October was a Blast

In the month of October the teens of the Swedenborgian Church Youth League (SCYL) gathered for three wonderful weekends. The first retreat was over Columbus Day weekend at the Blairhaven Retreat Center in S. Duxbury, MA. Rev. Lee Woofenden, Rev. Kevin Baxter and I led interesting sessions and worship services with 12 teens on the theme “Friend are Friends Forever ~ Living in Heavenly Community”. One highlight of these retreat sessions was a collage artwork activity. The teens were asked to create a visual picture of their soul with their core value or essence at the center, with meaningful images spanning around the center (most important around the center, less important toward the outside edges). The creations that the teens made were nothing short of amazing. At Blairhaven the teens learned all about what it means to be a friend, what qualities good friends have, and what it is like to enter the afterlife and live together in heavenly community. Recreational activities included; killer croquet, Kingston Bay mudwalks, disco bowling and a sundae making movie party. What an incredibly fun and meaningful retreat this was.

The next retreat was over October 24 to 26^th. I joined youth leaders Lori Steinhiser, Dawn Fox and nine teens from Michigan, Indiana and Ohio at Rose’s Retreat Cabins and Campsites (www.rosesretreat.com), a small campground near Grand Junction, MI. The theme for this retreat was “Finding Your Way” and early discussions focused on physical wilderness survival techniques and strategies, including a session and bow drill fire starting demonstration lead by instructor David Rose. Later sessions focused on spiritual survival in which we talked about how to cope with spiritual darkness, what to do when we encounter loss of faith and methods to avoid becoming spiritually lost. All of the spiritual points were matched to a corresponding critical physical survival skill, e.g., staying warm = allowing God’s Love in and staying hydrated = finding truth and protecting yourself from falsity (contaminated water sources). The teens also played a game of Hounds and Hares where they traversed nature trails following a marked path in search of hidden treasure. Of course, no camping adventure is complete without a hotdog roast and s’mores over an open campfire. The group Sunday morning after a closing prayer circle. I am happy to report that there were no casualties during this survival retreat. Everyone made it home alive, hopefully with a few more tools to remain warm, confident and secure in the face of adverse physical and spiritual conditions.

Over Halloween weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to Kansas to attend Camp Mennoscah. Here a small, but spiritual strong group hosted a beautiful little weekend retreat. Rev. Alison Lane-Olson led discussions on the theme Dreams. I was asked to present an afternoon session on my work with the youth. I was also blessed to meet teen McKenzie Galliart, a bubbly 13 yr old girl from Pawnee Rock. The weather was unseasonably warm and sunny so we spent most of the time outdoors, walking the camp trails, wading in the Ninnescah River, talking on the swings and playing games. It was such a gift to be able to spend so much time with one teen in such a peaceful setting. Saturday evening a group of amateur astronomers from Wichita set up huge reflector telescopes at the camp and invited us to join them as they peered into the heavens. It never ceases to amaze me that the light from the Andromeda galaxy that I was viewing was over 2 million years old. It was a perfect end to both a dream-centered retreat and a busy month of teen activities. While walking in the woods, McKenzie mentioned to me that her science teacher instructed her that it was important to walk observantly. I smiled, nodded and told her that this was good advice. May we all remember to walk observantly and touch the souls of those around us with care and understanding.