Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge

Friday afternoon, I left our church headed to Gatlinburg, TN with my co-Sunday School teacher Stacie and six of our 9th grade girls. I had been anxious about it all week (I'm more so a follower than a leader and this was the first trip of which I was in charge), but pulling out of the parking lot, I began getting really excited. Gatlinburg is one of my favorite places especially when staying in a cabin which we were. Matthew and I feel called to work with teenagers, but they are a tricky bunch. You don't want to preach all the time nor be too tolerant. You can't be their best friend, but you do want to build relationships so they will come to you with problems. I was just hoping that we would all have a fun, relaxing weekend in which we might get to know each other better and hopefully grow stronger spiritually.

Friday night, we started the weekend at an outlet mall in Pigeon Forge, then hit Walmart for groceries and finally made it to our cabin at 10:15pm. The cabin was located in a resort community but at the end of a windy road through the woods. I had been there before but it was a little nervewracking since there were only us girls on this trip. Once we got inside our cabin, we all felt much more comfortable and finally at home! The hot tub was calling our name. We all stayed up until 2:00am. Saturday morning came and I got out of bed at 9:30am. I was excited to head into Gatlinburg today. However, we didn't leave the cabin until 1:30pm!! I had literal cabin fever. These girls are SO busy during the week that they just took their time getting ready. It worked out fine as we still had plenty of time in Gatlinburg, headed back to the outlet mall late in the afternoon and made it to the Black Bear Jamboree by 7:15pm. Our dinner show lasted from 8:00-9:45pm. It was my second time there and all the girls seemed to enjoy it. Back in the cabin, we had Sunday School at 10:30pm. I taught our lesson about holding your Christian friends accountable when we see them sinning. This can apply to all of us, but a few of the girls had shared specific examples with me to which this will apply. Even if I had the knowledge I have now, I would not want to be back in high school today. It's a hard, hard world.

Anyway, after the hot tub broke, I told them all to be in bed by 1:00am as we had to be out of the cabin headed to breakfast by 10:00am the next morning. Sunday came, we cleaned up the cabin and drove up the road to the Applefarm Restaurant for breakfast. It was great and a nice way to finish our weekend. Back home by 3:30pm. Thank you Lord for our safety.