Team Huntley: 1st Annual RPC Family Retreat

Back in the fall, one of RPC's members, Sarah, asked me if I would consider organizing a family retreat for the church. I thought it sounded like a fantastic idea and said yes immediately. The day before she asked me, I had been visited by a woman named Susan who works for the Holmes Presbyterian Camp & Conference Center. Holmes is about 45 minutes away from Rye, and features a lake, lots of woods/hiking, lodges, etc. Holmes is co-owned by 3 presbyteries, including ours, but RPC has never really taken advantage of the facility. It is quite "rustic" and I was told that it had never seemed like the right fit for our wealth congregation. I decided that people might be more open-minded than they had been given credit for, so I asked Sarah to take a trip to Holmes with me and see if the site might work. The first sleeping facilities were waaaay too rustic and never going to fly, but the second place we saw was this cute, albeit circa-70's décor, motel-style lodge with 12 rooms, an upstairs play room, and a perfect room for holding a worship service. Sarah and I were sold and set about planning the retreat, along with another member, Julia. In the end, we had 7 families sign up to go on our overnight adventure. We had a blast!!! Most of us met at the church on Saturday morning to get coffee/snacks and travel together (2 families met us at Holmes). At first it was hard for everyone to transition out of our normal mode and pace. We started with a family kickball game that Sarah and her husband Scott had organized. Looking back, probably the only thing I'd change about the weekend was scheduling that kickball game for right when we arrived (well, technically we had lunch right when we arrived, but the kickball game was the first real activity). It was too soon. The kids just wanted to run around and be kids, and only a handful were really into the game. I think if we had let them play and explore for an hour or so first, they would have been more ready to do something structured. But after that, everything went beautifully. We had snacks, and water balloons, and giant bubbles, and a cookout, and hula hoops, and s'mores. Chris set up a Frisbee golf course in the trees around our lodge and everyone loved it. At the end of the night, the kids were exhausted but not ready for bed, so we turned on a movie for them upstairs, while the adults hung out downstairs and had some great conversations over a glass of wine or beer. In the morning, we ate breakfast, then had church in a beautiful room with floor to ceiling windows and trees all around. Sarah, Julia, and I thought it would be neat to incorporate the kids as much as possible, so we did. 3 of them played piano, 5 of them read from a St. Francis poem about creation, and the little kids held up pictures they had drawn the day before, based on the words of the poem. We went around in a circle, and everyone shared their most joyous moment of the retreat. It was so lovely. Nearly everyone had to rush off after the service, but one family, the Hollers, stayed behind with us to explore a little more. We went hiking and came across a low-ropes course. Turned out to be one of the highlights of the weekend! And now here are a ton of photos!