Late Winter/Almost Spring Retreat 09 Part 1

Once again, I present to you, the Career Impact Winter retreat. Well, it's not me presenting it but several people. I'm just saying here...on the blog....anyway. I got alot of sass from a certain person about us calling it the winter retreat when it's only three weeks before the beginning of spring, and the lake we use for broom ball didn't have a lick of ice on it. She suggested the above titles, so there ya go. You'll never know who it is because she's "too good" for blog comments. :-P

Going in chronological order with as little explanation as possible or else this will never get posted...

There is always a mixed carpooling caravan at winter retreat. This year, for the second year in a row, we were headed to Crooked Creek camp in Washington Iowa, which is only a few hours away from Peoria. I was asked to drive in order to make a little more comfort room in the vans for the round trips. My crew was Ben, Ryan and SarahD. The two galls in front joined us from dinner from another vehicle.




Once at camp, we had a little ice breaker gamage going with one of SarahM's favorites - the...four corners game...?? She gives each corner an assigned preference and you go to the corner which best describes your preference. It could be TV shows, reading preference, Favorite activities. On the right is the corner for folks who prefer not to be pictured on Kevin's blog. Sadly, I wouldn't have even taken the picture if she hadn't suggested it.


Pastor Daniel was once again invited to be our guest speaker. Taking liberty with our blind trust, he chose a topic which made several of the 42ish attenders rethink their weekend plans. The topic was "Holiness", but based on the scripture being used to back it up (the book of Hosea), it was to focus on it from an aspect of sexual purity and singleness. Nice. I might hit on that more later. Ok, that came out wrong. Moving on!

The game time we're all looking forward to on the retreat. Worldly college students live for staying up until 5am on the weekends drinking till they pass out. We stay up playing games until our eye-balls fall out and then wonder why we're so tired on Monday. Or, at least most do. While the base group at each game table is the same as usual, there was a ton of fun-on-a-bun for new folks to jump into and be included in. Feedback I'm getting so far is that at most of these tables, even if you jumped in without getting invited, everyone loved having you in there and left you feeling like they wanted you back next time because of the interested they took in you personally over a 2 hour period. That's what we're looking for. Score.

As usual, Jeffery had a grand time taking photos of the entire weekend. About half of the pictures you see here were shamefully stolen from his camera.


Jeff's not just there to document our weekend though. He gets up before 6am each morning and takes a long hike to see what glory God's creation has to offer in the area. A sweet sculpture in the middle of nowhere. The pond we used last year for broom ball.

A huge trunk. A granite rock that looks out of place (to his eye) and was probably deposited here from massive natural movement.

The usual cardinals and squirrels we get to enjoy from the comfort of our warm window seats.


The giant slip 'n slide....of death


A late winter scene that you would swear was taken last fall.


As an architect, you can always find Jeffry spending his free time doodling out some shapes or landscapes on a piece of paper. A fascinating guy to talk to that I am blessed to have as a friend.

As Saturday breakfast time rolls around, the zombies come out of their caves. The Mennonite churches who run the camp offer an awesome menu for us at every meal...and lots and lots of coffee.


To be continued...