If you are ever given the opportunity to host a girls retreat...grab a friend and start planning. It is a great way to get to spend some time with the young girls of your congregation. If you haven't done one before here are some tips to have a successful retreat.
1. Pick a theme.
2. Pick a location.
3. Have good food.
4. Make a tentative schedule with planned activities.
5. Most importantly, have fun!
Our theme revolved around one of our activities we had planned. For our location, it was easy, we just utilized our fellowship hall. We did an easy menu (Taco Stack-up) with plenty of yummy snacks available well into the night.
We kept the schedule fairly simple. We had a few group type activities/get to know you games planned with a good mix of some free time to allow conversation. As a matter of fact I had several other games planned out, but due to time constraints we were only able to complete one!
Our initial ice breaker after dinner was to play "Me Too!"
We arranged the girls in a circle and we one started by telling a random fact about themselves such as "my favorite color is blue". For those that had this in common, were to shout out "me too!" and we passed yarn around until everyone that had said "me too" were holding the yarn. Whoever was last to speak, then was "it" and had to tell a random fact about themselves. We continued doing this until everyone had a few chances to tell a few things about themselves. Needless to say, by the end of the game we had quiet a tangled web. It was a great way to show these girls how much they do have in common. Then we addressed the common bond we have as sisters "in Christ".
Our main goal was to plant seed to encourage the girls to develop good bible study habits while young. We discussed the differences of reading our bibles versus studying. We then walked the girls through a bible marking topic, "The Plan of Salvation". We supplied the girls with map colors and index cards (for those that didn't feel comfortable marking in their bibles and could write down the scriptures). We received great feedback from this from both the girls and the moms helping with the retreat.
After bible marking, we took a small break for snacks and then began our next activity. Chalking 101. Before our retreat we had traced many patterns for bible class visuals and allowed the girls to choose a pattern. Once they made their selections we guided them through the process of chalking to make bible class visuals. This allowed the girls to visit and chat while they were working and after they completed their masterpieces, we ran them through the laminator and their creations will be placed in our resource room for teachers to use in bible class.
Here are the girls holding up their laminated work! They turned out great!
After cleanup, the we set up the sleeping bags and blowup mattresses and set up a movie about midnight to watch. One word of advice though, you might want to pick something a little more uplifting than Hachi. Actually, it is a really good movie, just a bit of a tear jerker for animal lovers.
Next morning we served a breakfast casserole and visited together. We assembled together for a closing prayer and assessed the girl's input for topics for future retreats. Everyone was very receptive to the idea and we look forward to doing another one!
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