2 weeks ago I was at our middle school retreat. I'll have to honest, most of the time I dread those weekends, but I really enjoyed this trip. The theme that Doug and I had come up with had great potential to be very meaningful for our students and we had some really cool activities planned at a different retreat center.
Our theme was centered around the fact that we are clay in the hands of the potter. We talked about how we were made by God and that God declares that we are good. In this session Doug took the kids outside and forced us to notice our surroundings and all that God had created. This is especially meaningful to many of our students because we were in the middle of the woods which is radically different than where most of them live. In our next session, we talked about how God readies us to be put on the wheel and then begins the process of shaping and molding us. We found an actually potter's wheel and Doug did a quick demonstration on how a potter had to center the clay in order to lay the ground work for the piece that they have in mind to make. We talked about how God wants us to be centered on the wheel and ready for how God wants to shape us. The next session was geared around how God can take the mess that we sometimes make in our life and is able to still make it into something beautiful. For this session we asked an art teacher from our local high school to come a do a real demonstration. Thankfully she goes to our church and was happy to come out and help us. She was awesome and it was amazing to see the students captured by her movements and how the clay was being shaped in her hands. Our last session briefly talked about how God shapes and molds us for a purpose to be used for the kingdom. Just how a plate, cup, bowl or vase has a certain purpose, so we have a purpose as we are being transformed by God.
All in all the retreat was awesome and our students were so well behaved. This was my last retreat with this group and it kind of made me sad. I have been so blessed to serve a great group of students. I will miss them and our awesome youth leaders greatly.
On Monday we boarded a plane to TN for the sole purpose of finding a place to live in Chattanooga. Karis slept the whole time at the airport and on the plane. Holly and woke up early on Tuesday morning in order to get to an appointment at 10:30 with a real estate agent. We saw several townhomes and actually wound up leasing the first one we saw. Here are a few pictures.
[caption id="attachment_258" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Kitchen"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_259" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Backyard"]
[/caption]The rest of week we just spent hanging out in the 'boro with Holly's family and we flew home on Friday.
Lastly, this was Holly's first Mother's Day and we had a great time. We went on a family picnic to Valley Forge National Park, at Holly's request, and overall just had a lazy day.
The week that is:
Packing. I'm hoping to have most of my office packed up by the end of the week but the house is not packing itself like we want it to. We also have 2 cookouts with friends and our small group this weekend. Looking forward to that.
What I'm listening to:
Nothing in particular. I have listened to the latest Lincoln Brewster album quite a bit lately. It's a good one!
What I'm looking forward to:
All of the packing to be done and the move to be over. I'm not ready to say goodbye, but I dread this waiting process.
What I'm reading:
Nothing really. Pretty much all of my books are in boxes.
No comments:
Post a Comment