Spruce Lake Retreat

This past weekend I went with my young adult Bible study group to the Spruce Lake Retreat Center in Canadensis, PA. It was a great weekend all around, with much fun had by all.
We arrived at Spruce Lake around 9:45pm on Friday and unloaded the vans in order to get situated in our cabin. Once we were all settled, we played a couple rounds of Loaded Questions in order to get acquainted with one another. During this time, we also ate some soft pretzels as a late night snack before dispersing for bed.
The next morning we had breakfast burritos made by Wes, Roshelle, and Karl, which were delicious. Breakfast was then followed by worship in music and then a teaching on 1 Corinthians 1:30 by Jim. The teaching focused on how we need to have our lives centered on Christ and that we are given new life through Him. Also, we can never gain righteousness on our own, only through Jesus. We then had about 15 minutes of prayer before Jim's second teaching, which focused upon sanctification. He taught that sanctification is two-fold: first we are sanctified (set apart) when we first believe, and then God continually sanctifies us throughout the course of our lives. This is because of the indwelling sin that we have in us. It's dead, but still present. We are no longer slaves to sin, but that desire in our nature still exists and is only dampened through God's sanctifying of our souls. We cannot and should not try to reform ourselves, for this is God's job. It involves the painful death of our sins in order to enjoy the joy of God. If we refuse to let go of our idols, our joy will be limited.

Following Jim's teaching, we enjoyed some relaxation outside on the swings that were built around the fire pit. Some people read, others chatted, and a couple played guitar. We then enjoyed chili for lunch before tackling the hike, aka Powerstroke 5000. The view was fantastic once we reached the top, and the weather was gorgeous. Soon we all headed back down to the cabin for some round-robin ping pong, followed by some head to head games to 7. Schulte crushed us all by winning almost 20 games in a row before dinner. Dinner consisted of angel hair pasta and a meat sauce that Heather made using the recipe of an Italian woman from Staten Island.

Following dinner, we watched a documentary entitled Catfish. This was about the influence of social media and how some can use it to deceive others. A man from NYC had developed a close bond with this family in Michigan, but he soon discovered that the majority of it was a scam set up by a woman who was just desperate for attention. Our discussion afterwards confronted whether or not this was real and also made us question how we interact with others using social media. It definitely makes you question how honest people are being, but even in person, people can lie to you. We all enjoyed some icecream during our discussion, followed by a jam session that included vocals, guitar, a drum, along with an assortment of household items such as a cheese grater, pots and pans, wooden spoons, a cooler, and a pink lemonade container. I then went outside to enjoy the campfire for a while before coming back inside to take notes on an audio book while others either read or played Scrabble. There was a bit of a dispute over whether "gorer" was a word before I decided to get some sleep.
This morning for breakfast we had bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on bagels. After breakfast, Mark taught on the importance of having our identity in Christ and how when that is our focus, our actions are more likely to mirror Jesus. We must always remember that we are already children of God and then we will slowly have His ways manifest in us and flow out on a daily basis.
I chose to relax outside and listen to more of my book and take notes. I was definitely noticing some contradictions between the author and Scripture and between the author's own comments, which makes me leery. Heather was engrossed by The Hunger Games, while others played Perudo. I got in on the action for one round before going to relax on a swing while watching our chicken lunch roast over the fire. Lunch of chicken burritos soon followed before it was time for us to start packing up all of our belongings. We took one last group photo before everybody departed in the vans and I drove myself back to Stroudsburg.