High School Retreat!

As eleventh grade small group leaders we were able to participate in a wonderful weekend with the high school student with challenging spiritual devotionals and small group sessions. The sessions were 30 minute devotionals followed by 20 minutes of meditating on a single verse and ending with small group discussion. The devotional topics included: God’s holiness, importance of repentance to someone as an accountability partner, unity and love of the body of Christ, and confession/ reconciliation with each other.  These topics really challenged the students to reflect on their attitude and relationships with their classmates, family members, and other relationships.

The time of meditation was also a great experience for the students because the students have heard for years that they should be meditating on the Word, but they really didn’t know how to meditate on the Word until this retreat. So often it is easier to talk and pray to God but never take the time to listen and reflect on the words in the Bible. We had exciting conversations during small group about some of the observations they made during the time of meditation on the single verse and how the verse applied to their life.

Another significant highlight from the small group times were the activities that went along with the discussion. During one of the small group sessions, the students were partnered up and then asked to share a struggle, or a sin that they are dealing with.  Fortunately, the students know each other rather well, which allowed for them to trust another classmate enough to be an accountability partner, so they can pray for each other in that area of struggle in their life.

A second small group activity was the “confession caterpillar” in which each student had just a couple minutes to talk with each one of their classmates and ask the partner: How have I offended you?  By asking this question, it allowed students to bring up ways in which they have been hurt by the other person. This was a significant activity for our 11^th graders because many of the students have gone to ECA since early elementary school and have been offended by a classmate, but rather than confronting that classmate, they shove those feeling and hurts deep down and become bitter toward their classmate. One student said, “I didn’t realize that some of my facial expressions can be offensive because they think I am judging them and that I am better than them!” Another student said, “I didn’t realize that my jokes are so offensive.”  Lastly, one student said, “I didn’t realize how proud I was and how arrogant I am toward my classmates!”  The students had deep wounds from each other while the offender had no idea! Some students were bitter toward each other and through this weekend, they are able to start the healing process through reconciliation and the work of the Holy Spirit.