Survivor

So after being home from Mexico for only three days, I went camping with my church for the annual Survivor youth retreat. No, I wasn't on the TV show... ;) Herb Kuryliw (Uthguy) is the leader of the 7th and 8th grade X4J (eXtreme for Jesus) youth group at church and every summer, he organizes a camping retreat called Survivor. There are two tribes (with names, buffs, and everything) of kids who compete in different challenges throughout a three day period. Whichever tribe earns the most points by the end wins (basically bragging rights) - but Survivor is about much more than that. Between these crazy challenges, Herb has a few sessions where he talks to the campers about applying that year's theme to their lives and how to grow in their Christian walk. There are tribal counsels like the show, but instead of voting people out, there are votes for who live their lives fullest for God. There are four categories, and out of those four categories, there is a vote held for who is the Soul Survivor. I've been through this program many times - this was my sixth year at Survivor. The first three, I was competing as part of the tribes (I won Soul Survivor between my 7th and 8th grade years). These last three years, I've been part of the High School Leader Support Team. We basically set up all the equipment for the challenges and mentor/hang out with the campers. This year, the leadership team made a point to also have time set aside for prayer - we prayed for the week, the weather, and most importantly the campers. It was such a great time - I'm still exhausted and sore from the week, but seeing the faces of the X4J campers makes all our hard work more than worth it!

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