Lake Junaluska

My husband Michael has been involved with his church youth group for years now. He grew up going to youth meetings as a teen and now he helps as a leader of the youth group. A few weeks ago Michael and I went with the church youth group to Lake Junaluska, NC. Lake Junaluska is a Methodist retreat place. I'm not even sure how to describe it. This place consists of houses and hotels with like a convention center. Every year the youth group goes to Lake Junaluska to grow closer to Christ and to praise His name. They have been doing this for 20 + years. They do summer projects such as helping those in need, volunteering at local stores and helping build new parks. They also meet new people from different places and share their life stories. The summer sessions last about a week and what I've heard are amazing! The past 2 years the youth group has decided to go to the winter sessions at Lake Junaluska which last just a few days. We go to these "sessions" which basically consists of a christian rock bank and a guest speaker. We also go skiing all day on Saturday.

This year we loaded up the bus on a Friday for the winter sessions at Lake J.  It takes a good 4 to 5 hours to get to Lake Junaluska which is near Maggie Valley. If I am lying, may lightening strike me, but I swear Michael sang the whole way up to Lake J! 4 hours or more straight! It didn't matter what Bobby (another youth leader and the bus driver) was playing on the radio, Michael was singing it! From Christian to Country to Pop/Rock, it didn't matter. He has more energy than any of the young teens. He amazes me all of the time! Anyways, after Michael's live concert we finally made to Lake Junaluska around 8 pm just in time for the night winter session. We had a great time singing and praising Jesus with the Christian rock band, Bestowed. Most of their music I had not heard before but on Sunday they played popular Christian music that we all knew which was great. The guest speaker that Friday night was okay. I think she was nervous and she kept switching topics like crazy but her message was good especially for young teens. That night we were asked if our youth group would be willing to serve communion Saturday night to everyone at Lake Junaluska. The lady over the retreat knows the youth leaders and some of the youth well due to the fact that they had been so many times, so she knew the youth would do a great job helping with communion. After Friday night sessions, we went back to our hotel rooms and talked until about midnight. Saturday morning we woke up around 6 am to eat breakfast and to getting ready to go skiing. Lake J has a great breakfast and I really try to "load" up on it due to the fact that skiing takes alot of energy and is kind of work out, if you don't work out. To Michael its probably like a walk in the park but to me its like a day at the gym but better. The difference between this ski trip and last years ski trip is that this year we nearly froze our bums off! It was 8 degrees out compared to last year which I think was high 60's. It had start snowing early that Saturday morning which was beautiful.

The picture above is the lake that they had to drain for some reason. They do it every year and all I know is the locals make pottery out of the clay from it. Don't ask, I wasn't paying attention to when they explained why they did this. Anyways, we loaded up the bus in pretty much every piece of clothing that we owned and headed up the mountain to go skiing. Once we arrived at the ski place, the workers there wouldn't let the bus go anymore up the mountain so we had to unload our bus and wait for another bus with chains on the tires to ride us the rest of the way up the mountain. While we were waiting for the bus we took a few pics while we were standing on this place they called Windy Gap. The name spoke for itself and boy was it windyyyy!!!

We had to take our own lunch with was provided by the Lake J staff. The box lunches consisted of a sandwich, apple, chips, cookies and a drink. Just FYI. I think Bobby took most of the apples back home with him to feed his goats with. After we loaded the mountain bus we were off to go skiing. This year of skiing was so much better than last year. I believe it was because I knew what to expect and I was use to the heaviness of the ski boots. Michael didn't fall at all (wow!) but I fell once right when I started skiing due to the fact that I was somehow skiing backwards and couldn't figure out how to stop so I decided to fall in order to stop. Basically Michael and I and a few of the youth stayed on the bunny slope the whole time. Michael did advance to the next slope up but he didn't enjoy it because he said "he wasn't made to go that fast in the cold". Haha! He was hauling tail down that mountain! All together the ski trip was fun but it was just too cold! As my dad would say, "we got our core tempertures down" and stayed that way for several days. I felt as though I couldn't get warm for days! Here are a few pics from that day.

After we were finished skiing we went back to the hotel rooms to rest for a bit and change clothes. That evening we ate dinner and went to our night session at Lake J. This night was real special for me and for Michael. Saturday night we rocked out again with the band Bestowed and had the same guest speaker. She was alot better Saturday night and talked about how we should make a change in our lives where others see Jesus through us and the way we live. I decided then to stop cursing because basically its really bad and it doesn't set the greatest example. During this session they also announced all the youth groups and where they were from. When each youth groups church name was called the group was supposed to hoot and holler for their church. Some of the groups were real loud when their church was called and others were not so much. Most of the groups were from Methodist churches, maybe a few Baptists but only one Episcopalian church! WOOT WOOT!!! When the Episcopalians were called out, Michael and I hollered for them as well.  I am Episcopalian so I had to represent with them! Shortly after the guest speaker and the shout outs, our youth group was asked to come forward to help with communion. There was only 9 of us total including adults so they broke us up into 4 sets of 2 to help with communion and asked Bobby to help direct people where to go. I'm not exactly sure how many people were there total at Lake J but I would say around 300 or so. Michael and I were asked to serve communion to the left back of the building. I was serving the blood of Christ (grape juice) and Michael was serving the body of Christ (a loaf of bread). One by one people came up to us, Michael breaking off a piece of bread and saying "the body of Christ" and then the person could come up to me and dunk their bread into the cup of juice and I was saying "the blood of Christ that was shed for you". We were givin directions to look each person in the eyes while saying each line. I've never experience anything like this. We both agree that this was a really humbling experience and really didn't feel worthy to do this. I could tell that we also served some of the Episcopalians communion as well due to the fact that some of them would say "amen" after we served them. Michael and I were the first ones finished serving communion to the congregation so we were asked to go on stage and give the band communion as well as the guest speaker. This was a moment I'll never forget. I never thought I would ever give anyone communion and I am grateful to have had this experience.

Once the sessions were over we went back to our rooms. We talked about our experiences that day and prayed together then it was lights out. The next day, Sunday, we ate breakfast, packed up the bus and then had our last session. About 11 AM we were finished and loading the bus to go home. On the way home we stopped at a mall to eat lunch and to shop. I'm pretty sure the girls were more into this than the guys. All together we had a great trip and a great experience. To learn more about Lake J follow the website. What a wonderful place to experience God at work.

http://myp.lakejunaluska.com/