Another Church Retreat is in the books for Carpenter Bridge Community Church. The leftover food got divvied out, the floors got swept and some of them mopped, the bathrooms and kitchen cleaned, and the mountain of supplies loaded and toted home. The Leech Hall at Mardella Springs Campground is quiet and, true to our policy, left in better order than we found it.
I remember that, years ago, when we first moved to Delaware there was a discussion in the pepper patch one evening as we worked on yet another missions pepper project. “Why,” queried one hot and bothered teenager, “do all the other churches go on retreat weekends, and our church never does?” It was the fall of the year, and “things” were being discussed at school about how much fun the area teens had on the yearly pilgrimages the other churches made to Denton Weslyan Camp. “Well,” said another fellow laborer, “Laws church doesn’t go on retreats. We raise peppers for missions.”
There was general laughter, but the question hung around. Laws Mennonite Church (now Carpenter Bridge Community Church) had raised peppers for years on land donated for such an endeavor, and it had been profitable. It was hard work from beginning to end, and Delaware climate isn’t exactly encouraging for eager participation. There was planting, weeding, and picking that involved manual, back breaking work. However, there was camaraderie in those pepper patches. Families would come together to help and children worked alongside of adults and there was intention and a sense of mission. However, those with the vision grew old, and there were years when it was hard to get help, and the market was not as good, and one year, quietly, the project was dropped. I do not know if that was the same year that we decided to have a church retreat or not, but it was certainly around that time that there was enough interest to decide to move forward with establishing our yearly Church Retreat Weekends.
The memories of those first years are awash with good memories for me. There were activities and crafts and games into the night, sweet cabins and laughter and conversation and good food. But the years passed, our numbers dwindled, and the prices at Denton Camp became cost prohibitive, and we looked for other venues. It has been a few years now that we have used Camp Mardela, a children’s camp run by the Church of the Brethren, also in Denton. The first years were a bit of an adjustment after the amenities of Denton Wesleyan Camp, a very large complex of cabins and gymnasiums and beautiful dining halls and meeting spaces. Camp Mardela has almost none of the updated features of the other camps. We’ve discovered, however, that a campground can be somewhat what you make it, and we have come to love the rustic, backwoods atmosphere at Camp Mardela. It is remote, back a very long lane, and has paths for hiking, kayaks for renting, water and more water for exploring, and it is child friendly. Bikes are welcome, and there is playground equipment, places to park campers, dorms and individual room and a huge dining hall complete with fireplace. And this year, as an added attraction, they have a wild turkey that has been hanging around since spring. The camp administration have named him Jim, and according to printed information available, he has become the camp mascot! He has not been aggressive, and he wanders around, much like he owns the place. His markings are unusual, but there hasn’t been given a reason why. Does anybody know?
The annual 2026 Church Retreat was this past weekend. A storm was battering the east coast, and there was repeated downpours, lots of wet children, two dogs, sand that got drug into the conference/dining room, and even a ten year old that fell into the river. It was cold outside, the fireplace did not draw properly so there was a smoky smell, and there would have been plenty of reasons for people to be out of sorts with each other. The children were noisy, the outside activities for Saturday had to be cancelled. Most of the playing was still done outside, in between the raindrops (or not!) but there were definitely very wet children. There were babies and children and some young people and parents and grandparents all together in that environment and it could have been unpleasant.
But it was anything but unpleasant. The atmosphere was tolerant and joyful and accepting. There were table games, lots of coloring, crafts for the women, and big bubbles for the children. There was even a Trivia Pursuit game on Saturday night The conversations were informative, encouraging and so much more. It was just plain one of the sweetest times we’ve had, and Certain Man and I came home with more good memories to hold in our hearts.
Please understand. I am not against pepper projects for missions, but the atmosphere in the pepper patch does not begin to provide the same kind of memories that warm our hearts that we find in being with our church family even when the weather is terrible and the children are loud and there is smoke in the room. We are so blessed.
If your church hasn’t done something like this, maybe you should consider a weekend camp gathering. Elect a good committee (ours was excellent this year and it does help to choose carefully) and start planning now for next year. I will admit that our church family usually enjoys being together on any given Sunday, but even if you find that it doesn’t come easily to your church, I promise you, it is worth a try. And may God bless the efforts.
#Myheartgivesgratefulpraise
