Beach Weekend and Regional Staff Conference

This past weekend we went on our annual fall leader retreat. In the past we have always gone to the beach, but this year we decided to go somewhere closer. We spent the weekend at Camp Lurecrest, which is on Lake Lure in North Carolina. Most of the leaders still called it Beach Weekend even though we were in the mountains, which was really funny. We use this weekend as a kick-off for the year. We spent a lot of time with our teams, and our hope for the weekend was that leaders would get to know each other better. We have about 40 new leaders, so we wanted this weekend to be a springboard in getting them plugged in. I realized that weekend how much our leadership body had grown since my first year as a leader in Clemson. It has almost doubled! I am so excited about this fall because more leaders=more kids being reached. I wasn't able to take many pictures from the weekend, but here are a few highlights:

Wyldelife girls plus Rachel

Check out that view

Rabley catching some rays

After the retreat was over, Craig, Kelly, and I headed to Windy Gap for our regional staff conference. I left yesterday feeling really encouraged and excited about this year. I was reminded of why I am involved in this ministry and got to hang out/meet some other staff in our region. There are many days that I have no idea what I am doing or how I am going to walk into a lunch room full of kids I don't know. Its overwhelming sometimes, but I have to remember that the Lord is stronger than my fears and weaknesses. He has given me the privilege of being in the lives of students, and He has given me a front row seat in seeing lives changed. Could it get any better than that? I didn't take any pictures, but being at Windy Gap reminded me of some other great moments I had spent at that camp. Here is a picture from when I went to Windy Gap last November with Sevier County students.

Sevier County Girls