fallen trees and jesus candles...

i'm a little tardy on getting a post-planning weekend post up, but i figured better late than never. the short story is we had a great time. the long story isn't really much longer but to make this more interesting, i will give a little more info about the happenings of the weekend.

the weekend started off with a bit of a panicked phone call telling us that the power had gone out because of a huge storm and no one was sure when it would be coming back. after a quick stop to pick up some candles, like a bunch of troopers, the team was still game to head out to turkey point to make the best of it. when we arrived, there was a very large tree uprooted on the lawn of the cottage we were staying at (which turned out to be the newest tourist local for most weekend visitors) and we heard a wonderful testimony from the neighbour that God had saved both his car and his house from getting crushed. amen.

the first night we spent some good quality time by candle light. it was pretty relaxed as most people were very tired from a week at work. the following morning, some of us woke up to laura's dad cutting up the tree that had fallen the day before and cleaning up the whole mess in like 30 minutes. i was fully impressed. after admiring a job well done, we spent the rest of the day in scripture and forming a vision for our ministry this coming school year. we studied a passage from luke 10 and felt called to be a community of hospitality on campus, extending ourselves in relationship to others and waiting to see how Jesus would work through them.

we got power back around 5:30pm, which was great because the cooler wasn't going to last much longer and i certainly didn't want food poisoning (although it would be a great bonding moment) to be one of our lasting memories for the weekend.

day two was focussed on planning events and talking about what we would need to do to be more hospitable at large group, in small groups and in our homes. while we didn't get too much set in stone, we have some good brainstorming done and creative thoughts on how to welcome new comers in the fall. we were also able to take the afternoon off (for any old school mac IV leadership team people, you may be outraged at this thought because we always said it couldn't be done. well, turns out it can, but only because of all the sacrifices you made, and its awesome) and we headed to the beach.

sunburnt and bonded, we ended on the third day with a commissioning time after our brunch as the staff prayed for each student and the team as a whole, asking for them to be sent out just as Jesus sent out the 72 as we read luke 10. i am anticipating some big things happening in the fall as it seems tat Jesus is at work already in the lives of these students.

it was a great challenge for me to enter into this weekend in a new role, having to take on different responsibilities and really having no idea what the "right" thing to do is. i am continuing to pray that God will just work through it all and that we will consistently acknowledge that it is His ministry and always will be.