We believe the
First Annual Pine Cove Mentor/Mentee retreat might have been the best event
that Mercy Street has ever done! This
was a sweet 24 hour time frame of connecting and building relationships. All activities were very intentional - from
the get to know you questions for the drive down to Pine Cove, to meal times
together, to the times of worship.
Cabins were
assigned with 5 mentors and 5 mentees, and at lunch, those same 10 people would
sit together and get to know each other better! This was a great opportunity
for mentees to make new friends and for mentors to get to connect and make friends
with other mentors. This always helps in
the journey to have someone else who understands what you’re going through in
the trenches and in the good times.
Free time is
always the highlight of being at Pine Cove, and we had a whole 3 hours! Horseback
riding, basketball, barn swing, canoe riding at sunset - you name it, we did
it. There was even a time for mentors and mentees to conquer fear side-by-side
on the double zip line! We finished the
afternoon with a team activity: the whole cabin had to work together to come up
with a skit to perform using the random props that were left in a bag in their
cabin. Later, everyone got dressed in
camouflage and put war paint on their faces for the theme night. The game took place in the woods and the
mentees worked towards a goal to find certain places the mentors tried to stop
them.
One mentor, in
particular, felt like he had done a poor job mentoring lately and really wanted
to use this retreat as a springboard to a deeper relationship. The Lord was
gracious to answer that prayer and he left the retreat feeling energized and
ready to tackle the rest of the year with his mentee!
The
opportunity to be with your mentee for 24 hours allows mentors to see what
their mentees are like out of their comfort zone, not too cool for school all
the time, but to hear them really share their hearts.
We had an
awesome time of worship Saturday night where Darnell spoke about cultural
differences and the gospel followed by a breakout time with reflection
questions. It was neat to see mentors and mentees all over the room asking
questions and sharing. One of the last
questions was for the mentee to make up their own question, and we’ve heard
from several mentors that there were some good ones asked like, “Why did Jesus
have to die?”, or “How do you tell someone about Jesus?” Good spiritual conversations
were had that might not have taken place otherwise. Later that night we had a camp fire where we
roasted marshmallows and had hot chocolate with chocolate chip cookies.
Sunday
morning we had a mentor enrichment, followed by a sweet time of worship where Darnell
encouraged the mentees that they could be used by God right now while they are young. He used the analogy of a small
acorn growing up to be a huge oak tree. We
then had Timothy, an alumni mentee, challenge the mentees to take advantage of
their mentors because there are lots of kids who don’t have mentors. Mentors are there to be your friend, not like
another adult that tells you what to do all the time, but truly a friend that’s
going to help you through life and guide you.
At the end everyone
was given a small journal with these instructions: the mentor is to write a
prayer for their mentee and the mentee is to write a prayer for their mentor.
After the prayers were written, they switched and got to keep those journals as
a sweet keepsake for each to have for years to come, reminding them of the ways
the other is praying for them. We also wrote prayers for West Dallas on poster
boards and it was moving to see prayers about protection and safety for West
Dallas.
Overall it
was just an incredible event on all different levels! We plan to keep this
tradition going, so please make plans to come next year!
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