Blown away! Overwhelmed! Excited! I am honestly at a loss for words to describe what God did at Snowshoe during our season ending retreat. 86 Jesus-loving, snow-loving crazies embarked on the mountain for what I believe was a life changing event. A bunch of faces we had seen before showed up and a pile of brand new ones.
Pete and Val Monico from SFC Snowshoe were our hosts, and we ended up taking over eight cabins on the mountain. I can’t say thank you enough for their hearts and desire to serve. At first I was worried that spacing people out across the cabins would decrease the time we had for fellowship, but I quickly realized that everyone just moved between the cabins anyhow. Housing and distance weren’t going to stop relationships from forming! Every house I stepped into was bustling with noise. Line dancing, kids playing on the drums, card games, pool, splashing in the hot tub. Conversations flowed like we had all known each other forever.
A mix of a weekend.
We got snow, we got wind, we got food, we had baptisms, and we had Jesus!
We had people from all over the Mid-Atlantic region come along, from West Virginia, New Hampshire, Missouri, Pennsylvania and even from New York! There was a common theme of people being spurred on to share the love of Jesus with people in their home town. This was Donna Jones’ first SFC event, and she said, “I love finding ways to enjoy what I am passionate about and simultaneously serve God. SFC is just another way I could use snowboarding to bring glory to God by sharing His love on the hill. And now I can do this with other believers and not just as a lone person anymore.”
Paul Brady, a local pastor in Snowshoe said, “All involved were on fire for Christ. Just being around these people gets you fired up and ready to go back into the world to shine the light of Christ as far as we can. There was even a baptism where two young ladies from Big Springs were baptized!”
I am truly blown away, and I can’t wait to see where God takes this movement on the mountain!
– Josh Knipple, Mid-Atlantic Regional Director from Johnstown, PA