We survived another weekend at Blue Lake!
For the 2nd year in a row, I stressed about going on the church retreat to stay in a dorm (3 twin beds per room) with a community bathroom and eat nasty food for 36 hours with Albi, the boys and 100 people that we do not know of our closest church friends. Why Lord? Why? In all honesty we always have a good time and this year was no exception.
We stay on the same dorm hall as the Gills, Phillips and Harts and we really take over the space. Our kids all run from room to room to room while the adults line the walls of the hall to chat during nap time and after the kids go to bed. We may or may not have a prohibited beverage or two while we discuss the Bible lessons we learned about earlier in the day! This year instead of only listening to speakers there was a lot of time on the schedule for small group discussion time and self meditation. Initial thought – guess I’ll nap during those 45min blocks. Reality – learned so much about myself, my friends, and some complete strangers during that time. It is amazing how you can know people for years – I mean really know them, vacation with them, trust them, love them – but not know anything about their spiritual journey. Do I think at the next Gillups beach retreat we are all going to pull out our Bibles and read through the gospels? No, but I do think we took advantage of an opportunity to learn more about each other and ourselves, and we are better friends because of the time we shared. One day Mac and Coe will say the same thing about their friends from Blue Lake. They are already learning so much about each other, and they don’t even realize it. That is often the best way to learn!
Every time I asked Mac or Coe what their favorite part of Blue Lake was this year, I got a different answer. They loved: carving pumpkins, playing football, being with friends, pajama parade, outside church, running the halls, and oh yeah…learning about the Bible!
