Before Your Retreat
A retreat is a time to escape from everyday life and spend time in fellowship with the Lord. Here are some tips to help you as you prepare for your retreat at Whispering Winds.
1. Plan with a purpose
Prayer is an important part of every retreat. Leading up to the retreat, encourage the students and parish to pray for the event and God’s wishes for its outcome. Pray for guidance, direction, and purpose, to fulfill the true potential for the retreat.
2. Publicize your event
Making sure that the event information is readily available to your students – and especially the parents – can help ensure that your retreat is supported by a firm foundation of love and prayer from your community. Having multiple sources where parents can access information about the retreat can help both students and parents feel more comfortable about the retreat.
3. Communicate with parents and students
Be sure to communicate all appropriate deadlines with parents and students, including registration and waivers. Don’t forget to collect special diet information!
4. Communicate policies
Make sure that parents and students have a strong understanding of your rules and policies ahead of time to avoid having to send a student home.
5. Partner with parents
Encourage parents to pray for their children throughout the retreat, to reinforce the spirit of the event and the mission of the Holy Spirit for your retreat.
6. Use the retreat theme
If you have a retreat theme, advertise it and use it as a tool to get students excited about the retreat. Hint about fun activities that you may have planned, and get students to look forward to the event.
7. Prepare a schedule
Have a schedule prepared for your retreat, including times for activities, fellowship, worship, bathroom breaks, meal periods (remember that Whispering Winds has set meal times!), any speakers you may have, and lights out.
8. Provide a packing list
Providing your students with a packing list ahead of time will allow them to plan appropriately and help to make the retreat a stress-free event for all involved. Here’s a helpful list for starters.
9. Visit the camp
If you are able to do so, we strongly suggest taking a tour of our camp and seeing our facilities in person. Please send us an email at office@whisperingwinds.org with your organizations name, main point of contact name, and phone number. Someone from our Welcome Center will be in contact with you shortly to discuss date and time options that work best for both of you.
10. Submit your contract and deposit
Your contract and deposit for the event must be submitted to the Whispering Winds office within 30 days of when you received it.
11. Submit your insurance verification
Please provide us with a verification of insurance no later than 5 business days prior to your event.
12. Youth Group Leader Waiver
The MAIN group leader must initial each item and return it via email/fax ASAP.
13. Submit your online waivers
Make sure that all adults (18+) attending the retreat fill one out as soon as possible. These are required to be submitted before the event.
14. Submit final retreat information
Two weeks prior to your arrival, our Guest Services department will send you a “Pre-Arrival Checklist.” Please submit all necessary information no later than 5 business days before your retreat to ensure that our camp is fully prepared to host your event.
15. Day of retreat
Please stop by our Welcome Center when you arrive and have a printed, up-to-date roster on hand to provide to the Welcome Center staff.
Lastly, leave all your worries behind, come with an open heart, and be ready for an amazing retreat at Whispering Winds!
After Your Retreat
The retreat is over. Now what? You planned a retreat to make a lasting impact on the lives of students. Help ensure that life back home doesn’t completely erase what they learned at camp. Keep the momentum going in your group to grow, expand, and propel your ministry!
Schedule a debrief or share time. Encourage students to share at Mass or your next teen night what they got out of the retreat. Some questions you can use:
- What was the best part of this event?
- Which speaker, testimonial, or breakout session was the best and why?
- What is your big takeaway from this event?
- What decisions or commitments did you make while you were here?
- What changes to your life do you plan to make now that you’re back?
- How can we help you?
Plan a retreat reunion night
Include everyone who went to camp and those who wished they could go for a fun, high-energy night where you continue the retreat feel and use the experience at camp to create more momentum. Invite parents and families to join in. Play games, sing some of the worship songs, have a slideshow or video with photos from the retreat or simply hang out and remember the experience. Alternatively, small group leaders can get the students that were in their group back together for a fun hangout or mini-retreat to build on the spirituality they experienced on the mountain.
Communicate with personal calls or notes
Following up with a personal call or note can be very meaningful to a student. Several days of leader-student interaction, spirituality, and fun don’t have to stop when everyone gets back. If the relationship continues, it shows the student that it was not merely an obligation for their leader to be at camp. Following up after a retreat is a great way to show students they are loved and draw them to be more involved in the ministry.
Partner with parents
This is essential to any student ministry, regardless of a retreat, as parents and other trusted adults are the primary catechists. You can never communicate enough with parents or guardians when it revolves around their kids. Share with the parents the purpose of the retreat and the strategic plan to follow up after everyone is back from camp. Try working out a plan with parents to do the follow-up with their own kids if possible. This is a great way a teen can grow in their faith and grow closer to their parents as well.
Create spiritual accountability partners
Partner either an adult to check in with them or a more mature teen leader – this helps both teens in their walk with Christ. Help them to set and stick with retreat goals going forward.
Offer resources
Now is a good time to offer books, pamphlets, devotionals, or other material that can reinforce the message they received during their retreat. Encourage them to journal as a way to help process what the Lord put in their hearts at camp.
Build on the retreat theme
Many retreats have a theme that is focused on at camp. Consider “piggy-backing” on that theme in your general programming at church. The seamless transition from the biblical theme helps reinforce the importance of the retreat experience.
Plan a fundraiser
While the teens are still on a “camp high,” have them organize a fundraiser to help with fees for the next retreat.
External links: The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego | Dynamic Catholic | Catholic Answers | The Word Among Us