HEYYYYY!!! I'M BACK FROM RETREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, hello people..... I be back, the glorious reprise of the reprise. Retreat has exhausted me XD, but that is not gonna stop me from sharing what I have learned or my thoughts with you guys.
This will be in five parts, technically one for each session we had. I will also describe what happened in that day. Since one of the days had two sessions, only one post on that day will have a description of what happened.
There will be links once all the posts are out, so one can read seamlessly between the days.
Alright! Lezz gooo!!!
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Day 1, 16th May Tuesday
Session - Sit pt.1
So, everything was going fine on the bus actually until we stopped about 30 minutes away from school to fix one of the windshield wipers. I don't know what was wrong with it, but it happened and we sat on couches in one of the ONroute stations and chilled for about 30 minutes.
We were already running late.
Then about another hour into driving, there was a huge bang and the back of the bus lifted off of the ground a little bit. Everyone was awake immediately, there was no need to say what had happened, the tire had literally exploded.
Slowly, we chugged like a train to the nearest plaza. There was a McDonald's there, as well as a dog park. We were stuck at the plaza for 5 hours. But, eventually, by the grace of God, we were on the road again soon,
My friends took pictures of the tire, it was shredded to shriveled plastic spaghetti strands, and there were bunches of torn wire coming out of it too.
It could have been much worse, but everyone was alive, and everything was safe(by that I mean our luggage).
The other vehicle had already arrived at camp three hours ago.
We got to Camp Mini Yo We just in time for dinner, which was 5:30.
So, now onto the session.
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The passage for this session is Ephesians 1. In fact, the whole retreat was based on the book of Ephesians.
This is part one of "Sit".
To sit is to know our position in Christ. This quote from the soccer coach Vince Lombardi explains it a little bit, "Know your position. Learn to do it right. Do it with all your might."
Our speaker gave many examples, one of which was to mix up the positions of our worship team. Such as, getting the pianist to play the drums, the bassist to sing, and the guitarist to play the piano. It wouldn't work out at all! This also applies to any aspect of daily life, like sports teams or group projects, one does not simply walk into Mordor and not be Frodo.
We must therefore also know our position in church, and ultimately in God. If we switch up the positions mentioned above, then there will obviously be consequences. Those consequences could be the worship breaking down into a fight between the team, or the sports team losing points because no one is cooperating. However, if we mix up our place in Christ, then the consequences will be much much more astronomical than just someone getting angry because someone else was doing their part.
The consequence is life and death.
And this is our position in christ:
Christ is above us, we are always under him, we are subject to him, but we are also protected by him. We are children of God!
We also had some small group questions, but I didn't really fill it in. I just listened to other people's opinions and sharing. I will try and remember what I said, you may also try to answer the following in the comments if you want!
1.How would you describe your position/role in your family? In your group of friends? At school?
I believe I answered my position in regards to my role in the family. I may have two homes, but in every one of them I have become the IT person, I naturally become the one to fix internet problems, and answer questions to smartphone problems or features. So yeah, that's my position!
2. If someone asked you to count your blessings how would you do that? What would be on your list? What would be on top?
I don't think I answered every single question here, but I do kinda remember the collective answer of my small group. We didn't get to "how to count your blessings", but we did answer the other ones. The things on our list of blessings would be getting to Camp Mini Yo We safe and without anymore technical difficulties after the tire, being able to grow up in a christian family and being able to attend PCA. My top blessing was being able to come to Canada, because there could have always been that 50% chance that my parents would have decided that planning everything was too much and they would just give up and let me stay in HK. I'm glad and sad that they did that... but that is another tale for another time. :D
3. Reflect on your position in Christ. Now reflect on the prepositions of Ephesians 1. Do they make you feel secure?
Now, if you don't know what prepositions are, then, my friend, you were like me. But prepositions are words that describe how something is, like "in" or "with" or "without". Examples of prepositions in regards to making one feel secure would be " In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will..." or " In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit...". And our group concluded that we could feel absolutely secure in the promises of God, just by looking at the way Paul used the prepostitions!
So this concludes the first day of the retreat. I will most like get through three posts because it's long weekend the coming week, the last two might have a bit of a gap between them. But I will try and write consistently until I get through all of the days.
So I hope you guys enjoyed reading my thoughts, or my reflections. You are more than welcome to respond in the comments!
Stay tuned!
and BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
