KOINONIA

Hello! My name is Josie Barr. I am a Freshman at East Lake High School. I take part in the Student Ministry here at Heritage. This past weekend I, along with several others here at Heritage, including the Worship Band, attended the Koinonia fall retreat at Warren Willis camp. 

The iconic cross on the lake.

What is Koinonia, you ask? /Koy-nohn-ee'-ah/ A Greek word meaning to be drawn together by intimate participation. It is often used to describe the idealized state of fellowship, community, prayer, and service. It is geared towards UMC middle and high school students across the state of Florida. There were over 430 kids, some coming from as far away as Miami! This year Koinonia's theme was “Community in Chaos”. We learned how to build a community to help us through the chaos of this world and how important it is to have that community. We can’t do it alone.

This retreat is held during the transition from summer to fall so you can still enjoy the many activities offered at Warren Willis. There was everything from wall climbing to canoeing to bracelet making. Truly something for everyone.

Silent Disco

Color war

Warren Willis is located in Fruitland, Florida on 47 acres of wooded land. It is roughly 2 hours away from Clearwater and sits on beautiful Lake Griffin. This UMC camp originated in the 1940’s after WWII. After Methodist movements and young adults traveled the state to put on programs for children and youth, it was “so successful that in 1944, the Methodist Conference in Florida formed a committee to look for a suitable property to build a permanent campus for youth ministry.” And so, the campsite was found.

This retreat was a great way to build a strong community of lasting friendships. Our worship team led the music this weekend and it was truly amazing!!   The speakers there really dive deep into the theme. As I mentioned, this year was “Community in Chaos”, and they really helped deepen your relationships with others and God. At this retreat, we picked from workshops within subjects or things you are interested in. Some of the ones from this year were Barbie and the Bible, Faith in Action, Exploring a Call, and so many more.

The workshops I took there were Barbie & the Bible, and Faith in action. Both workshops impacted me, and I got a lot from both.

From Barbie & the Bible, we were referring to the book of Genesis looking all the way back to the very beginning in the Garden of Eden. We talked about how Barbie land was almost like the Garden of Eden where there were no imperfections, no hate, and no standards. When Barbie and Adam and Eve used their freewill and took the other choice, we felt hate, and we felt those standards. What I took away from that workshop is God doesn’t give us those choices to deter us away from him, he gave us the freewill to grow closer to him. This class really emphasized that no one is perfect, including Barbie!

The last workshop I took was Faith in Action: moving beyond belief to make an impact. We were in a few different scriptures but the main scripture we looked at was Nehemiah 5. It talks about the economic oppression the Jews were facing at the time, and much more. But the overview of it all was that Nehemiah and many others were helping the Jews that had trouble keeping up with paying the nobles and officials at the time. In the class we talked about how we can show people in our community faithfulness, mercy, and justice. And what stuck out to me is Nehemiah used those three things to show how others, like the nobles and officials, how to be there for the people in the community instead of putting them down and by doing so showing them Gods faithfulness, mercy, and justice and with that how we can succeed.

Overall, this camp is such a great experience and I’m already looking forward to next year!!