trout lake 2013

After weeks and weeks of waiting, Trout Lake has finally come! 

(and now gone. sad.)

I had such a great weekend at Trout Lake with a great group of people! 

My youth group! :)

The theme verse this weekend was Ephesians 6:10

"Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power."

What a great verse! No matter where we go or what we do in this life, if we trust the Lord and his power, He will give us STRENGTH! Our strength comes from Him!

The speaker, Duffy, was really great. 

He talked about things like righteousness, 

God's amazing love for us, and how we encounter "Jerichoes" in our every day life. He definitely made me think of things in a new way, which is always a good thing. 

The lesson that stuck with me the most was the lesson on righteousness. He explained to us that righteousness has two meanings,

right usefulness: Correctly using the gifts that God gave you to bring Him glory

right relatedness: Having the right kind of relationship with God & fellow Christians.

Then, he had us rate people: Adolf Hitler, Mother Theresa, the average person and Jesus Christ on a scale of completely unrighteous to completely righteous. Once everyone was put in their places, (Adolf on the farrr left and Jesus as far right as you can be), the speaker explained to us that because Jesus died a death that an UNRIGHTEOUS person deserves, we all die a death that a RIGHTEOUS person deserves.

Which isn't fair.

At all.

But that is the amazing thing called grace, and we are so lucky to receive that grace.

The band, Acquire the Fire Live, was AWESOME! They were all so talented and were entertaining. Singing is my absolute favorite way to praise the Lord, so a good band is always important to me, and I would definitely give that band an A+.

Here are some more pictures from this weekend: 

(photo credits go to my homegirls Morgie and Anniiiiika. My camera is on the fritz.)

The annual HUGE fire on Saturday night. So awesome, so hot. They do not mess around!

Absolutely love each of these girls. They are such blessings <3

BOBCATS! The best Trout cabin ever :) Staying up until 2:00 AM giggling about... things, saying "goodnight" a billion times before bed, praying together, being silly together, so many fun things happened in that cabin!

Trout Lake has a HUGE zipline and it was one of the highlights of my weekend! What a rush!

I am so thankful that I got to go on this weekend retreat to Trout! I grew closer to the members of my youth group and had a ton of fun with them, but most importantly, I grew even closer to GOD. <3

Ellie approves of Trout Lake!