St. Stan’s Rewind…

On January 17^th – 18^th , 21 men participated in the Man Retreat.  The retreat has gained popularity over the past few years and was eagerly anticipated by returning participants.  This year’s highlights included a trip to Palace playground where we took to the ice for a couple hours of broomball escaping with only minor injuries to Caleb and John Downey.  Juan confused the event with a soccer match but managed quite well with his feet seeing the stick as more of a nuisance.  Ace and Luke must have been tired from all the studying they had done the week before because they were often seen resting on the side.  After the broomball we moved to the gym for some manly basketball followed by pizza back at church (Thanks John and Denny!).  The night concluded with a video clip from “Man Without a Face” which led to some discussion about male role models, stereotypes, and relationships.  After a session of honest questions and discussion- with some background music by Bobby and Juan- we got some shut eye.

The next morning we had our traditional “Man Breakfast” at Day by Day where we consumed three times our daily allotment of calories (but hey- Man Breakfast is only once a year right?).   There was some interesting story-telling about fears, memories, etc.  We finished with some teaching from Denny on discipline and a closing circle where each person named some of his learning and experiences from life and from the retreat.

     A couple of informal games of broomball have turned out to be great fun!  Thanks, Tommy, for organizing those.  Hopefully, we can fit in a couple more before the ice melts!

     Skiing was awesome!  First, a big thanks to Tom Patrin for the great treats!  We had a few brand new skiers that chose to try snowboarding – wow, very brave!  Bianca is my hero because she never, ever gave up on trying the snowboard.  Some kids were skiing the black diamonds and others of us just stuck to the bunny hill, but we all had a great time!

          In youth group, we have been learning about the Bible:  the Old and New testaments, the different genres of writing in it, how to find passages, and some of the things the Bible says that apply to our lives today.  We even received a copy of the Gospel of John and are encouraged to read a chapter each week.  Join us on Facebook for a discussion of these chapters.