Friday July 24th Fun with Friends

 On Friday, we all headed to Hooker Falls in Dupont State Forrest where we met up with the other church group and with 5 our new neighbors that Cross Connection staff brought out to hike and swim with us. We packed a few extra lunches to share and took the 45 min drive out. The hike was short and the water cold but it was beautiful and we had lots of fun swimming and sliding and talking with our new neighbors. One of our new neighbors, Josh, swam with us and even dies his hair with a couple of our "campers". Jerry was a watchful eye over the whole activity as he was all week. Before we ate our packed picnic lunches together, we said goodbye to Sedge Garden UMC as they headed back to the Winston-Salem area. They were a great group to partner with this week, both the adult leaders and the youth!



When we finished lunch, we said our goodbye for nows to our new neighbors and received a parting speech from Jerry. Everyone has an open invitation when back in Asheville to visit Haywood, especially for lunch and worship on Wednesdays. We headed back to Asheville for the awe of the Mast General Store and it's barrels of fake sugar candy and for one camper, a kazoo!

Next, we headed to a local bowling alley since the weather was not cooperating for more outside activities. We were high on fun and low on scores ;) with some of our campers pulling off impressive trick shots.



Next we headed back for dinner at the church followed by small groups where we discussed what we planned to leave behind in the mountains and what we hoped to be sure to carry back with us to FV. God has been good this week and blessed us in so many ways! We curated our own worship time and invited our CC friends to join us. We focused on authentic worship and how God wants to interact with our true/whole self. We had 3 stations after a short discussion and songs that focused on our identity in Christ, removing any masks we felt necessary to wear, and opportunities to pray together about anxieties or stress that distracted us and keep us from bringing our whole selves to worship. Thanks to our Adults for working together for the wonderful worship experience.



After wrapping up, Jennifer and Shelby led the youth in a whole church, exciting series of "manhunt" games with the lights off and flashlights! Not sure who had more fun, the adults or youth ;) No paperwork was needed as a result of the game (for person or property :) ).

We are tired but our hearts are full. Prayers for a few instances of not feeling our best and traveling mercies on Saturday.

Peace,

Matt


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