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We departed for Laurelville on the first Friday of November.
It was a fairly long drive, about three hours from Moon, so we could only stay occupied for so much time. Soon enough, we started to grow anxious and couldn't wait to get there. Along the way, we stopped at a Wendy's to eat, and just before we arrived, Hunter asked us to give him our phones.
"Why?" Daryl complained.
"Because you don't need them here." he replied, "They're distractions."
"What if we need to call the police?" Victor added.
"Then you can use mine."
They couldn't argue with that.
I personally didn't mind giving mine up. It wasn't too good of a phone anyway, just a cheap one with very limited features. I couldn't even go on YouTube. The others all had hand-me-downs from their parents, except for Shane who had a brand-new iPhone.
Upon arriving, we went to our cabin and unpacked. There were three bunk beds for us to sleep in. Shane and I took the first, Ethan and Victor took the second, and Daryl and Hunter took the third.
It was a pretty big campus, having somewhat of a country club-like appearance with a pretty wide variety of outdoor entertainment, including a mini golf course and gaga ball pit.
Once we were settled in, we headed to the main warehouse where gatherings typically took place. Compared to the loft at St. Philip's, this was a major upgrade, being several times bigger. Yet despite that it was no less packed. There had to be at least five hundred of us taking up every inch of space as we bounced around. Loud, upbeat music blared all throughout it, and colorful lights flashed in every direction. Some kids were even crowd surfing.
Here, the head minister was Marlon Evans, who came walking towards the stage with a microphone in his hand. Again, he looked rather young for this position. Or maybe a job such as that was easier to handle than I thought. Besides, I'm sure it wasn't the same process as becoming a priest.
"Okay!" he shouted "Okay!"
The room had grown so noisy that nobody was able to hear him, and even when we did, it still took a while for everyone to quiet down and listen.
"I'm glad to see you all here." he continued "It sounds like you're glad to be here too, that's for sure!"
Much like Kenneth did, he gave us a long, drawn-out introduction to the retreat, discussing everything that he hoped to teach us over the next two days. Admittedly, it seemed like an awful lot to pull off in such a short amount of time. But if there was anything I had learned at that point, it was to never question God's plan.
"I want this to be a real enjoyable experience."
Nothing we hadn't heard before.
"I also want it to be a real inspiring experience."
Neither was that.
"But most importantly, I want it to be a real life-changing experience. I want you to realize what your purpose is here just as much as I want you to have fun. Believe me, to do something like that is a lot harder than you may think, so be sure to take your time and go over it carefully."
Now I was hearing something new.
"I pray this weekend has a profound impact on you all, and that when it's over, each of your relationships with God have grown a little bit stronger too."
There was no way of knowing what was to come, but whatever it was, I for one was surely looking forward to finding out and was even more hopeful that the guys were as well. I wanted that more than anything.
"Welcome to Laurelville!" Marlon concluded.
We had been given a big goal, and an even bigger opportunity.
