Montreat Church Retreat

When you hear the word "retreat," what comes to mind? Rejuvination? Inspiration? Relaxation? Perhaps - unless you are going to the retreat as the assistant in charge of all of the elementary-aged children!

Two weeks ago, my boss at First Presbyterian asked if I would be willing to go to the all-church retreat in the mountains with her. With 75 K-5th graders attending the retreat this year, she needed an extra person-in-charge to help with crowd control. So, on Friday afternoon, we packed up and drove two hours west to Black Mountain near Montreat, NC.


Montreat Conference Center is an ideal mountain retreat setting, with a beautiful lake right outside the old stone Assembly Inn. I went for a run Saturday afternoon to enjoy the scenery even more (but only lasted 30 minutes due to the whole mountain issue - I'm happy to be a flat-lander, no doubt!)

There were four different adult worship/keynote speaker sessions that focused on hearing God's calling throughout the weekend. During each of those times, Jami and I (along with the assistance of six random girls from the local college) were in charge of everyone's kids. We did three lessons from their upcoming Children's Church curriculum that focuses on the life of David. There were skits, crafts, small group games, and great songs. "Davey, Davey" (to the tune of Louie, Louie) was probably my favorite: Ah, Ooh, Ah, Ooh, I want a heart that beats for you!

The building that we were in was great for entertaining elementary aged kids. There were ping pong, pool, and foosball tables on the loft-like second floor, and small tables and couches on the first floor for snack times. Miraculously, no one got hurt during the structured chaos that involved a lot of free-for-all running around. I did have to use my "teacher voice" a few times throughout the weekend, but at least the kids here are quite well-mannered when they get in trouble.

"Do you really think that you should be trying to climb out the window right now?" (Safety note: it opened right on to the ground level')

"No, ma'am."

"I didn't think so. Let's try to make some better decisions here this weekend."

Saturday morning I took 49 of them "creek hopping," which was definitely the highlight of the weekend for most of the kids! Amazingly, that was when they were the best behaved by far. They were enthralled by all of the living creatures and completely engrossed in building "bridges" with piles of rocks from the bottom of the creek - even cooperatively working together without any arguments whatsoever! It was a beautiful thing! I, personally, had a rock-star moment when I lifted this ginormous rock out of the water and onto the bank for a group of boys' "stone sculpture workshop." It was great!

I was also reintroduced to the concept of Southern girls going by two names. You might think Bobbie Sue or Barbara Ann or whatever, but this is a whole different generation. Some names of the girls included:

• Anne Hayden
• Sarah Gray
• Meta Kate (pronounced "meet-a")
• Sara Holland

The parents loved all of the "free time" from their kids - especially since the amount of sugar consumed was probably record-setting (thanks to the "hospitality table" in the lobby that was continuously stocked with cookies, chocolates, chips, and every other junk food imaginable) ....Oi!
As an adult, I'm sure that the weekend was refreshing. As an adult taking care of 75 children...not so much. It was quite possibly one of the most exhausting weekends I've ever had, but it really was great to see those kids loving God and know that I had an impact on their lives.