Junior High Retreat at Luther Village on September 21-23, 2007
Over 40 young people attended the called “ A Simpson’s Guide to Junior High”.  The focus of the retreat dealt with the things that are “great ordeals” for Junior High, relationships with peers and parents, bullying, family break-up, and body image. 

Kate Langrell, Thomas Jordan, Michael Jordan and Theo Janke from Prairie Fire provided the music, and program leaders were Rebecca Ulrich and Jeff Buhse. 

The interplay between visuals from Simpsons episodes, personal stories of the leaders, and small group discussions helped our young people explore the great ordeals in their own lives, and how God promises to walk with us “through the great ordeals”.  It helped that the weather cooperated beautifully.  “This retreat rocked – Can’t wait until next year” was one of the comments heard.
See photos from this event.

Thirty Ninth Annual Senior High Retreat,  October 5-8, 2008
Thanksgiving Weekend at Luther Village saw over  50  people meet around the theme “I Still Haven’t Found What I am Looking For” from the U2 song by the same name. 

The focus of this retreat was to answer the big “purpose of life” question. How does pop culture answer this question, and how is that similar/different from our faith response to this question? Jeremy Langner did a superb job of leading, with an interplay of music videos, Bible reflections and small group discussions.

One of the major highlights was the making of two music videos that were shown at the end of the talent night. Jeremy put in a couple of very late nights to produce these. Music was led by Kate Langrell, Daniel Jordan, Jeremy Langner, Adam Mzolinski and Dave. 

Synod junior high retreat photos