Dates: January 20-22, 2017
Location: Pinebrook Bible Conference and Retreat Center in East Stroudsburg, PA
Members of the Calvary Baptist Church teen ministry attended Faith Bible Fellowship Church’s annual retreat for middle and high school students. Sno-Glo is a weekend for teens that is designed to provide a fun and enriching couple of days to step away from life and just focus on worshipping God and receiving challenging teaching from the Word.
This year, the theme of the retreat was “Taking Jesus at His Word.” For many teens, conversations and questions about faith can be either an everyday experience or something they do not normally think about. Whether a teenager grew up in the church or is encountering the question of God’s existence for the first time, this retreat’s aim was to challenge the students’ views of the real Jesus Christ. The teaching and small group conversations centered on passages from the Matthew 5 and Matthew 7, and the Luke 9 where we were able to read Jesus’s own words on some of the situations teens face on on a daily basis. For example, we talked about the seriousness of sin, understanding the truth of the gospel, and the cost of following and responding like Christ.
Over the course of the weekend, the teens were able to develop deeper friendships with other young Christians and those seeking the truth, as well as share some of the more personal questions and struggles they experience in their lives. This retreat gave our teens the chance to grow closer to one another as well as to develop relationships and connections with the young adults who chaperoned the retreat. Our prayer is that these bonds would continue to develop throughout the rest of the year, providing opportunities for discipleship and encouragement.
In addition to growing more in our knowledge of Christ, we also had a lot of fun! The weekend offered a variety of activities students could participate in during free time, such as dodgeball, volleyball, basketball, ping pong, swimming, and much more. There was also a snack shack and a game room where students relaxed and did what teens like to do best! Our group had a packed weekend as you can tell from our amazing volleyball skills in the photo down below. Overall, Sno-Glo offered a spiritually rich and fun-filled weekend of fellowship and seeking to take Jesus at His word.