Peer Ministry Retreat Day 1

7/24/14

Today was the first day of the retreat.  I got there around 7am and started helping where I could.  Although unlike Chicago there was less paperwork we had to go through because it was our own event.  We did do the same thing with cars though.  Each driver drew sticks for who would be in their car.  I rode with Michael on the way there along with Lily, Olivia, and Maggie.  The drive to Camp Omega is not that long at all but we still had time to talk.  Near the end they took some time we called interrogate the Intern.  It was fun to answer some serious and silly questions.  Also after awhile we decided that any question they asked me everyone had to answer.

We arrived at Camp Omega and unpacked and got our orientation.  Our counselor for the weekend was an old colleague of mine from Concordia.  Eli is younger than me and I had worked with him through the Junior High Youth Gathering.  Also his sister was my age and we had gone through many DCE classes together.  It was cool to see all the different connections I really had out there as I went to different places.  We then had our first session in the morning for the peer ministers.  It was about what a Peer Minister was and why everyone had been invited to this weekend retreat.

In the afternoon we went to the archery range.  There they learned how to string a bow which was a good lesson in team work.  Everyone got many chances to shoot and they were having a great time.  My first round was not so good.  But I kind of got a rhythm in my second round and landed all the arrows on the target with some in the yellow center ring.  After that we headed back for our next session.  The next session was taught by Lynora and Michael.  Lynora talked about welcoming people and getting to know them.  Micheal talked about WHEAT and how great a tool it is.  It stands or where, hobbies, events, acquaintances, and travel.  It is a great way to get free information from people by asking questions.  

We had dinner after this session and after dinner moved into our last session for the day.  Micheal ran this section.  It was working through the WHEAT stuff again.  It was meant to really solidify this concept and how to use it.  He also went into open question versus closes questions.   He did this by working through a hobby, in this case it was boulder scrambling.  They asked questions and then looked at the questions they asked and did some meta-thinking.  We attended the closing fire that night with the other campers and then headed back to the retreat center for the night.

Today I learned that connecting with junior high youth can be a bit more difficult than younger kids.  I need to give them time in order to trust me and for us to get to know one another.