Young Maritimers descend on Amherst for annual Winter Youth Retreat
This past weekend, nearly 90 young people aged 12-25 gathered at the Wandlyn Inn in Amherst, NS, along with 20 youth leaders for a weekend of fellowship, education and fun at the Winter Youth Retreat.
The theme of the weekend retreat, “Download Jesus: How to use your head to guard your heart”, was explored under the leadership of special guest Clint Houlbrook, Territorial Youth Department Consultant for The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda. Houlbrook, who also runs The Salvation Army’s youth focused website SendtheFire.ca, spoke about the effects of pop culture and Christian worldviews as well as the need to get out of the mindset created by popular culture.
Major Wanda Vincent, Divisional Youth Secretary for the Maritimes, describes the weekend as “awesome”.
“Clint shared a strong message to the teens about the need to download (choose) a Biblical or Christian worldview in their lives in order to embrace life within the Kingdom of God,” said Major Vincent. “He used the example of Jesus’ response to the culture around him to provide a template for how we can respond to our culture: think critically, live counter-culturally, infiltrate but transform the world around you.”
The weekend’s sessions were supplemented by the musical talents of a young people’s worship group and those in attendance were given the opportunity to take part in a question period with officers – allowing a glimpse into the experiences of ministry work here in the Maritimes. In addition, Daniel Shriver and Justin Russell of Bits and Bytes Newsletter explained their prayer request email to their peers.
“It was great to see so many teenagers from around the Maritime provinces engaged in worship, prayer and dialogue with each other,” says Major Vincent.
The Winter Youth Retreat is an annual event which engages the young people of the Maritime provinces. For more information about our youth ministry events, check out the youth department’s Facebook page.
