One of my favorite weekend trips of the entire year is going to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO for Young Christians Weekend. I have always loved SDC - I've been going since I was a kid - but this particular weekend, they take out all the "normal" shows/performers and replace them with Christian speakers and musicians. We have been taking the youth group at Pine Ridge for as long as I can remember. Over the years we have had as few as five or as many as 30.
This year happened to be the largest and thanks to a wonderful member of our church, we were able to take a school bus for less than it would cost to rent vans. The bus ride was a blast!! Everyone was full of energy on the way down and it was fun to see them talking and playing and getting to know one another - especially since we had four kids and an adult from another church. They all got along GREAT!
The weather was an interesting challenge to our weekend. You never know with the last weekend in March - some years it's beautiful and others years it has been rainy & cold. This year - it snowed! We didn't let it get us down, though. We bundled up and spent the day enjoying as much of Silver Dollar City as we could - depending on what was running that day. About 25 out of 30 of us took the cave tour in the afternoon (a balmy 56 degrees in the cave) but I chose to spend my time riding Fire in the Hole a few more times. It was a fabulous day!
The evening rally was not well attended due to the weather - but we were there!! Just as our speaker, Tim Oliphant, began to speak, the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen began to fall. It was absolutely magical! I will take the snow over the pouring rain any day! Tim did a great job sharing his testimony and we enjoyed visiting with him after the rally.
Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous day. The sun came out and the temperatures jumped up about 20 degrees. We started with worship in Echo Hollow with Leeland and Kutless as well as a talk by Joe White. I was reminded that God can speak directly to our hearts even when we least expect it!
On the way home we made a quick stop at the Osceola Cheese store because Jenn said about 7 miles earlier, "Carla, I'm going to have to pee in about 7 miles." They certainly do make me laugh! We took a few minutes to play "The horse ran around with his foot on the ground" in the parking lot and then reloaded the bus for the final leg of our journey. It was, once again, an exceptional weekend and I am very blessed to be able to work with some pretty amazing young people!
This year happened to be the largest and thanks to a wonderful member of our church, we were able to take a school bus for less than it would cost to rent vans. The bus ride was a blast!! Everyone was full of energy on the way down and it was fun to see them talking and playing and getting to know one another - especially since we had four kids and an adult from another church. They all got along GREAT!
Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous day. The sun came out and the temperatures jumped up about 20 degrees. We started with worship in Echo Hollow with Leeland and Kutless as well as a talk by Joe White. I was reminded that God can speak directly to our hearts even when we least expect it!
On the way home we made a quick stop at the Osceola Cheese store because Jenn said about 7 miles earlier, "Carla, I'm going to have to pee in about 7 miles." They certainly do make me laugh! We took a few minutes to play "The horse ran around with his foot on the ground" in the parking lot and then reloaded the bus for the final leg of our journey. It was, once again, an exceptional weekend and I am very blessed to be able to work with some pretty amazing young people!
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