Rise 'n Shine, CCI and Awesome, according to Emily

This year, for the first time, we ran two Rise 'n Shine junior high retreats: one at the end of January and one at the end of February. Mike Perschon spoke for both retreats, and Jasmin, Jeremy and Josh, from Dalhousie, led music through worship for both weekends. The pictures are from the first Rise 'n Shine. We don't have much for photos from round two ... although I heard rumours that Rachel from River West was wandering around with a camera. Rachel, can you hook me up with some photos? In addition to Rise 'n Shine, our staff packed up and headed down the road to another camp for our annual CCI / Alberta Conference. CCI stands for Christian Camping International, and it's one of the camping organizations we're part of. It's great to get together with camp staff from across the province to exchange stories, ideas and encouragement! Emily is our new blog queen -- I'm loving that she has lots to say. Thanks, Emily! Here's Emily's perspective on Rise 'n Shine and the CCI / Alberta Conference.

A hundred and twenty people are packed into the dining room, and over the microphone, the words “I have a joke for you” are said. Everyone gets quiet for announcements and jokes. Plates filled with wonderful food pass in people's hands as then gingerly balanced passing others by, the room buzzes with light conversation and laughter as the first meal is under way.

Rise and Shine #2 has officially happened and it was AWESOME. The staff had as much as fun as the participants in activities and during the sessions. The weekends sessions were centered on Colossians and the idea of “slaying the dragon and rescuing the princess”, in the sense that each of us as believers has a challenge and that is to live with God as our #1. Setting our sights on something that requires commitment, not just a “maybe I’ll try it out”.

Overall the weekend was great. Night game was fantastic and as always all had fun running around playing Jug 'n Jog: even knee deep snow didn’t slow anyone down too much.

Now almost two weeks have passed since the retreat so let me bring you all up to speed on what has been going here for us. This past week, all of us packed into the camp van and headed to the CCI conference held at River's Edge. Overall it was a good time and we all came away with things to think about, including, “I wish we had a hot chocolate machine”. However now we are back in the swing of things getting ready for things to come, guest groups, Ladies' Retreat (April 15-17) and so much more.

In other news SUMMER is coming…and I will now leave you with that thought.