Fall Retreat

We are having a Fall Retreat on October 11th & 12th!

I apologize for not getting details out sooner to parents for this.  We are really trying to do well about putting events on the calendar and get that information out to everyone in a timely fashion.  It is a process, and I am thankful for a team who is helping me do both of those better.  Although I feel we are doing the former much better, we are still struggling with the latter.  So, I apologize, but also promise that we are trying to do better at that.  In fact, we are wanting to have a big parents meeting in the next little bit.  Stay tuned for that.

Anyway, we have discussed this some on Sunday nights with the students, but I am very aware that those announcements rarely (if ever) actually make it home to the parents!  :)  So, here is the information, and I hope that all of our students will be able to be a part of the weekend!

Our retreat will be Disciple Now style, which means a couple of things.

First, it means that all students will be staying in Westwood members' homes in small groups (of like age and gender, of course).  Students will stay two nights, both Friday and Saturday nights.  Snacks and breakfast will be provided for the students in those homes.  Doing two nights is different this year, but we are doing this for a couple of reasons.  First, it allows more small group interaction with each other and with the NGU students.  Second, it allows us to make sure that all of our students get to Sunday School and church on Sunday morning.  We have seen a trend of more and more students choosing to 'recover' from the weekend and not showing up to church.

Second, it means that we will have a good mix of large group worship times and small group discussion.  I always love these weekends because of this excellent mix of interaction with God's Word and each other.

We are having a group of students from North Greenville come up again this year and help us lead.  They did a tremendous job last year, and I am confident this will be the case again this year.  By the way, if your student is in High School, this would be an excellent opportunity to find out more about what I consider the best Christian University anywhere!  These students would love to have those types of conversations with both students and parents!

Since we are having this retreat here at home, the cost is low.  We are charging each student just $25, most of which will go toward providing food.

On top of that, we are going to take all students to the Person High School football game on Friday evening.  We will meet at the church at 5pm and plan to leave for the game around 5:30.  Students will need money to get into the game and any extra money for snacks/food.

Some of our day on Saturday will be spent serving our own body at Westwood!  We have identified some work that needs to be done around the church, so we want to do as much of that as we can.  We will also be doing some other activities.  We will have a final itinerary available this Sunday night (it will be put here on the blog, too, in case you can't make it).

As always, shoot me any questions you may have.  If your student needs to come and go for good reasons, we can make sure we accommodate.  Thanks!!