Silver Birch 2009: Part 2

Part 2 in our continuing report of our 2009 Silver Birch Retreat. Also check out the new photo gallery to the right. It contains about 100 pictures from the weekend.

Day 2 began with everyone awaking from their beauty sleep (well, many never slept at all), and heading for breakfast. After breakfast we headed to worship, which I admit seemed like a bad idea as I figured we would all be way too out of it. The students surprised me however, and really worshiped with all their hearts. For this session we heard from Jim Kappers, our special guest speaker from Camp Manitoqua (we planned on having two special guests, but our good friend Ryan Arentsen got stuck in Michigan because of weather). Jim talked to us about how we discover the particular purpose God has for our life, and shared some of his own story. He talked about discovering our spiritual gifts and using our talents for the glory of God. The music set list for this worship session included:
There is No One Like You: David Crowder Band
Every Move I Make: Fusebox
Wake up the World: Gateway Church Worship Band
Mighty to Save: Hillsong United
Automatic: Stellar Kart

One of the other highlights of this session was our Mullet Envy game. Students were tasked with creating the best mullet on a teammate's head, with a $25 prize given to the winner. Congrats to Gustavo and the high school guys on their victory.

The morning continued with high schoolers playing broom ball and middle schoolers heading to the tube park. Broom ball is a crazy game of hitting a ball with a little stick on a sheet of ice, and our students and leaders take the game a tad bit too seriously. This year the Jr/Sr/leader team destroyed the fr/so team by a score of 8-0, led by their MVP "The Iron Goose." Who would of thought bringing in a goalie from the Canary Islands would be our key to another glorious victory?

The afternoon was a great period of free time, in which everyone could enjoy activities such as power tubing (tubing behind a snow mobile), the tubing park, cross country skiing, sleigh rides, horse back riding, games in the canteen, and just relaxing and hanging with friends. If you ever wonder why we go to Silver Birch that sentence should probably answer the question. They have everything you could wish for during the winter, and they do a great job with it as well.

After dinner each group had a chance to get on the icy courts, with middle school playing to a broom ball draw and high school getting to play animal ball (I'd explain the rules, but then I'd probably get fired). Each group also got some free time to warm up inside and down some warm beverages.

Our evening worship session was definitely filled with tired people, but they still got up to worship with all they had. Our evening music consisted of a combo of the songs sang previously. For our third message we talked about one of the biggest struggles we have staying on target for God, and that is that the values of our world our so different from God's. The world wants us to live a life of pleasure, possessions, and popularity. Instead of living that life we need to think about what is really important. What will make the world better? What will help others? What will glorify God? If we can ask those questions before making decisions in life we will live an amazing and on target life that makes God proud and the world a better place.