The weekend event begins Friday evening and lasts until Sunday early afternoon. In our working situation the time frame is determined by the travel schedule to our diocesan camp, where the retreat takes place. Our program would start about 8:00 p.m. after getting the participants and their gear into the building and dispersed to sleeping accommodation.

On the schedule to follow you will notice The Great Time Change. We gathered on a weekend when the return to standard time happened and we built it into the Friday night program to give us more time and to help with the first-night energy that takes a while to settle. By 11:30 p.m., standard time, almost everyone is ready to sleep and the weekend flow is made easier by making some fun and nonsense out of starting over.

The Design

The weekend is based on small groups and we make some effort to prepare the leaders by distributing the handouts for each small group session and by spending some time in each small group doing community building there and paying attention throughout to group maintenance by having a few minutes in each session to see how participants are doing. It is possible to include in the icebreakers some games that require teams, in which case we would have them in their small groups for those games.

The weekend is also done in short blocks, taking into account the attention span, energy level and the need for movement of young adolescents. We try to provide a variety of activities that are not highly competitive but energetic. We also try to include some hands-on arts and craft events that can be done in groups. As this weekend was held close to Halloween we had a pumpkin-carving time as one activity. Full rotation volleyball requires you to rotate across the net and diminishes winners/losers. We also try to balance the activities so that there can be hikes and other self-initiated activities that are a form of controlled free time.

Weather is a big factor and we always have several possible activities with both indoor and outdoor options. The smugglers game has proven to be very popular with this age group as a wet weather special. We work hard to see that as much as possible small groups can work together on activities, knowing that friendship and positive peer interaction are critical aspects of a good experience for young adolescents. A few suggestions and game designs are included in this outline at the end.

Theme: A Time To Wonder?!

The story of Jesus in the temple at the age of 12 is the beginning point for the weekend. The story is read and then translated into a modern event of some kind The presenter must be able to make the story come alive and connect to the family conflict in it. Jesus’ parents do not understand (See Luke 2:41-52.) The focus of the first small group discussion is to try to create a list of possible questions that Jesus might have asked of the elders. Following you will find detailed instructions for each of the group leaders, for each session. With their registration forms, there is a (blue) sheet called "information sheet" that includes some blanks to be filled in. If the participants do not bring the sheet, they are given a new copy and asked to fill it out and return them to their group leader Saturday morning.

The small-group leaders are provided with copies of various biblical texts on handout sheets. The texts usually emphasize God's love for us and God's knowledge of us. Psalm 139: 1-18, 23, 24, John 15:1-17, 1 John 3: 1-3, 1-24, Romans 8:31-49.

In addition to the small-group work on themes that draws on their questions and concerns, we use these texts to underline the embracing, inclusive and accepting nature of God’s love. We always take time before a meal to slow everyone down with a couple of songs, quieting ones, and then spend a few minutes listening to one of these texts and reflecting on them in the context of our questions that have begun to decorate the wall of the gathering space. It becomes critical to remind them of the 12-year-old Jesus seeking truth and understanding for his life and being involved in a questioning, wondering process that grows out of the assurance of God's love. The small groups also meet first thing in the day for a group fellowship that is the responsibility of the small group leader. It may be prayer, discussion of one of the texts, a reading or a check-in and time of quiet. We always repeat instructions for the small-group time to the whole group and as much as possible re-gather with the whole group after small-group time to report back and to gather comments, new questions and to ascertain the direction and central themes that are developing in their small-group discussions. It has been our experience that each year there seem to be one or two ideas or questions that catch on and have to be addressed in order to meet the participants’ needs.

We also try to meet together as group leaders at several points to discuss what is happening, what sort of responses, difficulties, and the directions are happening. It allows us to adjust what is being said as well as being able to design worship and sessions to address what seem to be critical questions. We try to have open, flexible worship that allows for participation and shared leadership, including those young people who respond to invitations to take part.

For the closing worship, we ask participants to bring (written down on small pieces of paper) one thing they think they learned, and/or one thing they wonder enough about to keep thinking about. During the offering these are gathered in a basket and during a quiet following are thrown into the fire and offered as prayers: an offering of self to God.

A questions box and a "wonder sack" are available for their contributions and on the Saturday evening these are opened and the questions or amazements are read and discussed in a hot-seat format, with three or four leaders fielding and responding to questions and discussion.

Late Saturday evening a block of time is spent focusing on wonder as awe and amazement. This will include a meditative worship and, if the group is able, might include an extended period of silence (long by their standards, short by ours over 10 minutes, under an hour). It might also include, if the weather is right, some heavens-gazing or time around a fire with stories of being amazed by life and the presence and possibility of God. This piece depends on the leaders available and their skills.

Special Activities

One of the special activities that we do together to encourage both creativity and to further the small group identity is, The challenge. This is a variation on skit night in which a theme word or phrase is picked; for example, bubbles or starlight or pumpkin. After the theme is announced, each small group draws from the hat a slip that designates the style that there skit must be in. It could be a song, a TV commercial, a melodrama, an opera, a classroom scene, a talk show, a sermon, whatever. They are given 20 to 40 minutes to actually prepare their skit. They are then presented with songs and a good energetic MC leading the event. It prevents seeing the same ten skits from last year's summer camp repertoire and produces some great results.

As we do this at Halloween, we have done a variety of things, like pumpkin carving or a costume meal (remind them to bring a costume). We aim for activities that encourage involvement and participation. Group pumpkin carving is great fun if each group has two or three pumpkins and they make "statements" with them.

We do icebreakers on the opening evening that are whole group and small group. Large group sign-up sheets (sample included), birthday circle (by birthrate, in order from a starting point.) This is fun tried in silence and hand signals only. Tallest to shortest circle, both ways around. Think about it! We also try to have a designed game to get people into small groups. If we have pre-chosen the groups, then it is usually marked on the name tag. That becomes part of a game to find your group. If they get to make their own name tags, then we use some other method to group them. We also try, once they are in groups, to have games that require group work (another sign-up game) for points by shoe size, distance traveler, birthday numbers, etc.

In the small groups we try to have about eight or nine participants with two leaders, one of whom is usually an older teen who has a variety of other tasks, including assisting with nighttime supervision and other activities. We have found that there is a lot to be gained in terms of role modeling, energy levels and so on with this shared responsibility.

This has been a fun and productive event for us, producing different results the several times we have tried it but always releasing an immense amount of dialogue and searching towards the meaning and significance of our faith and the nature and identity of God, Jesus, and our Place in the world.