Hello everybody! If you did not know, I am currently apart of a team at my church planning a one day middle school retreat in honor of my best friend. Cullen was a hard working, inspirational man of God in our community. He sadly passed away last fall.
This season of grief and healing has been rough, but I know that’s typical. I had all of this emotion building up in me that I knew crying over a bowl of vanilla ice cream, the only thing I could eat for a few days, was not going to help.
I realized this in February when a sweet couple from church approached me and asked if I would like to be apart of a memorial youth retreat in honor of Cullen and the people he has impacted. Of course, I said yes and jumped on the opportunity right away. I keep saying I would help out at a retreat for a stranger if they asked but especially for him, for his family and for our parish. Showing middle schoolers Jesus in a different and fun way with young adults sharing their faith is also one of the best things about this. I can not wait to positively encourage these students in their walk with our great God!
In this retreat, I am the Secretary, the Media Coordinator and the biggest one, the Activity Director. Oh believe me, I know that I sound crazy for taking on three roles- I am. I have a few years of experience facilitating many different kinds of activities but I have never had the opportunity to have full control.
Through this retreat, God has taught me three main things (among several, several more.) He has taught me to have patience while working with the team and while working with technology. Shoutout to Zoom for not working correctly a few times so far. It also puts into perspective the Bible verse, John 15:13 “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” and how that can actually come about. I am spending hours a week on this and could not be happier I am able to be apart of it. The third main thing I am being taught is how to plan and organize. Just recently, we got the full day of agenda so it is now full steam ahead on planning! Starting something from the ground up and being able to fully create it is very exciting. But also comes with the task of planning out every inch, step and hop throughout each day to actually get us where we are wanting to land. For Example: I have started on a packet for my wonderful activity volunteers, explaining each activity and how to do it. This is just for a reminder day of but it has also been a blessing to me to lay out how
they are supposed to be facilitated.
I hate being stuck at home just as much as the next person but I am extremely grateful I now have the time to plan every second of the activities and how I want them to go. Planning for this retreat during quarantine is helpful because I can fully focus on it and not have to worry about school and/or work in the back of my mind. I am beyond honored to be apart of this and can not wait to see how it all plays out.
So for now you can find me at my laptop figuring out how to plan each activity, making a flyer, taking notes on what to talk about during our next Zoom meeting or honestly anything else. But I can not wait until you will be able to find me on my parish’s campus prepping for middle schoolers to know Jesus in such a special way through the kindness Cullen always showed to the world.
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