This year, the bulk of the children had a great opportunity. The church planned to take the teens on retreat to the beach in Florida! Jozsef and Nikolas went as leaders. They helped to chaperone as well as to lead small groups. Connor, Sonja, and Riley were all able to attend. The two older boys have been to Florida, though not this location, previousely. However, for the other three, this was their first trip to Florida. Both Connor and Sonja had been on retreats before, but none a week long. For Riley, this was a first all the way around! The retreat started on Sonja's birthday proper--talk about a birthday gift! :-) Needless to say, the whole group was excited to participate.
The church sent a chartered bus as well as two 15 seater vans full of participants--leaders and students--so it was a good crowd! Our church group met up with another youth group (the two Pastors know each other) and they joined up for a week of learning, worship, games, fellowship, beach baptisms (they had 12!), and memory making.
The children made friends, learned lots, and loved the beach. Panama City Beach is beautiful!
Some of the children came home rather red, while others just returned bronzed. They all loved their time away! Sonja didn't mind being away for her birthday, and to her relief, no one made an embarrassing display of her birthday though she did get some sweet well wishes. :-) Nikolas as awesome about taking pictures, but since he was the guy behind the camera, I don't have too many of him. Still, I'm thankful for the shots he got. There is already chatter about next year's beach trip. Hannah will be in the group by then (move up Sunday is coming up and she'll leave Sunday school to join the teens). Who knows, maybe John and I can volunteer as leaders and we can all attend... :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment