Confirmation Retreat Campfire
Just a brief snatch of one of my favorite moments on what was a very successful Confirmation Retreat this weekend at Greenkill YMCA Camp upstate in Huguenot, NY.
Tami and I (along with new lay leaders Brad & Jess) took 14 kids (from 8 different schools!) for a weekend of teambuilding exercises in the woods.
On Saturday night, after a full day of activities and hiking, Tami led a wonderful service of “Night Prayers” we had adapted from the New Zealand Prayer Book which ended with us leading the kids off into the woods to a campfire, where they put prayers they had written and tied around sticks they had collected earlier into the fire. What followed was a wonderful period of quiet and peace as we all just watched the fire and listened to the wildlife in the woods, and then one of the kids who had brought his ukulele with him started playing quietly. It was a lovely moment as these boisterous teenagers got to enjoy some natural downtime before we headed back to our cabin to make s’mores and chat some more 🙂