Fryeburg New Church Spring Sleepover

The spring sleepover at the Fryeburg New Church was great fun. About ten teens gathered at the church in the late afternoon. It was a cold rainy day, but we rallied together and went outside and did some landscaping and trash pickup around the church grounds and parking lot area. We planted some small pine trees and put up a sign too. After that we went inside to warm up with some hot chocolate. After a spagetti dinner, we did our last session on death and the afterlife. We discussed values, interests, talents and where we feel most ourselves. Looking at these qualities on earth is a good way to determine what we might do and where we will might end up in the afterlife. Swedenborg wrote, "The life of our dominant love never changes for anyone to all eternity because we are our love..." (Heaven and Hell 480). Alex certainly had some interesting responses to these questions (I'll never again look at a bear skin rug quite the same!). I can't wait to check out his pad in the next life. After our session, we played a couple of rounds of Sardines and ate Nina's runny brownie mix before piling up the bean bags for a movie (The Golden Compass). Sunday morning we worked on coloring in the notes the big music banner that will be displayed on music Sunday May 18th. After worship, we headed home excited to get back together again for the next retreat that is only days away!