“Did someone say IceBlast?” ……. “IceBlast! IceBlast! IceBlast!”
That chant rang throughout Fort Wilderness in Rhinelander, Wisconsin this past weekend.
At my youth group back home, the middle and high school students camp at a weekend retreat every January at Fort Wilderness. Students experience God in a beautifully powerful way as well as have some fun with winter activities. When I was a student, I looked forward to this weekend all year. At the camp, we bunked with our small group, and we attended sessions and participated in activities as a collective group. The sessions were organized as a Wednesday evening gathering for there was a game followed by worship, a message, and small group time. The activities during free time were numerous, and they never got old: tubing, ice skating, cross country skiing, broomball tournament, horseback riding, sleigh rides, going to the coffee shop, board games by the fire, and ice cream making classes. When I was a student, each year I participated in IceBlast God moved in my life differently. He would speak to me through the messages I heard, my personal Bible time, small group cabin time, and enjoying some time with my friends. IceBlast was a full experience, and as an upperclassman, in high school, I even emceed the retreat for two years.
I am no longer a student within the youth group (I am too old!), but that did not keep me from attending IceBlast this year! However, I had a new experience with IceBlast this past weekend. Instead of being a student, I was a Cabin Leader for the sixth-grade girls. It was so much fun! I loved getting to know them! Here is a little of what this past weekend looked like for me and what I learned.
Friday evening was Day 1. I showed up late afternoon at the church to prepare for students’ arrivals. I met some of the other small group leaders as well and conversed about the dynamics of the group of students attending the trip this year. In total, there were about 100 students that attended. Once all the students arrived, we gathered together to pray, and then we loaded the buses to head out. I was excited, but also nervous because I still had not met my girls. I was assigned to the middle school bus though, and it was on the bus when I was attempting to find a seat that I found them! Yay! On the bus, I sat next to one of my girls, and we conversed quite a bit about our hobbies, interests, families, school, and faith. My camper shared that she loved to sing, and it was quite adorable when she asked if she could sing to me. Aww! She was a good singer if I do say so myself, and what fascinated me was the amount of confidence and comfortability she had to share her voice with me. It was a special moment.
Altogether, despite the interesting conversations I had, the bus trip was long, approximately 3 hours. We were all ready to get off of it about 2 hours into the trip, and when we were a few miles out our brakes locked up. This obstacle made our bus trip even longer. We had to wait for the other busses to finish their trip, drop off the students at the camp, and then return to gather us. The students did not help in the chaos for those of you wondering, and I am sure you could imagine what that looked like. However, we finally arrived at Fort Wilderness! When we arrived, we had to quickly put our belongings in our cabins and then head to The Gathering place for our first session. By now it was about 10 o’clock. The session was exciting because we played a game, sang some songs, and listened to our first message of the weekend. This first night we discussed how “we have worth”. The world often tells us the opposite and that if we do not meet certain requirements we are insignificant. What a lie! Therefore, afterward, we had Cabin Time to discuss the message further and then lights out was at 12:30 am. It was a long, but eventful, first day.
Day 2 = Saturday. Rising with the birds, we leaders had a meeting right away in the morning. For both middle and high school, we cabin leaders gathered together to share about their first day experiences and then recollect our thoughts so that we may be present for the day that was ahead. We laughed, read a devotional together, and prayed before attending breakfast with our campers. It was only Saturday morning, so, even though the evening before was a late one, everyone still had an abundance of energy. This was demonstrated in all the chanting that took place at breakfast as well as the dance party before the session that morning. I helped lead the dance “Church Clap” for the group, and it was so much fun to see students let go and enjoy themselves! We eventually transitioned into the session by the emcees and played a large group game. We had worship again that morning as well as another message from the pastor of our church, Christ the Rock, Ben Korinek. That morning, we discussed how “we have a purpose” and that God has placed us here on Earth with a plan for our lives. He has given each of us special talents, gifts, and relationships to fulfill the purpose He called us to. During Cabin Time, we took a personality quiz to learn more about ourselves, and my girls and I had some fairly deep conversation about our results. God was moving in our small group! During free time I bonded with my girls more as we went ice skating, tubing, and sleigh riding together. They are a fun group of girls! We had a good chunk of time that afternoon to just have some fun, and then in the evening, we had another session that was formatted similar to the other ones. However, this time we talked about how “we have faith”, and such a precious moment it was when we all participated in communion together. Then to share the talents God had given some of the students in the youth group, we had an exciting talent show!
At the talent show, two of my girls sang, and I was so proud of them! Reflecting on my own overall middle school experience, sixth-grade was the year in which I began to become my own individual and test some limits. However, it was difficult because peer pressure was very much present, and I was always concerned about what others perceived of me. Therefore, for my girls to get up on stage and sing was a huge deal! They went out of their comfort zones to test some personal limits and share a bit of themselves with the other middle and high school students. Both of my girls made it into the finals; however, neither of them won the overall competition. But, that does not matter! I was so proud of them, and they accomplished a huge milestone that evening!
My brother was one of the judges for the talent show also, and his comments were so funny! It was special to see him up with the panel. Him doing that was a challenge for him. Presenting himself in front of a large group of people is not something he normally does or is comfortable with. Proud big sister right here 😉
During cabin time that night, God continued to work. My group had such an amazing conversation! The message at our evening session discussed what “giants” look like within our lives (David and Goliath Story), and during small group, I asked my girls if that had any “giants” in their lives that they wanted to share about. Each of my girls had something they wanted to share, and from this time I learned how broken each of my girls are. Yes, they were filled with laughter, and their smiles made it seem like everything was okay in their lives. But, it was not. Not at all. My heart broke as my girls shared their stories of what they were struggling with, and hearing how some of them were being forced to grow up at a much faster rate than they should be was hard to listen to. My girls were experiencing hardships I did not encounter until high school, and some I did not encounter until I began college. However, for us to all gather around one another and love one another was a beautiful experience God blessed me with. He opened my eyes more to the unfortunate realities of the world.
Saturday evening after Cabin Time, the students had another opportunity to engage in winter outdoor activities, and they also had the option to attend worship night in The Gathering Place. They each had their own desires for how they wanted to spend the evening, so I let them fulfill those. I spent some time tubing and then went inside by the fire to converse with some of the other leaders. The fire was so cozy!
Sunday was Day 3, and it was the final day. Once again, we leaders had a meeting before breakfast, and afterward leaders and students attended the morning session. This time we discussed how we need to trust God’s process in our lives. Now that we understand that we have worth and a purpose from God with our faith, we need to trust His timing and what he has in store for us. During the message, I considered how I can apply this to my life as I returned to school, and during my thoughts, God confronted me with how I was concerned with having my schedule under control again before I even stepped foot on campus. I find myself anxious to move forward in my life, but God is trying to show me that I just need to be present right now. He has everything under control. He has plans for me, and I need to wait on His timing instead of trying to control it on my own.
Unfortunately, besides having a ton of fun this past weekend, I returned to school very sick. This past week has been rough because of my illness, but I feel like God brought my illness upon me to force me to ease into the semester instead of trying to take off running at an unreasonable speed. He is keeping me present. He is helping me absorb each day he gifted me with, and, despite the annoyance of not being on “my time”, I appreciate what He is doing for me.
This weekend I was blessed to be a cabin leader for the sixth-grade girls. My eyes were opened to some unfortunate realities of our world, and I was given the opportunity to love teenagers who are in the process of discovering themselves and their faith. My faith was also strengthened from it, and I feel God’s presence heavily in my life right now. What a crazy adventure life is!
