Exhausted From a Great Weekend

This weekend, our church had our annual Men's Retreat. We left for Riverbend Retreat Center around 3pm on Friday. Got there around 5pm, got unpacked and people registered then headed for dinner around 7:00pm. One of the great things about this camp is the food...good stuff! We had salad, steamed vegetables, au Groton potatoes, rolls, ham and a brownie for dessert. After that, we headed back to the lodge for worship, a word from our speaker and then into small group discussion time. Our speaker, Buster Russell spoke on how to develop a passion for God as men....very good stuff. After our evening session, some of us headed to the gym for an hour-and-a-half game of dodgeball. I pulled a muscle in my back a few weeks back playing volleyball and dodgeball did not make it feel any better, but it was worth it. Back at the cabin, some of the guys played Texas Hold 'Em and then most of us went to bed a little after 1am.

On Saturday morning, we were treated to a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy. Back at the cabin, we had worship, heard from our speaker again and then had our discussion group again. Most of the guys in my discussion group were from my Life Group and the other guy is an active part of our Young Marrieds group, so we all got along well. It was good to hear from other guys what God was talking to them about over the weekend and to get to share what God was saying to me.

Lunch consisted of chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies and a chocolate eclair. After the meal, some of us headed out to an open field at the front of the camp and did some skeet shooting. It was a lot of fun. I shot what I think was my first tripple...two clays from one thrower and one from a hand thrower. It was fun shooting both with guys who like to shoot and guys were doing it for the first time. We had a great time.

After that, many of us planned to play football, but many of us also discovered we were too sore after dodgeball the night before. I went and took some pictures of the football game and went back for an afternoon nap. At 5:00pm, everybody said, "Is it time to eat again already? I'm not even hungry." We sure at a lot for a bunch of guys who were not hungry! Dinner consisted of criss cut fries, a chicken sandwich and some sort of fruit dessert thingy.

When we got back to the cabin, it was time to pack up before our last service together. I decided to grab a quick shower since I had not taken one after being outside all afternoon (I did not want to come home to my wife with a funky "guys weekend" smell!). I turned on the water and noticed it was not as hot as it was in the morning, but I jumped in anyway thinking the water would warm up. Boy was I wrong! The water went from cold to colder!! It was a very quick shower.

So we had our evening worship time, Pastor Buster finished sharing with us, guys shared what God had spoken to them over the weekend and then we headed home around 8:30pm. I came home, kissed my wife, loved on the hyper dogs and went into Amanda's room and kissed her goodnight. About 10 minutes later I flopped into bed exhausted from a great weekend.

- Rob