GEMS Retreat - Day 3 May 6, 2012

The last day at the retreat we had a quick devotion by a beautiful large tree that was perfect for climbing.  Mrs. Sara gave the devotion.  Then we ate breakfast, did some worship, and headed home.  Everyone was so tired, but had a wonderful time.

GEMS Retreat- Day 2 May 5, 2012

Our second day at the GEMS retreat was spent doing games/crafts/group devotions/etc...  I went off with Ashlyn's group for the games/crafts.  The girls really enjoyed this day.  They also got to swim in the lake.  This was the night that the moon was the closest to the earth...didn't get a very good picture, but you get the point.

 

GEMS Retreat - Day 1 May 4, 2012

I drove one of the cars to travel to Lake Wales for the girls' GEMS retreat.  We didn't have to be at the camp until about 7:00 pm, so we did some scenic tours beforehand.  First, we visited the Lake Wales Depot Museum.  It was pretty neat.  The local newspaper was there and ended up taking pictures and writing an article about the GEMS girls visiting.  After that, we went to Spook Hill, which was a total let down.  The car did not get pulled up by the magnetic force!  Then we visited Chalet Suzanne and actually got to see some sky divers do a jump.  When we left, we felt like we were meant to be there at that time because one of the sky divers that had jumped had both of his chutes deployed (computer back up one went off automatically, even though his main chute had already come out).  This is a very dangerous situation and the chutes can get tangled together very easily.  There's only two choices to land, cut one of the chutes off, or if you are skilled, come down very slowly and gently.  The guy was experienced and after praying for him, he made it down safely with both chutes.  The main guy that was overseeing everyone said he had only ever seen this one other time in the twenty years he had been doing this and he seemed very nervous about it.  Praise God!