JHYM Retreat Staff Notes

Sometimes in Life are Beautiful

JHYM Retreats   *   Sept. 15 - 17, 2005   *   Westport Meeting

 

Dearest Friends,

 

            Hello, dear ones!  Thank you so much for be willing to share your time, gifts, and open hearts with our glorious bunch of Junior Highers on our first JHYM Retreat of the school year.  As staff we are:  Anne Anderson, Buddy Baker-Smith, Dave Baxter, Rebecca Lee, SKG Wendyl Ross, Harry (Scotty) Scott, and me.  We are fewer in staffing numbers than I would prefer to run a program with (hmmm…This is becoming a standard phrase almost every set of staff notes), but I trust that we will be okay given the size of the group.    However, DO take good care of yourself in the days before this retreat!  We need you!!

 

            Because we are pretty much a 2 year community (except for a few 6^th graders who come this way instead of JYM), ‘building a spiritual community’ is truly what this program is mostly about.  As of today, we have 20 junior highers registered for this retreat – including 8 first timers to the JHYM Retreat program.  Two of those come to us via Friends Camp and have no connection at all with a Monthly Meeting, and three others have never been to an NEYM Retreat at all.  The remaining two first timers are 7^th graders who have are “ambivalent at best” about having outgrown JYM.  So, dear hearts, we have our work cut out for us!  The good thing is that I (almost always) fully trust that Grace will attend, if we pray and work faithfully, and all will unfold just as it should……though I admit to a few sleepless hours in the night worrying about this.

 

            Our theme comes from a song by Steve Tilston whom Buddy and I discovered at Summerfest in New Bedford.  The words are at the end of these staff notes.  As our website says, “……our first JHYM Retreat of the year will celebrate and affirm all that is good and beautiful in our lives and world in the midst of hard times and ugliness.  We’ll create “keep Hope alive” gifts (like Secret Santa’s), hopefully romp and play at Horseneck Beach, and begin to build our community.” 

 

            The JHYM Retreat program’s goal is to provide a safe and trusting community in which we seek to find that of God in ourselves and in each other.  Our charge, as ministers of the Spirit, is to help this retreat’s young people create a sanctuary for themselves and for others who come seeking one this program year.  What I am beginning to appreciate more as the years go on, is just how rare and astounding a “safe and trusting spiritual community” truly is for young teens.  What we “do”, with the Grace of God, is provide them with an experience in building community that they then take with them, and hopefully build on, for years and decades and a lifetime to come.

 

Timelines

Arrival:  I will be arriving by 5pm, and I would welcome you anytime after that!  Our experience last year was that a lot of JH’ers arrive before or right at 7pm.  Given how few we are, I really need all of us to get there by 6:30 (7pm at the latest) if possible.  Let me know if this will be a problem for you.

 

Wrap-up:  Scotty has to leave at 7AM Sunday morning.  Buddy has a committee meeting at 8:30 AM in the Meeting House…….I made a plea at the rise of Worship for extra Westport Friends to help us out.  Kevin is planning on pitching in afterwards for sure.  I’ll flag down others as needed, and we’ll do the best we can, including asking parents to help if need be.  I don’t want ANY of you having to stay past 1pm!

 

Program Details

            Small Groups will meet 3 times over the course of the weekend: Friday evening /Saturday morning/and Saturday evening.  You will find suggestions for discussion topics as well as games/activities in your staff notebooks when you arrive on Friday night.  We will be divided into only 3 small groups – with 6 or 7 JH’ers and 2 staffers for each group.  You’ll be in the same small group for the weekend, hopefully providing an opportunity for community within community!  The feedback about our small groups being more like affinity groups and less like discussion groups continues to be overwhelmingly positive.

 

Friday Evening’s Program:  What makes JHYM Retreats special, beautiful  & different?

            After some Opening Worship, we’ll do the usual names, program overview and theme introductions.  In our large and small groups, we’ll explore a little bit about what it means to be in a Quaker community (listening, respecting, looking for that of God in everyone, being inclusive, encouraging seeking and growth, resolving conflict, etc).  I’ve got a slew of games and activities for us to do that are all about building community.

 

Saturday Morning Program:  Much is Beautiful: Choose Joy

            This phrase was given to me in a dream a couple days after Yearly Meeting, as I began to focus and pray on this retreat’s theme.  I’ll share some of this with our large group circle, and then invite some worship sharing around how “Choosing Joy” can actually be a form of witnessing to that of God and to Hope in our world.  We’ll then break into our small groups for a check in and perhaps further discussion as you feel led.

 

            After some free time, we’ll circle back up for a discussion to be called “We are Beautiful” which will tenderly and hopefully honestly delve into how we in the JHYM Retreat community clothe and adorn ourselves.  This is something that a couple of staffers asked me to do after dealing with individual girls’ scantily clad bodies at Yearly Meeting.  At the end of this time, we’ll talk about the “Keep Hope Alive” messages and pick names (everyone gets one person for whom they are to create or write something).

 

Saturday Afternoon Program:   Beauty in Nature and in Relaxation!

            Weather permitting, we will head down to Horseneck Beach right after lunch for an afternoon of fun and play.  We can do some large group games, climb the dunes, wade in the water (up to our ankles), and enjoy the outside world.  (If the weather is awful, we’ll have to think of something else.  I’ll pay attention to the advanced forecasts as the week goes along.)

            When we return, we’ll have Quiet Hour, followed by time for everyone to create their “Keep Hope Alive” gifts/messages. 

 

Saturday Evening Program: 

            Within our small groups, we’ll be considering how we balance world events with any sort of personal inner peace and sense of goodness.  After some discussion, we’ll settle into quiet and write letters to ourselves about this.  I will mail these to everyone halfway between now and the next retreat.  People continue to tell me that this is a very helpful and powerful activity, so even though we’ve done it previous years, I think it’s worth doing again!  We will then come back together for a closing circle of worship and care one for another, including giving each other our Keep Hope Alive messages.

 

A Note on Free Time:

            Junior Higher’s want free time, but most of them want it with structure so that they can be in community!  As you all know, “free time” is not staff “free time” – especially this weekend.  In order to nurture community with this group of Jr JH’ers, all of us on staff will need to initiate group games (Apples to Apples, Egyptian War or other card games, or JYM Ball), inspire craft projects, encourage the creation of new Who’s Who Book pages (it’s a new year, so everyone can make a new one!), and engage stragglers into the mix in any ways we feel led – or the young people themselves lead!  Please consider how you would feel most comfortable doing this – and go for it!

            I’ll also bring 2 disposable cameras for JH’ers to use. 

 

Staff Assignments

Registrar:  Dave, you’ve got experience and focus – are you willing?

Retreat Nurse:  Buddy

Carpool Coordinator for the beach trip:  Scotty

Name Tag Czar:  Rebecca

Group Game Leader, especially Saturday afternoon: Buddy

Supreme Kitchen Goddess:  duh!

 

Anne and Scotty:  I have another special job that I’ll be in touch with you about……

 

Final note:

            Do know, dear dear Friends, my gratitude and love for each of you.  I am really looking forward to our weekend together in community and ministry. Travel safely and be well.  You……..are……….beautiful.

                                                With love,

                                                Gretchen Baker-Smith

                                                JHYM Retreat leader

                                                508-997-0940   *   Gretchen@jymretreats.org