Friday to Saturday I took my Growth Group Leaders (small group Bible study leaders on my hall) to the Ramada for a mini-retreat. All year long I've felt like our hall leadership team wasn't quite connected as I would have hoped and we finally had the opportunity to remedy that with a night off campus.
Things started around 7 o'clock with a trip to Pickerman's for dinner. Aside from me, it was a first-time trip for the rest of the girls and they were quick to approve of both the price and the taste! It wasn't long, however, that they wanted to jump over to the hotel to 'visit' the hot-tub!
Obviously, the first thing we did once we got to the hotel was hit the hot-tub. After a few trips from the cold pool to the hot hot-tub we hit the sauna to dry off and head up to the room for some Mock Sangria. The drinks were a treat because they were so sugar loaded that the girls were getting a little wild off of them.
After eating a little, and calming down a lot I shared a devotional with them regarding fears. It was really neat how vulnerable the girls were with one another and sharing their fears. Once we were wrapping up I asked the girls to take the colorful Sharpies and write their fears on their Sangria glasses. After some more sharing, we smashed the glasses as a symbol of giving our fears to God and asking for Him to help us overcome them. It was quite the experience.
After all the fun we headed to the grocery store to buy some breakfast, climb a snow mound in the parking lot, and ride in shopping carts. It wasn't long until we were back at the hotel, watching TV, and sleeping in. We woke up just in time to eat breakfast, pack up, and head back to school. Sure was a blast and I feel like our leadership team is better bonded!
