Advent the focus of youth winter retreat

By Mary Brown

CHRISTOPHER LAKE

(Skwn) — On a frosty weekend in December, 10 youths (five boys and five girls) from parishes in the Diocese of Saskatchewan attended a retreat at the Quest Camp on Christopher Lake.

When I arrived Saturday, Revs. Brody and Rick were sitting on lawn chairs ice fishing. Some kids were fishing but left to go tobogganing. So we went to the toboggan hill, where nearly everyone was having fun.

Some of the girls showed me their quinsy they had made on Friday night. It looks something like an igloo, but instead tons of snow is shovelled into a huge pile. Then the next morning it is dug out to make room for occupancy.

Sara Albers and Julie Ann Reed were the chaperones for the girls with Brody and Rick chaperoning the boys. The Rev. David Butorac and his wife and baby stayed over on Friday night, where he introduced the theme of Advent and gave the first talk of the retreat.

Evenings were spent playing board games, campfire worship singing, hot chocolate and snacks and ending with compline.

Brody led Morning Prayer on Saturday, after which they went outside to dig the quinzee, cleared snow for skating and set up for fishing.

After a full day of activities everyone had a supper of pulled pork, with chapel after and Rick talking about Advent. After they were back outside for night games.

On Sunday they went to St. Christopher’s Church and returned to camp for lunch and then to clean up. The venue is a large building with a common room with a big fireplace. The retreat was a laidback affair in a serene comfortable setting and the kids will likely look forward to the next one.