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FALL RETREAT
| October '04 By Amber Mattausch 9th Grade, Fremont Junior High School Well our retreat got off to a great start when we got to camp Friday night and played a few games. N8 then took us up to the prayer labyrinth and prayed over it with all of us there. Seeing the labyrinth, I knew I wanted and needed to go through it. I took the chance to go through the prayer labyrinth early Saturday morning. As I walked down to the gym where the labyrinth was set up, I started to pray. I prayed that God would take this time to clear my head and strengthen me for the next weeks to come. Being a teenager, life is very busy and you seem to have no time for God but I was hoping this experience would help me make time for God. I got to the labyrinth and my CD player didn't work. Adam had to give me two more before we found one that worked. As I sat there, waiting for him to find a working player, I thought maybe God doesn't want me to do this. I prayed and the next CD player worked - I was off through the maze. At a few of the stations I cried and at others I was so happy that God had blessed me with what I have. Prayer is an awesome thing. Anytime you need God's help, all you need to do is pray and he hears you. That weekend I prayed for a lot of people in my life and I know God will answer my prayers. Maybe not the way I want them to be answered, but in his own way. The prayer labyrinth was not the only thing that was awesome about this retreat. The people were awesome too. New friends were made and old ones became closer. I also found out that I'm not the only one going through life with bumps in the road. There were many times on the retreat that I will never forget because of the people I spent them with. After we returned home I thought to myself, I DO have time for God. Taking what Joe taught me about prayer has helped me through this last week and life. It has done what Joe said it would. So thank you Joe and N8 and all the others that made this retreat what it was for me. + + + |