Written by: The Youth Department
For nearly 20 years, Gateway Church’s youth ministry has taken students on a retreat called the Journey. In the early years of its existence, the Journey bounced around the calendar and fluctuated in its length and location. Approximately 12 years ago, it found its home in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve at Camp Michindoh in Hillsdale, Michigan. While our regular Sunday night Life Groups provide students and their leaders time to worship, get in the word, and connect with one another. The Journey is a unique opportunity for students and their Life Group leaders to dive even deeper in these areas. Year after year, we are encouraged by the testimonies of our students and their leaders as they share how God used the Journey to deepen and grow their faith!
This past December, over 100 students and adults were back at Michindoh for a whirlwind 36 hours as we dove into our theme, “Unidentified”. Based on Ephesians 2:1-10, we focused on unidentifiying ourselves from how the world defines us and emphasized that our true identity is found in Christ. A pattern of large group worship and teaching coupled with in-depth small group discussions filled the students' time as they were challenged to put off their old selves, put on their new identities as children of God, and live unashamedly for him.
Another important element of the Journey is our breakout sessions. These are 45 minute teaching sessions geared towards answering our students’ questions and equipping them to live out their faith as they face the pressures of culture and the world around them. This year, we were blessed by a number of Gateway’s Elders who came to teach several breakout sessions as well as volunteers from our Go team and youth alumni. Many students have expressed how blessed they were to learn from the leaders here at Gateway in this capacity and how helpful it was in feeling more connected to the broader community of believers in our church.
While Adam and Hannah work all year to plan and prepare for the Journey, such a feat cannot be successful without the help of our faithful volunteers. This year we had by far our largest team of adults consisting of regular youth volunteers, returning youth alumni, and non-youth volunteers from our congregation who willingly gave up their holiday time, sleep, and comfort to invest in sugar-charged teens and point them to Jesus. We can’t say enough about how generously the people of Gateway give of their time and resources to fulfill our mission of glorifying God by making disciples of Jesus Christ. And if you read all of this and are feeling left out now…don’t worry, we will happily plug you in for next year's trip!
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