the middle schoolers is the Polar Plunge where they jump into the creek in the freezing cold water.  Most of them wore shorts, some brave souls wore their bathing suits.

This oversized playpen is THE DRAW of their playtime.  You climb in a play a game called GaGa, not sure where that originated from.  It is sort of like dodge ball but with a lot more rules.

Two more of our dear counselors, apparently Shane did not get the dress code memo...

Trudging down to the Polar Plunge arena.  It was steeper than I thought.

This is everyone assessing the situation at hand.  Contrary to popular belief cold water doesn't get warmer by everyone staring at it.

Insert Van Halen's song "Jump" here.  Harry was the first to take the plunge.

C..C...C....Coldddd!

We are really working on this ones shyness.

 

 This little fella had the nerve to cross my path as we hoofed our way back up the hill.  It was a fun event.  We played cops and robbers, had a fire and smores, and rallied some awesome prayers, especially for the victims of the tsunami.

Coram Deo,

E.W.