the fifth one about montreat (part3): week in review

Last Sunday evening, after spending the afternoon in a sweat soaked T-shirt and realizing that a shower wasn’t really much help in this humidity….I was thinking I would celebrate Friday (today) and be ticking off the minutes to go home. Wrong again! I feel sad today that this week is drawing to a close. I have a list of new favorite things, even though the “singing youth” are still high on my list. Sharing scripture with teenagers, watching them share scripture with each other, listening to their challenging questions and very passionate discussions.

From the beginning of this year, Jay has guided these young people in the direction of discovering their own spirituality. I have watched with growing interest thinking that it would be a long process. During our week in New York and this week at Montreat, this discovery journey has come to a point of realization. They get it……I mean they REALLY get it! They certainly have scores of things to learn, (I know I certainly do), but they have a sincere desire to grow in their faith. And they absolutely love doing that together….what a bonus! … Learning about the love of Jesus with some of your best friends. They have commented on other Youth who don’t have good experiences with their Youth Group. They realize how unique their relationships are within “Gooth”, but some of their experiences this week have confirmed those feelings. They think everyone should have a “Gooth”.

During this week in Montreat, as an adult chaperone, I’ve had much contact with other young people from different churches from quite a range of geographical locations. I’m sure there are a number of youth that are as excited about their faith and being part of their Youth Group as ours. However, it seems there is a far greater number that are just not. I feel privileged to have been witness to this experience, but more importantly to have been so deeply affected on a personal note. I am proud to be in the midst of these teenagers, they represent themselves (and you) very well.

I have to go; I understand from my young “advisors” that this worship service tonight is powerful. They are on their way, and I certainly don’t want to miss it.

Peace…….Ronda

(Sometime Later…..)

PS…Okay, now, I have another especially favorite memory….the Candlelight Service around Lake Susan. The beauty of that service would almost be an entirely separate BlOG.

the fifth one about montreat (part 2): candlelight

This year was my third and final year at Montreat. It’s been a great week. I’ve had a wonderful small group full of amazing people. We’ve had great keynoters and worship leaders. The keynotes and sermons all hit home with us on some level. The theme, as probably mentioned earlier this week was “throw open the doors”. We had sub themes that included doors of possibilities and doors to the church. We talked about things including the importance of holding each other and being held up ourselves, and just the importance of love overall. We learned so many new songs this week. At first we were all a little disappointed that the songs we had all loved for so long weren’t being played. By today though we had learned the new songs and have come to love most of them.

I waited until tonight to blog because tonight was the candle light service. It’s my favorite part of the week. At the end of the service on the final night everyone gathers around Lake Susan. We get candles as we file out of Anderson Auditorium and completely circle the lake. It’s so beautiful. We light the candles and sing a lot of the slower songs from the week. It has always been a really powerful and emotional night for me. Tonight was more emotional night than past years though because it was my final night at the high school conference. It was a combination of happy and sad. I was sad to be leaving, but happy to have had such a great experience both this week and at conferences in the past. Although, I did learn tonight at devotion that there is the possibility of coming back to be part of work crew next year. There is also a college conference in January.

Another great thing about this week was that I was able to see some of my friends from PYC for the first time since our final meeting, and I also got to see some of the people that I had met last year. Montreat has always been something I’ve looked forward to. It has been an amazing week: as amazing, if not more so, than I had expected. The group of us are so lucky to have each other. We have heard so many stories about youth groups that have people that constantly feel left out of their groups. I feel really lucky to be a part of Gooth where we don’t have that problem. I’m going to miss these experiences when I leave in August. I do, however, feel more ready than I did to leave. Parts of the conference helped me to feel this way. The day we talked about the doors of possibilities I talked about going to college with another graduated senior about our reservations about growing up and moving out. It helped me when I realized I wasn’t the only one with these reservations. It’s been such a great week and I can’t believe it went by as fast as it did.

Love, Brittany