Camp Wanake is the place where I met one of my very best friends EVER. When I was 11 & 1/2… at my Confirmation Retreat. When I found out that Tina Berardi and I would be going on the Confirmation retreat with our Confirmands, I was actually kind of excited. I thought that it would be a pretty cool thing to go with them and sit in on their sessions and also get to know them a little better. It is always easier to get to know people when you are thrown together during a whole weekend, sharing the same room in a sleeping bag.
When I learned that we were going to go to Camp Wanake, the same place that I went on MY Confirmation Retreat, it made me start to think about A LOT of stuff about that weekend. When I was there the “new” retreat house wasn’t even built yet so we were in a cabin. The retreat house that is there NOW has a great bathroom with showers and heat and comfy rooms…(ok not COMPLETELY comfy, but better than the cabin with no heat lol)
There were only a few of us girls who went on my Confirmation Retreat – the rest were boys… so I ended up talking to a girl from another church… we hung out the whole weekend… we played kick the can…capture the flag…went on a night hike, sung goofy crazy songs around the campfire, and passed notes after lights out…
Because we didn’t have email “back then” blah blah blah years ago, we exchanged addresses and phone numbers. Becca was from Bedford, and 480 didn’t even CONNECT with any freeway by us back then and so it took like an hour to drive out there. We didn’t get to see each other as often as we would have liked, but we spent HOURS on the phone together and to this day we still do. I never realized that I would make a life-long friend when I went to camp that weekend. I also didn’t realize what a great weekend it would be for my spiritual life either. At 11 & 1/2 I already loved my faith, my God, and my Rockport Church… (and by that I really mean the family of people that have always made up Rockport) but that weekend truly WAS a Confirmation for me. I learned a lot more about the Methodist Faith and it showed me that I was making the right choice by being Confirmed… to me, even at that age, it was one of the most important things I had ever (or would ever) do.
Sitting at Camp Wanake blah blah blah years later with Tina and the kids, I listened with interest to the lectures/sessions and things that were happening, and came up with this:
Confirmation Retreats with the kids are really an awesome way to reaffirm what you already knew you loved...
because in listening to some of the History of the United Methodist Church, info that I already knew, as well as other discussions we were having, it made me really remember why I am a United Methodist. Actually, not just a United Methodist – a Christian.
I am grateful that I got to go…
I have to mention, too, that it was AGAIN another CRAZY Blizzard…that last weekend of February… I am beginning to think that outings with our UMYF group can ONLY happen in a Blizzard! LOL
The kids had a nice time, we had a nice time, I got to bug Tina A LOT, but so far, she is still speaking to me so that’s a relief… the kids got to make a snow fort, and I THINK they learned a little ;)
