We just got back from a wonderful weekend at SnoGlo, the BFC’s annual student winter retreat at Pinebrook in the Poconos. This year was rather atypical in that it actually snowed! Perhaps that’s because they switched the weekends around this year, and the high school group got to go on the weekend that typically belongs to the middle schoolers, who often get snow. In any case, woo hoo!
You may think that wonderful must translate into amazing speaker, big-name band, gourmet food, and stellar accommodations – but…not exactly.
The speaker was solid. His message was simple, his illustrations were clear, and rarely was I sitting in my seat thinking that I needed to be somewhere else. But, honestly, I learned more from the more intimate break-out sessions than I did from the main sessions.
The band was an excellent fit: musically diverse, humble, talented enough to engage your interest, yet local enough to fit the budget. I was especially impressed every time I saw them eating dinner or playing games with the students. I love that they were so accessible.
The food was, well, camp food. Except for a batch of amazing fried chicken, the rest of it was pretty much fuel more than anything else. But I need to add to that the fact that the chef is a really neat guy who is about to depart Pinebrook for an inner-city hunger project where he teaches local churches to feed their communities – how cool is that?
The accommodations…um, let’s just leave it at the clichéd “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”
So then you may be wondering how I came to the conclusion of “wonderful” or why I’m even writing this review at all. Here’s why: I think this weekend was a great example of church as family. And I think that’s something we need now more than ever.
I love when we do BFC-wide events. My brother and sister go to Bethel BFC in Emmaus, and I got to spend a lot of time introducing my friends to their friends. Perhaps that’s a part of why I really picked up on the sense of community so much. I just loved seeing students there who knew so-and-so from church who knew so-and-so from school who knew so-and-so from their church and etc. I think a lot of people made new friends while getting to know old friends in a deeper way.
Another part of it was that 89% of the youth staff was able to attend. When you have eight adults to share the work of the “grown up responsibilities”, you end up having a lot of time left over to play. We as staff got to spend hours and hours playing volleyball, sledding, knitting, and talking – both with students and with each other. In one of the break-out sessions, we all shared a brief summary of our experiences walking with God, and I learned amazing new things about people I have known for years. We are certainly a more tightly knit staff after this weekend.
However, the main reason I’m writing this blog entry is that I want to emphasize to you as parents how much we as staff need opportunities like this to truly get to know your children as they are. I would like to encourage you to make these trips a priority when you are working out the 2009 budget and calendar for your family. The year is off to a great start with SnoGlo, and we still have Planet Wisdom, DCLA, and Kickback – perhaps even more.
It’s in overnight trips like these that we all let down our guard. That there’s time for us to get to know everyone better. That there’s opportunity to play sports with the athletic student and have earned his respect for future conversations. That there’s time to hang out with the shy student for hours while she gets up the courage to talk about her latest fears. That there’s the chance to make memories doing crazy stuff in the snow, building the relationships we have with our students so they’ll come to us later when they are in crisis.
In the fast-lane world we perpetually experience in the crazy-busy 21st century, it’s so healthy to slow down, get away from it all, and just be family.
~Susannah
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