Embarking

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The theme for the youth program at our church this year is, 

"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind...." 

Early in the year, as a presidency, we discussed how we could weave this theme into our activities for the year.   We decided that a greater emphasis on service was one of the obvious things we could do, and as such we've engaged in a variety of service projects through the year.  Another idea we had, though,  was that we could  capitalize on the word "EMBARK" and  go on an embarking adventure!  

So on September 1st, the young women of our ward met together to EMBARK on a sailing trip together.  

One of my YW counselors has family that owns a home right on the Chesapeake Bay, which they were kind enough to let us use as a home base for two days.  

We spent two whole days in...

And on the water!  

It was a time when a lot of friendships were made...

and deepened.   

It was a great thing to spend time together as a ward...

since our stake does level based YW camp, which means we actually spend very little time together at camp.  

It was a beautiful and serene setting...

and I think the girls enjoyed unplugging a little right before school started again.  

They even got to do some crabbing...

which meant they also got to have a delicious crab lunch! 

We played games...

...went hiking...

and in general had a marvelous time together.  

Of course, it wasn't all fun and games.    We also had a great fireside and talked about the beauty of embarking on service in our lives.   

It was such a good experience to spend that unplugged time together that we hope to repeat it in future years.

I've been in this calling for three years now and oh how I've grown to love these girls! 

Ignore the typos and notes to myself, but here's a link to a sacrament meeting talk I recently gave about the young women.   They really are pretty amazing!  

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