9th Grade Retreat Aug 11-13

Jr High students on retreat. It’s a very noisy thing, not lots of sleep, but lots of activity including worship and teaching sessions indoors, outward bound activities in the jungle, and on this one, even a chance for everyone to bust boards with a karate chop!

Highlight for me was being assigned to help with the harness for the Flying Fox. I never heard that term before, but it is common in Indonesia and Australia, at least. I called it the Zip Line, though I don’t know where I got that term. You can tell I am an old foggie. Help me, please, it is the line that you dangle from and zip across canyons, of course from a higher location to a lower one. In our case it was across the river. Only two of the 9th graders couldn’t hang on and needed the harness. The first thought it was a kick, the other was scared!

There was also a night walk, where the students had to negotiate a trail (helped with a line stretched waist high along the way) in the jungle in the dark. I was one of the spotters stationed along the trail with a flashlight in case they needed. Some did, some did not.

I did survive the late nights and the two and a half hour bus drive each way with the screaming kids. Well, the bus ride home was quiet as most were zonked out!