F.I.R.E. Retreat

 ** Guest Blogger **

Eric Hendrickson

I have been friends with Roby since I was on a project with him the year Silas was born.  It has been awesome to see how God has been working in his life, especially these past few years.  At the start of the year, Roby said God put it in on his heart to have a Christian retreat for teenage boys.  For the next several months, we (Roby, Cameron his son, and I) met monthly to plan out the event.  On July 17th, we put into action those months of planning.  

The event had a fire theme.  The FIRE acronym was: 

F - Fear the Lord

I - Illuminate Darkness

R - Refine Your Soul

E - Enduring Flame

This was the first team building event we did (below).

Roby and Cameron set up the bonfire

On Friday evening with the bonfire in the background, Cameron taught on F (Fear the Lord) and I (Illuminate Darkness).

We did a lantern walk Friday night that was very impactful.  A single light is noticeable, but many lights together shine bright.

The stars were incredible that night.  I captured the Big Dipper.

The first thing we did when we arrived on Friday was setting up tents.  We had a 7am wake up time Saturday that was followed by picking up the tents.

After breakfast, we had some games set up (ladder ball, corn bags, and knife/hatchet throwing).

I preached/taught Saturday morning on R (Refine Your Soul) and E (Enduring Flame).

We then went to the neighbors for about 1.5 hours to help with some work around their acreage (a service project).  We are to serve, not be served.

We had an Amazing Race type challenge that had four challenge stations that included clever Biblical riddles and scrambled Bible verses.  I led this group, (pictured below) which finished 2nd out of 4 groups.

We had a fire-starting challenge.  Silas was the third fastest.  If he could have figured out the striker earlier, he would have been first.

Swimming in the pond was the last thing we did prior to leaving.

The FIRE group (8 kids and 4 adults)

This event was a huge success.  We are going to start making plans to do this again next year.

4th of July Holiday Trip

 Thursday, July 2nd

Eric and I drove to Ernie's house after he got off work on Thursday. We stopped and ate a quick dinner at Culver's. We had never eaten at a Culver's before. It was good and we would eat there again. We arrived at Ernie's house about 9:30 that night

Friday, July 3rd

Friday morning we got up and drove to Camp Eagle Rock in Missouri, about one hour and fifteen minutes from Ernie's house, to pick up Silas and Phoebe from church youth camp. They had been there all week, and when we realized how close to Ernie's house the camp was we knew it would work perfectly for us to take a little drive and pick them up then head back to Ernie's house for a fun fourth with family.

Back at Ernie's house that afternoon we spent a lot of time down on his dock swimming, kayaking, and fishing.

Later that day, we divided into teams and played the game "Pass The Mic". This is a fun game that makes you think of song lyrics and sing. We even got Ernie to play. Lindsee and I joined him on team "Ern and the Ern-nettes". We all had a lot of fun playing this game and laughing together.

As the sun started to go down, we loaded onto Ernie's pontoon boat and made our way out onto the lake to find a great spot to watch the fireworks that would be shot off the dam as it got dark. The fireworks show lasted about thirty minutes, then others in homes all around the lake shot off their fireworks too for all to enjoy.

Above, our family, Lindsee, Uncle Ernie, Phoebe, Eric, Stacee, EP, Will, and Silas.

Saturday, July 4th

We spent a lot of today on the dock again swimming and kayaking.

That evening we cleaned up and went to eat at Abuela's Mexican Restaurant. Our plan was to go to the community patriotic concert in the park after dinner, like in previous years, but when we got to the park we discovered that the concert had been cancelled due to some incoming weather. So, a few of us went back to Ernie's house to watch more fireworks from his deck of the house, and the other few hiked around the park for awhile before heading to the house.

Will, Silas, and Phoebe had fun riding together in Lindsee and EP's vehicle.

That night Phoebe, Will, and Silas did some "night swimming" while they watched more fireworks being shot off across the lake, before the storm/lightning rolled in.

Eric captured this amazing picture of the lightning (God's fireworks) above the house across the cove from Ernie's dock.

We had a really great time together the couple days we were all there. LOTS OF LAUGHS! Some cousin sleepovers, good food, watched and cheered for some FIFA soccer players, FIREWORKS, and good conversations.

Sunday, July 5th

On Sunday morning we got loaded and headed back to Kansas. Thanks Uncle Ernie, for a great time at the lake! We loved spending time with you!