God placed an idea into one faithful servant about Edna First UMC hosting our own Mid-Winter retreat around 2018. We have youth active in athletics. With Friday night basketball games, especially away games, it would be too late when they returned to Edna. The families drove four hours before Mid-Winter church staff received the youth members for the retreat. As an experiment, we hosted our first Mid-Winter retreat in January 2019 with God’s help and the help of the congregation. We invited youth from the community and nearby towns to participate. We have had approximately 30 youth register each year.

Brackenridge Park is 12 minutes south of Edna. It includes a historic church to worship, cabins to sleep in, facilities to cook and eat, as well as gathering spaces. It has plenty of space to run around, basketball and volleyball courts, space for "capture the flag" or scavenger hunts, and more. The Brackenridge Park staff have been great over the years.

The church was able to keep the registration fee low-cost by hosting nearby; donating snacks; members providing meals; grants from Formosa Plastics Religious Trust; and church members donating time, talent, and treasure (prayer, plan, preparation, t-shirt design, set up, decorate, registration, worship prep & practice, small group leaders, games leader, cook, clean up, undecorate, pack up, lay speaker to preach on Sunday so the pastor could be at Mid-Winter, etc.). Brackenridge Park is far enough away to feel like we are away making it easier to connect with God, and close enough to send someone to retrieve items from the church campus or purchase items from H-E-B in town.

We have been blessed for God to be at work through our labor, discipline, and generosity that youth and adults have grown closer to God. Dr. Tanya Campen asked me to write a summary about this experience these last four years that it may inspire or encourage other churches to dream, follow through on God’s prompting, and increase awareness of possibilities that may be closer than you realize.

Grace & Peace,

Rev. Kelli Williamson

First UMC Edna