Praying to Thrive!

“God this is yours…. Let me not be consumed by the physical expectations of the world, but by the path you have set for my life.” The prayer of a winter teen retreat student left on our Thrive tree.

Over the years the SpringHill team has worked to create a life transforming winter retreat experiences that’s attended by 1000’s of teenage students each season…

We have a tubing and snowboarding hill, indoor pool, horses as well as great bands and speakers. But one part of the experience many students continue to say is most impactful is our prayer labyrinth.

In the prayer labyrinth students spend time in a series of rooms or “stations” where they’re asked to reflect on Scripture while in the presence of a visual display that reflects a particular focus under the umbrella of our retreat theme “Thrive”.

Each focus revolves around questions about who we are, who is God, what should our relationship with others look like and what should our relationship with Christ need to be like? Our goal is that these reflections will help each student live a life that is growing and thriving.

The last station allows students to write out a prayer about something that is hindering them from thriving and hang it on the “thrive” tree. By the end of the weekend the tree is full of multi color tags with 100’s of prayers.

The tree is a powerful symbol of 1000’s of teenagers reaching out to Christ with their challenges, hopes and dreams.

Then at the end of the weekend our team collects the prayers and sets them out in our office allowing our staff the privilege of praying for and with all these students throughout the week.

It is a humbling experience but one I’m thankful we’ve been entrusted with.

So, if you would, please take a moment and pray for a teenager you know, asking Christ to remove anything that maybe getting in the way of them having a thriving life. The “thrive” tree is full and the opportunity is great.