Check these Pages out!!
Echelon5's Page
Bug's Echelon Page
Kirsten's Page
First Unofficial Echelon Ministries Page
Ok..Third time's a charm..at least as far as Echelon's concerned!! =)
Let's just say that I was REALLY Looking forward to this retreat for SEVEN LONG MONTHS!! I was sooo excited on the way up to the Dells...I really wanted to see Echelon again!! I also learned that Lowell and Todd were now FULL time with Echelon.. Kirsten and I hadn't seen Lowell & Todd in over TWENTY Months!!!
FRIDAY:When we got there, we registered, went through the rules, and then went to games and mixers. Kirst and I looked around as we went, but didn't see Echelon. =( When we were in the middle of Games & Mixers, and in walked... Todd and Lowell!!! Lowell joined our group, we were split up by birthday's..and we started a game where we kicked different things around our circle. It was fun, but when the stuff got to Lowell, he'd KICK it!! The person across the circle (sometimes me!) had to duck, or get hit in the face...it wasn't too bad if it was string, but the rubber ball!!! OUCH!!!
After the games, Kirsten and I went over to Lowell and said HI... we asked him if he remembered us... He thought for a minute and said "Yeah...Madison right?? Hey Erin, nice to see you!!" With that we hugged!! We asked where Lloyd and John were and he didn't know.. =( Then we went and said HI to Todd. He gave us hugs and said "Hey Kirsten." "Hey Erin" He remembered us too!! He also didn't know where Lloyd or John were. =(
We went back to the room for about 30 minutes, while the room got set up. We didn't do much, so we wandered around the hotel. We found the pool, and played a few games in the arcade. The we went to the assembly. We go there early enough to get front row seats on Todd's side of the stage. Then we saw John walk in. We said HI as he headed for the stage, and he said HI back. The all four of them were on stage...we never saw Lloyd come in, but there he was on stage! Then they started singing!! It was so great! They did songs from "Some Assembly", and some "joiner" songs. It was fun cause on one song you go "knee-knee, clap-clap, right-right, left-left, knee-knee, clap-clap, together-crossover"..you know that song I hope! Well Lloyd was teaching the song to everyone, but he was going slow, and repeated the first part, which threw off me and Kirsten who knew the song and were going Super-fast already! We pointed it out, and Lloyd said "I know... I'm getting to that part OK?!?!" He was smilling at us when he said it, so we knew he wasn't serious. During the concert, Lowell and Kirsten were making faces at each other. I have no clue why..ask Kirsten!!
When it was over, I was talking with Lowell and Todd. I noticed Kirsten in the back talking with Lloyd, so I gave Todd and Lowell hugs, and went to the back. My brother took a picture of Lloyd giving Kirsten a hug...why?? ask him.. I went up to Lloyd, said HI, and he turnned around and gave me a HUGE hug!! He said "long time no see! How've you been?" I said fine, and asked how he was..it was neat..my brother took a pic when Lloyd hugged me..again, ask him why! Then I intorduced my brother to Lloyd. They hugged...Kirsten and I took pictures..why I really do NOT know?!?!? =) After that we said good-night to Echelon and went to our room.
We talked with our room mate and our youth leader for a few hours. We talked about highlights of the day, and talked about how we felt about our church.
SATURDAY:When we were all up, we went to assembly. We sat in the front, this time in front of Lloyd. They did this song called "the Morning Song". It's kinda corney, but fun. It actually does help you wake up!! We also listened to the speaker... kinda..=) Then we signed up for electives... we went to Resound(a group I'll have a link about later), and Echelon's session--twice. We were only going to go once, but we couldn't find the room for this other session, so we just stayed at the Echelon one.. They do this discussion where you ask them a question and they try to answer it and have open discussion. It was fun. There were obviously some stupid questions, but there were also some GREAT disicussion questions!! After the first one was done, we went through some that didn't get picked out. Some were really good! Others were dumb. We also asked Echelon to sit with us at lunch, and they said sure! After the second discussion, we went to lunch. We talked about lots of stuff..school, church, and just stuff.. We also learned that Echelon would be at the Youth Encounter Congress in Minneapolis in December. I had wanted to go, and now I REALLY wanted to!! =)
Add more later...tired of typing!!!
