Winterfest Packing and Travel Info

Oh Yay! You’re Going to Winterfest!

Yeah, your 2025 is about to get really good.

Winterfest starts this Friday! Woohoo! We are so excited you are able to go to the awesomeness of Winterfest this year. It’s going to be a great weekend. We hope you’ll be praying between now and Friday for God to open our hearts and help us to be open to what He wants us to see this weekend. At the heart of this weekend is growing closer to God and following Him more faithfully. Even with the fun and such, the spiritual part about Winterfest is the best part about this weekend. Hope you’re excited.

This webpage contains travel details and packing information. There is quite a bit of info here, so make sure you read everything carefully.

Departure on Friday:

Instead of leaving from different locations, we would like to try to meet at the building at 4:25

This means you'll need to be able to get to our church building after school. There may be someone else from your school who is coming...so if you'd like to try to carpool with someone or catch a ride with someone else, that might work. Let us know if we can help with this.

Return on Sunday:

We plan to return sometime around 2:00-2:30pm on Sunday. We will update parents via email with the exact time once we leave Waco and head toward College Station.

Things to bring:

Clothing for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Dress/church clothes are not needed for Sunday.
Clothes/pajamas to sleep in on Friday and Saturday
Toiletries including soap and shampoo
Towel and washcloth
Shower shoes or flip flops
Closed toed shoes for a service project
Sleeping bag and pillow. We will be sleeping
at a church, so it’s best to bring more than a
sheet and a pillow. You’re welcome to bring
a small foam mattress or cot or blow up
mattress if you want.
Money for two fast-food meals (supper Sat & lunch Sun)
Cards, games, etc. For the bus ride to/from
Winterfest.
A coat
A camera (we will not have much access to
phones on this trip)
A flashlight (if u wake up in the middle of the night and need to find the restroom)
An open and humble heart
A good attitude

Do not bring the following:

Earbuds/earphones, tablets, portable gaming system or any other kind of electronics except for a camera.
Anything intended to play a joke on anyone or anything illegal.
Anything you should not have, including any kind of tobacco, vaping or alcohol products
A bad attitude
Turtle shells
Porcupine quills
Alligator teeth or feet

Cell phone information:

Sometime on Friday, we will have envelopes for students to put their phones in. If you need your phone at any time to call your parents, you are welcome to use it. Otherwise, we’ll keep the phones put away for the weekend. As always, your parents can get in touch with you by calling Monty or Heather’s phone…and you are welcome to use Monty or Heather’s phone at any time to call them. We are not trying to keep you from talking to your parents, but we are trying to help all of us to be “present” with the people around us and not on social media or other apps throughout the weekend. Also – in addition to the info above – please do not bring a second phone so that you have one to turn in and one to keep with you.

A few things worthy of noting:

Except for two fast-food meals, all of your meals are furnished during Winterfest.
There are usually a few things for sale at Winterfest. If you’d like to bring money for this, please feel free to do so.
You’re welcome to bring snacks (but the bus stays CLEAN. Very CLEAN.)

There are a lot of different groups who come to Winterfest, and our group will stay together throughout the weekend. At all times during the Winterfest conference, we will sit together as a group. If you have friends from other churches, they are more than welcome to sit with our group.
The other day I got to go to an origami workshop. There were some famous people there. One of the guys at the table next to me was Dwayne Johnson. After we had been there around 30 minutes, I needed something to cut a piece of paper. So I borrowed Dwayne's. Then, unfortunately I lost them. Turns out, I lost the Rock's Paper Scissors.
If you have any food allergies we do not already know of, please let us know.

Okay, that’s a lot of info. If you read all of this and have a question, let us know. Again, we are so glad you are going to Winterfest. We’re excited about what God is going to do in each of us throughout the weekend. We ask for your prayers before, during, and after this trip.

A&M Youth