For 40 hours, 489 students and their leaders descended upon Muskoka Woods. At times, there was calm. At times, it felt like chaos. Even the weather got into the action with staying mostly clear on Saturday then white-out conditions on Sunday.

What intrigued me with this retreat was, in spite of many glitches (from administrative miscues to property issues to a lost student who was found very quickly to our speaker having a fever), the sense of all the campers grew to be very positive. It seemed as though the Holy Spirit kept moving through barriers so that students would see Jesus.

Jeff Brodie spoke on how God’s story intersects with our own. Indeed, many students were wrestling with God on how they want to align their story with God’s. This Avalanche weekend demonstrated that by not allowing the other elements dominate the weekend, but seeing how God was writing the story of the last 3 days and bringing ourselves to be part of it.

There are lots of pictures from churches on Facebook as well as our 2014 Avalanche video on YouTube. There were many memories made and still a lot more of the story to be written.