flaming heretics

Well, we had a blast at our work retreat. I was so glad to get time with people that I don't see as often as I would like, and I got to meet some great new people too. We got all sorts of things done from hanging curtains to painting to building a retaining wall. Justin got to use a sledgehammer, the observation of which seemed to be the highlight of many people's weekends. I got to paint over pink eighties sponge painting to my great satisfaction, and the "chalets" got thoroughly cleaned, mice nests and all.

What would an Immanuel trip be without some good old-fashioned irreverence? Our first night we had a campfire, and committed the ulitmate Michigan Baptist heresy by using old copies of the Baptist Beacon for kindling... sorry Julie! ;-) That seemed to be the only paper around. (see photo above.) We went for a swim as it was getting dark, and it didn't take long to violate the "no excessive splashing" rule. We eventually got kicked out of the lake but not before some crowd-pleasing waterslide acrobatics by Scott and Matt, and everyone (including Barb) getting either dunked or thrown bodily into the water. Nothing like a bunch of them rowdy Baptists I tell you.

We had some great teaching from Justin and Matt about reconnecting with God and integrity. Very frying. We also learned a lot about flexibility due to the fact that all our work plans got turned on their head. We had some great worship too... I discovered that Barb can sing harmony and do it quite well! I have some grand plans for her now. An unfortunate casualty of the weekend is that Scott (formerly nicknamed Scottie Too Hottie) is now being referred to as "Sot," thanks to little Joey's 2-year-old pronounciation of his name. It's a little too much fun referring to him as what Webster's defines as "a habitual drunkard."