Eirene is Jed Chun's personal blog, hosted by Joy Is Found. It's a reflective blog that he started with the intention of finding joy and renewing his awe of God in his everyday life as well as the places and things that are around him. He explores a variety of topics in relation to faith such as food, mental health, travel and relationships.
Oak Glen Christian Conference Center. Camera: 700D Lens: Tokina 11-16mm Pro DXII
Over the long Valentine’s/President’s Day weekend, I had the opportunity to accompany my friend Casey to a youth retreat (where he was invited to speak) as his personal prayer partner/support/person-to-eat-meals-with-since-the-youth-will-probably-avoid-him. The latter one turned out to be completely true and we joked with one of the youth advisors later about how at youth retreats no one wants to sit with the speaker but once you hit college everyone is suddenly enamored with the idea. Anyway, we had talked about this a few months before but when it finally came around it turned out to be incredibly well timed. Work and school had been taxing and I really needed to take a break and get away from some of my responsibilities.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect, since I hadn’t been to a youth retreat in years. The last one that I remember must have been in either 8th or 9th grade. It was also different because I had never experienced a youth retreat as someone who wasn’t part of the youth. Despite this, I decided to go along with my theme for this year by keeping an open mind and being a little more sensitive to how God might be working and speaking. I also thought that it would be a good opportunity to just relax and get some much needed alone time, especially with God. I initially thought would be great because as it turns out, speakers get a lot of down time at retreats (seriously, anytime they’re not speaking is pretty much down time). It should have been safe to assume that I would have gotten all the alone time that I wanted, right? Wrong. However, not having as much alone time as expected turned out to be more of a blessing than anything. It definitely prevented me from sleeping the entire retreat away (though I did do a lot of that) which in turn, allowed more time for God to reveal Himself in the things that were going on around me, and gave me some time to reflect on a few things.
Despite having been involved in youth ministry for the last few years and working with them at my job, I really haven’t had the chance to see youth in a retreat setting in a long time. Maybe it had to do with my perspective going into this retreat or maybe it was just the different nature of the group, but something about this experience really took me back to “the good ol’ days” in a way that working with youth previously hadn’t. As I watched the youth interact, I couldn’t help but think back to a time when I was in their shoes; a time when I would be the one running around the retreat site. A time when chasing girls actually involved running, impulses and reactions overrode reason, everything was a competition, there was never enough food, cup noodles were a treat (and not a staple, like in college), and mindlessly letting your gaze wander over to your crush during sermons prevented you from actually learning about Jesus (no? just me? well then...nevermind that last one). Anyway, there were two things that really stood out to me during this retreat, both of which are closely related. The first that is that I had developed a new understanding of “child-like faith.” The second is that I began to understand why some people are drawn to serving in youth ministry. I’ll only be touching on the latter in this post since the former is going to be another post on its own.
So what exactly is it about youth ministry that draws people into serving in it? It probably isn’t because they get to hear the most recent life shattering event that a teenager is going through (though that too can be very entertaining at times). It might possibly be the opportunity to empathize with, speak truth, and provide encouragement to kids and teenagers who may think that lives are ending (which is quite a blessing in itself). But personally, I believe that the reason people are so drawn to youth ministry is that youth ministry workers get to vicariously experience the joy for Jesus through the same joy that they see in the youth. Part of the reason that I was refreshed during this retreat was because of the fact that I was just able to observe these high school kids just sing and dance all for the joy of the Lord. The kids were into the worship set and engaged with the sermons (when they weren’t too tired from staying up all night). But most importantly, despite possibly having some genuine struggles with faith, they were hopeful. Hopeful in seeing what God has been doing in their lives. Hopeful of what God had yet to do in their lives. Hopeful to see the future that God had laid out for them and their friends. It’s so easy for us as collegians, young adults, married folk, or senior citizens to lose sight of this hope. No matter what stage of life we are in, there are always reasons to rejoice and have hope in the Lord. My encouragement then, is this:
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:1-3
Oak Glen Christian Conference Center, Yucaipa, CA
Pros:
- There’s plenty of stuff to do around the camp - apple orchards and there’s a quaint little town/recreational area right outside the campsite
- The food is pretty good! I’m really thankful they didn’t try to make Chinese food while we were there (although I should warn you that they are not exempt from camp food gas syndrome)
- I really liked the little converted trailer homes they reserved for the speakers/ smaller groups
- They have a small cafe area with hot water/coffee (great for cup noodles) with vending machines and retro pizza place booth seating which I thought was a nice quaint area just to hangout and chat/play board games
- Staff are kind and helpful, they even bus your plates/tables for you!
- Limited cell phone reception
Not-so-pros:
- Gym is nice and well equipped but is carpeted which leaves a lot of room for rug burns.
- Camp site can be a bit small/crowded when there are other groups
- It’s hard to find really isolated areas around the site for meditation, but there are a few if you look for them
- Limited cell phone reception (if you really insist to be connected to the world during a retreat)