2023 Confirmation Retreat- by Abigail Gedeon

Confirmation Retreat

This year's Confirmation retreat was at Camp Chestnut Ridge. NRUMC got to go with two other churches, Soapstone UMC and Southern Pines UMC, and their pastors came along and gave advice to everyone to learn better ways to pray and connect with God, and each other. We also learned what confirming is, and what it will do to help with our connection with our church and God. Both confirmands and Adults got to make Stoles although the confirmands got to make the soles they will be confirmed with. We made out Stoles section by section, when people finished a section of writing or drawing we told the people in our table group why we put that on our stole and what it meant to us, it gave us a chance to find our similarities and differences with those people. I personally loved the free time we had. It gave us a chance to have more time to learn and meet other people and build a bigger bond with people that we knew. The confirmands got to write letters to people in college and other adults. In case they are having a hard time, or need comfort and reassurance, also know that God is with them and has unconditional love. In another station, confirmands Had a chance to create prayer beads, to either help you pray or remind you to pray. The prayer beads would be made thinking of things or people to pray for, such as family, friends, worries or feelings. The confirmation retreat also helped us connect and learn more about different people, God and other churches and their traditions.

Big Idea 2023- by Abigail Gedeon

Big Idea

This year's Big Idea’s theme was build, and they correlated build with legos. We had lego keychains for our lanyards with our schedule, and there were paper legos in the youth building. Now the theme of build was not just building legos, but building your faith in God, and forming a better foundation and structure, and also that you don’t have to build that foundation alone! One of my personal favorite things that big idea had were the daily skits in the youth building. The skits were very funny but yet also had a meaning,-- at least most of them. Along with the skits were daily games Where watch day there would be a different game, where at least one member of the different groups tried out. Saturday was when the different groups did different things. Two groups went around sanding and staining the benches, along with help fixing the bushes and fences. And Mr. Scott fixed the basketball hoop! Another group went to a store and bought birthday supplies and made cookies at their host home to pack them up and donate them to people who don’t have enough money to celebrate their own birthday. My group went to Dollar General to buy kitchen supplies for people who need to buy their stuff reused or old, so we packed and made 15 bucket fulls to donate to the green chair. It was really fun, not only did we have fun and fix things around our church but also helped other people in one day. Rev. Nina the pastor who did the daily sermons did a great job and really understood the build theme, she did great giving us an open mind to God, Big Idea also helped build my friendships, not only learning about each other but also learning how to help each other find ways to connect and build a stronger foundation of grace with God. The songs were also a bomb :D