Retreats: a kitchen floor, a coffin and a whole lot more.

Super Bowl weekend each year is traditionally the weekend Reveille UMC youth go on their ski retreat
each year, and last year was my first experience of it, first time I'd been anywhere near a ski slope.  And while I didn't ski, I strapped my GoPro onto one of our students helmets and off he went with it. They skied, some of us tubed later in the day, we played some games back at the in, ate together, shared devotions together. All the usual retreat (weekend away in UK youth ministry parlance) stuff that we take for granted. 

I got back and immediately looked forward to the next scheduled retreat, Journey Weekend with Jeremiah Project in March 2020. Except it never happened. Thanks Covid-19. And won't happen this year. In a few weeks time I'll have spent over a year sleeping in the same bed, in the same house etc etc. Recently I've been doing 4 to 6 retreats/mission trips a year, and a trip back to Ireland as well, so it's usually only a few months at most between trips. Covid changed everything, and took away what is such a foundational part of youth ministry. I've lost track of how many times I've been away with youth, but I know it's well over 100, and I've spent countless nights in dorms, sleeping on the floor/sofa/in the kitchen (yes, once) at this stage, and can't wait to do it again. 

Why? Simply put, away from home, we all let our guard down. We ask the questions we wouldn't normally ask, experience things we wouldn't normally be able to experience, have the unplanned conversations about Jesus that change lives. The lightbulb moments. The moments when the Holy Spirit turns up. The simply unforgettable moments that live with us long, long afterwards. 

One of my mantras in youth ministry is "Making Memories". I know that not every teenager I spend time with is going to have a life changing experience of Jesus, though I will do everything in my power to at least introduce them to him. I can though, do all I can to make sure that every teenager I encounter has a positive experience of the group they are part of and the church they encounter through it. Don't get me wrong, I don't get it right every time, and I know I've made mistakes and hurt people in the past. Hopefully those mistakes have lessened over time. But I also know that life, at some point, is going to hit everyone very hard in the face, whether it be through bereavement, accident, crime, unemployment or something else. My hope is that everyone I've worked with over the years knows that when those moments come, the church, the global and the local to wherever they are now church, can be a welcoming and supporting place. Retreats, mission trips, weekends away all play a huge part in that. 

As I've grieved for the retreats lost to me and the rest of us this past year I've treasured those memories. 

• Cooking bacon on tin cans in Michigan
• Getting snowed on as we gathered for Easter Sunday sunrise worship at Attenborough Nature Reserve
• Being given flowers by my pastor when we brought the Banner Cross group to Virginia
• Watching students being confirmed in Longbridge, Bury, Toton, Williamsburg and Reveille. 
• Numerous London Weekends and IMAYC weekends in Ireland (including the one when there was a coffin, complete with the deceased, in the sanctuary of the church we were staying in on the Friday night)
• Handing over the keys to the new homeowner at the end of a Habitat for Humanity trip to Zambia and hearing the list of firsts one of the students had experienced on the trip. 
• Showing groups from Longbridge, Bury and the Peak Circuit my hometown of Dublin, including losing one entire group for a few minutes!
• Gathered around the campfire and in the pavilion at Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center
• Painting ash eyebrows on everyone at a JP week
• Sheltering in place during a bomb scare in Northern Ireland with 20+ teens in a confined space

I thank God for every single one of them, and for every single student who was part of them. Most of you I've lost touch with, some of you I'm still connected with via Facebook. If you read this, thank you for the memories you helped create, whether it was last year, last decade or even last century! To the adult volunteers who made them all possible by giving up their free time, thank you!