By Tom Barnes

This year’s middle school retreat brought us back to Camp Manidokan, one of the Baltimore Washington conference’s camps. Over the weekend the youth learned about how God upends the expectations of this world and calls us to something better. We learned about how when we are weak we are strong (2 Cor 12: 5-10), how we have to slow down in a fast world (James 1:19-21), and that to be great we have to serve (John 13:1-17). Through discussion and fun activities the youth grappled with how they can live out these lessons in their lives. Of course it wasn’t all reading and lessons, we also took to the sky with the zipline, played gaga ball and nine square, had a campfire, star gazing, and Sunday morning worship. In all the youth grew closer to one another, and closer to God. We are all already looking forward to next year’s retreat (and one for high schoolers in the spring).