BR Reflection

Well, after two [nearly] full days of recovery, I'm sitting down to reflect on Beach Retreat '09. And when I say recovery, I actually mean this: woke up at 8AM on Saturday with no help from an alarm, worked out, showered my husband's best friend's wife with baby gifts, went shopping for this weekend's couples shower, had a date night with my husband, woke up and went to Sunday school and church, ate lunch and then took the most amazingly glorious 2.5 hour nap I have EVER taken. That, my friends, is recovery.

I believe the total number of people at BR this year came in at a whopping 1,727. I am not sure, however, if that includes counselors, behind the scenes folks, band members and, ahem, the all-star nurses or just kids. Either way, that's an INCREDIBLE number of people to engulf the beaches and town of Gulf Shores. Just to clue you in on what goes on at BR, this is a typical daily schedule:

8:00 - Nurses wake up and "open" up shop
9:00 - Silent Sounds (quiet time) for kids on beach
9:45 - Breakfast in Condos
10:30 - Classes for Kids in various condos
12:00 - Lunch in Condos
1:00 - Free time starts
1:30 - Pool/Beach "opens"
4:00 - Free time ends
6:00 - Silent Sounds on Beach
7:00 - Dinner at the Tent
8:00 - Worship Service
10:00 - Late Night Activity

SBC has five campuses across Houston and its suburbs. We have five condos that span probably 2-3 miles, split up by campus. So during the day, we're technically ony responsible for the 350 kids and counselors from the Woodway campus. Then, all 1700+ people eat together under the giant tent in a field and worship together in the convention center. What a sight to see! There really is nothing like looking out of our 3rd story condo onto the beach to see kids scattered, Bibles opened and heads bowed, reflecting on the greatness and magnificent creation of our God. We don't have a final count of decisions made during the week yet, but I know there were at least 300 baptisms. WOW! God spoke to those kids, and to myself as well, and reassured me that there is hope for this nation of ours that seems so incredibly troubled.

Some of the highlights of the trip (fun and not-so-fun):

• Highschooler's Quote: So are you, like, legit nurses or just moms with medicine?
• Getting hit in the head by a high-speed dodgeball while wrapping an ankle with ice that was injured during said dodgeball game
• Another HS's quote to a counselor who is also starting his residency at Hermann tomorrow: Dude, you're gonna be rich. You could buy a Wii and a Playstation and an XBox 360.
• The 9-hour conversation with Leah on the way to Alabama.
• The flat tire on our luggage care. Much funnier after said 9-hour drive.
• Going to sleep and waking up to the sound of the waves crashing onto the beach.
• Our near-death experience on I-10 when some jerk-face came zooming from an entrance ramp all the way to the left lane where we were peacefully driving along. He was apparently having too much fun getting from 0 to 90 in 4.5 than looking at the road to actually SEE me in the lane. Thanks to my mad skills on not over-correcting, we narrowly escaped the tragedy that would have been in the median.

Leah and I had a great time meeting new folks, visiting with those we met last year, getting to know some of the leaders in our church and just having a week-long girls date. Next year, we've pretty much talked the boys into driving down Thursday night and spending a little extra vacation time to really enjoy the beach and quaintness of the town.