Youth Retreat

In January Rob and I helped take the youth of our church to ROCK - a youth retreat put on by the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church and held in Ocean City, MD. We had 22 kids with us, 18 of which were boys and most of the kids were between 10-13 years old (with a couple of older and a couple of younger one thrown in there).

Rob and I first drove our own children up to our mothers (who each kept them for a couple of days -thanks Moms!) And then we drove to Halsey Valley NY and picked up three 12 year old boys that go to a church we used to attend and took them with us to Ocean City. A 6 hour trip with three 12 year old boys is interesting but can be pretty fun too and above all I was just glad they got to come and have a little adventure!

So we had a good time with the youth. I was glad to get the chance to spend some one-on-one time with them getting to know them. I admit I enjoied the kids more than the actual conference. The main speaker (Pastor Grace) and the band (Salvador) were very good, don't get me wrong, but for me it was great to just have the time to hang with our Youth Unplugged kids.

The boys even did a "polar bear plunge" which was hysterical to watch!

I did get to go out on the beach at 6am with my acoustic guitar and watch the sunrise as I quietly worshiped the Lord and it was absolutely amazing!

I used to do that as a teen on our family vacations to the shore and it was always and really pure, really awe-inspiring time then and it proved to be now as well. It just brings everything down to basics. No other noises then you singing to a quiet guitar and the waves crashing. There's no distractions, no problems, nothing. Just you and your creator. Peace. Love and peace and simplicity. I long for more of that...