For fall retreat this year we piled 15 Middle and High school youth into the UMA vans and headed up to headwaters VA! The retreat served as a place for the teens to be challenged in their faith through time in the word together and activities in great outdoors. Through team building games they were challenged to trust and lean on one another. One of the high school girls, Angel, said she didn’t trust anyone. Yet, after her initial hesitancies, she took the trust fall and learned that her peers were there to catch her. Sadie said the biggest challenged she face was her fear of heights while climbing the rock wall. She said, “There was a moment I didn’t think I could continue, but I heard everyone below saying I could do it, so I kept going and made it to the top!” It was great to see the kids being challenged, enjoying time with one another around the campfire, finding crawfish in the creeks, and playing games at the lodge together.

Each morning and evening there were devotional times and most youth who came on the retreat said they felt the Lord speak personally to them in different ways. Adrian said that he learned that if he surrendered to God, then he could know that God would never leave him. Several of the middle school girls shared how they decided to take the leap into their father’s arms, trusting He would always catch them. It was so neat to see the Lord drawing and stirring their hearts towards Him. From the time we arrived to the time we left the teens were going non-stop and when it was time to leave several teens talked about how they didn’t want to go. The retreat created a beautiful environment where the teens were able to have fun growing closer to one another and the Lord and they all are looking forward to going back next year!