I spent the day Tuesday at the secondary retreat at Lakeside Bible Camp on Whidbey Island. It was my twentieth consecutive retreat, and I was struck that several of our secondary faculty and administration in years prior were students at the retreat. Also compelling was the palpable sense of community: students, faculty, and parent volunteers exuded joy, service, friendship, and camaraderie that transcended age and grade-level boundaries.
Just a sampling of my day:
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I played numerous games of carpet ball against students of various ages, tossing billiard balls like a Vegas high roller (with mixed results)
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waxed poetically with a junior about the history of cereal
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took down a few 7th grade boys in pickleball
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supervised the boys swim session, coughing up $1 to a 9th grade boy for a well-orchestrated bellyflop
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disseminated summer reading prizes to our top 20 readers (finally compelling one young lady that, yes, really: a $20 bill IS worth more than a $10 Starbucks gift card)
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commended a gaggle of dads preparing camp food that rivaled fare at any local diner (thank you, Josh Powers!)
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battled alongside four high schoolers in an extended game of Ticket to Ride that ended outside in the dark, illuminated only by a flashlight held overhead by a sophomore girl
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learned the idiosyncratic strategies of disc golf from a junior boy
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marveled at the artists in each House as they skillfully crafted new House banners with intricate letters and insignia
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discussed fantasy football with a few upperclassmen, updating them on the missed Monday night games (no access to scores with the no-cell-phone policy)
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hit and pitched a few softballs alongside some young men on the baseball field
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delivered 15 boxes of favorite cereals in celebration of one of the longest retreat traditions our 12th graders anticipate as an important rite of passage: The Seniors Only Cereal Table
And it was all glorious. The Greeks called this koinonia: Christian fellowship and communion with brothers and sisters in the Lord. This is the power of community, and an essential component of an education seeking to shape boys and girls into young men and women. We desire winsome, friendly, socially gracious, godly young men and women who are growing into more fully human Christian disciples. We value hard work and academic diligence, but we also value play, fun, and friendship cultivated through experiences like the retreat.
Students will return on Thursday exhausted, but it’s a good kind of exhausted – the kind that forges friendships, indelible memories, and Christian fellowship vital to building community, civility, social resilience, and human flourishing.
