Currently, retreats are held at a camp called "The Springs". The Springs is a 300 acre summer camp / meeting place just east of Gladwin, Mi. We stay in the retreat center where there are approximately 20-25 rooms for couples and 4 dorm rooms that sleep 15.
Friday Highlights…
- Friday Night Follies - or as I like to call them Rollie's Follies after the person who does this both times I've gone to retreats. First we were given a list of various activities or interests
we've done (obviously spies were about) and we were to guess who did the act. What surprised me was just how many people actually admitted to skinny-dipping in their youth - and they were women too. Then there were a couple of games geared toward the Double Dare group including one where one member of a couple had to drop partially melted chocolate into their partner's mouth. One lady looked like she had a bullet hole right between the eyes. Then we participated in a 2-team game called Guesstures, where we had to act out 4 different things in a short amount of time. If anyone knows how to act out "Stuff" please let me know.
Saturday Highlights…
- Approximately 1am - we were sharing the retreat center with some youth from Livonia (first time I recall this happening). At this time, a number of them got into a pretty good match of carpetball. And guess who was sleeping above them? I went down to talk with them a few minutes. They didn't realize anyone was sleeping in the dorms above them but once they realized there was, all games were immediately finished for the night. That I think spoke volumns of the leadership that bought the youth here.
Morning Worship - This service, as all 3 were, were led by a member of our church (or in 1 case, a former member). Steve L. spoke some on faith. Steve scored some points with me by getting out of his comfort zone and singing in front of the whole group a song by "33 Miles" (something he'd never done before). Steve didn't score points with me by letting his personal bias get in the way too much in a discussion about clearing our minds and by talking about what he did to get a cat out of the tree (hey, I'm in a family of cat lovers) - Lunch - All 5 meals were good but I want to comment on Saturday Lunch. We had pizza. We (of course) had pepperoni and we had cheese, plus there were some specialty types they prepared right there like an alfredo pizza, a BBQ that was really good, and a true Hawaiian pizza. There was also a BLT that people told me also had broccoli in it. Being in the pizza business, these pizzas were better than any of the standardized stuff my employer offers.
Elliemae & Jeb - Hope I got the spellings right. These are the camp dogs who really want you to play with them. They especially do well with balls though my sister had them fetching sticks too. I had never seen any dogs play that much and not tire out. We'd kick the ball out to them and they'd wrestle amongst themselves as to who brings back the ball. Jeb always let Ellemae bring (push) the ball back.
Rec time - Anything goes time for the afternoon. My sister and I braved the elements and headed outside with the dogs (playing the whole time). She will tell everyone that as big brother, I got to push her down the hill, many times, on a tube. She went down a few times though I never went down myself as I did something to my foot earlier and it was bothering me a bit (it would have been quite a climb back up). What surprised me was that no one else decided to come out and join us on the hill.
Evening Worship - At the start of this service, the camp director came to share some about the camp's previous year and that they're embarking on a program to eliminate the over 1 million dollar debt the camp carries (I believe God is leading me to help out with that). After the presentation, Gale K. came out to talk on passion in prayer. There was a lot of material here, though I felt Gale was hopping around too much for my tastes.
Carpet ball - Here, two people play a game where one player rolls a billiard ball down a specially prepped table and try to knock out as many of his/her opponent's 6 billiard balls. The first person to do so wins. Our church always has a carpetball tournament at retreat. I'd admit that I did better than last year though I need work - my aim is off. I made it to the 2nd or 3rd round before being knocked out. Then I got to the tournament of Losers before being knocked out there by the pastor's wife.
Sunday highlights…
Got some really good shots of the sunrise. I was hoping this would happen sometime during the weekend as Saturday was cloudy all day. I arrived just in time to get the camera set up and ready to go. Minutes later, the sun started creeping through the trees. No matter what photo I chose here, the picture would not do it justice as the sunrise was that pretty.
Morning Worship - The final one this year was led by former member Larry M. who talked with us about spiritual hunger and being obedient in that call. I'd admit that while everything flowed well and had substance, I couldn't remember much. I blame it on being tired by the end of the weekend.- Weather - by the end of retreat, it was nice and sunny, if only the temperatures cooperated. My sister and I visited the hill one more time along with the dogs. We stayed outside not too long. On my way home, the temperature sign in Sanford told us why (--2 degrees without the wind chill). And it was windy. Weather Underground later revealed that the high of the day was achieved just after midnight. That's why the girl in the photo in another entry jumped into the lake on Saturday, it was too cold to safely do that on Sunday.
All in all, the weekend was very nice. I plan on coming back again next year even though we will be paying approximately 3.7% more to do so. This is a real bargain considering the facilities and everything done for their guests.
Visit The Springs online -- http://www.thespringscamp.com/
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