Sunday, May 27, 2018
Freedom pt.2
WELCOME BACK TO FREEDOM!
Hey everyone, sorry this took so long, time to dive into another day at the retreat! You ready? Let's go!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We rose early, it was going to be a warm day, albeit the rather windy and chilly morning. We had waffles with homemade whipped cream, blueberry compote, and mixed berry compote. It was great. We also had a scoop of oatmeal for starters.
Then we had an activity. We wanted to go canoeing again, but the windy morning discouraged me and my friend, so we went for another round of archery instead.
There was a rabbit basking in the sun and nibbling dew sweetened grass, I almost killed it, it was so used to humans that it didn't even budge. We had to physically chase it off the range. Fantastic.
Lunch was a Make it yourself wrap thingy, we had a lot of wraps on the retreat. Once again, there was a veggie platter with dip waiting for us. Dessert was brownies baked in the form of cupcakes. No icing though. The top part of the brownie was really good, as it should be.
Then we went canoeing, well, we tried to at least, there were so many people that they had to cut out those who had done canoeing once in the past days. That included me. So we went to their new triple zipline. It was fun, not very fast, but it did feel like I was flying. I was one of the few that wasn't scared of heights.
We also took some pictures during free time, here they are:
Dinner was chicken burgers and cupcakes for dessert. I wasn't a big fan of the cupcakes, I was too full to eat one anyway.
Today is the day where there were two sessions, the first of which is going to be in this post, the second will be in another.
The session here is one after lunch...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Session #2 Freedom from what?
(Luke 18:13-30) - The conversation with a young rich ruler
Our speaker opened us up with a story of how some Asian countries trap monkeys. The contraption consists of a hole that is wide enough for the monkey's hand to go in, but there are some food items inside the trap that monkeys love very much. Once the monkey grabs the food, its hand is locked in a fisted position, which is too big to fit through the hole again. All the monkey has to do to be free again is to let go of the food it's holding on to.
Is this comparable to our lives? Being constricted or trapped because we can't let go of some things?
Then we dove into the scripture. The passage tells of a rich young ruler confronting Jesus about how he should live a holy and right life. Jesus asks him what he is doing righteously right now, and the rich ruler answers with a few of the commandments from the old testament.
Jesus does not say anything to oppose that, instead, he agrees with the young ruler, only to add one more commandment on top - give your riches to the poor and needy.
The young ruler immediately became very sorrowful, because he is still holding onto his wealth and possessions. Even though the ruler is a good person, he still cannot do what Jesus asks him to.
Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
With the promise of eternal life and salvation, will you still hold on to something more than you would hold on to Jesus?
Obviously, it is easier said than done, even now, I still hold on to earthly things more than I would like to hold on to Jesus. It is definitely challenging to let go of things that we love.
But Jesus did say, "What is impossible with man is possible with God."
Jesus is always offering us help, and sometimes we need to rely on that steady hand, hang on to that help. Don't just let go of the worldly things, let go so you can hold on to Jesus instead.
Doesn't that sound like freedom? Freedom is letting go and holding onto God's waiting, loving hand, His great hand is an anchor so that we can safely be free of our bondage and let go without fear.
God's love is never forcing, in fact, in the passage, Jesus was inviting the young ruler to join him in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus never forced the rich person to do anything. God's love never forces, His invitation is love.
Are you ready to let go of your earthly possessions and go hold onto Jesus?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Small group question!!!
1. Where do I see myself in the rich young ruler, but don't want to see myself in him anymore?
We went through a couple of things, including a life of comfort, materialism, and spiritual pride. I personally said spiritual pride.
Life of comfort: It's easy to live a life of comfort, especially in Canda where resources are plenty. But sometimes it makes us too comfortable, and we are unwilling to step out of this comfort zone to help serve others.
Materialism: Similar stuff, we are able to get many things, especially things that we want. We often become selfish and neglect the needs of others because of this.
Spiritual Pride: Something that I sometimes struggle with, it is a kind of sin that really affects how you serve, we always think that we can rely on ourselves and forget that we should rely on God when we serve. The result by man alone often isn't the greatest, I can say that this is true because I lead worship. God is so important in how you serve.
2. What is one thing that I want to let go of and hold onto God instead of during the retreat?
We didn't get to this one, but answer in the comments, or add this to your devotion journals or something. It's a nice question to reflect on.
Self-reflection!!
What do I want freedom from today?
Personally, I want to be free from my social anxiety disorder, which is mild but I still get panic attacks sometimes. What are your shackles?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So that does it for this day of retreat, next post will be pure session, no diary entry. So yeah.
Stay tuned and
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey everyone, sorry this took so long, time to dive into another day at the retreat! You ready? Let's go!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We rose early, it was going to be a warm day, albeit the rather windy and chilly morning. We had waffles with homemade whipped cream, blueberry compote, and mixed berry compote. It was great. We also had a scoop of oatmeal for starters.
Then we had an activity. We wanted to go canoeing again, but the windy morning discouraged me and my friend, so we went for another round of archery instead.
There was a rabbit basking in the sun and nibbling dew sweetened grass, I almost killed it, it was so used to humans that it didn't even budge. We had to physically chase it off the range. Fantastic.
Lunch was a Make it yourself wrap thingy, we had a lot of wraps on the retreat. Once again, there was a veggie platter with dip waiting for us. Dessert was brownies baked in the form of cupcakes. No icing though. The top part of the brownie was really good, as it should be.
Then we went canoeing, well, we tried to at least, there were so many people that they had to cut out those who had done canoeing once in the past days. That included me. So we went to their new triple zipline. It was fun, not very fast, but it did feel like I was flying. I was one of the few that wasn't scared of heights.
We also took some pictures during free time, here they are:
Dinner was chicken burgers and cupcakes for dessert. I wasn't a big fan of the cupcakes, I was too full to eat one anyway.
Today is the day where there were two sessions, the first of which is going to be in this post, the second will be in another.
The session here is one after lunch...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Session #2 Freedom from what?
(Luke 18:13-30) - The conversation with a young rich ruler
Our speaker opened us up with a story of how some Asian countries trap monkeys. The contraption consists of a hole that is wide enough for the monkey's hand to go in, but there are some food items inside the trap that monkeys love very much. Once the monkey grabs the food, its hand is locked in a fisted position, which is too big to fit through the hole again. All the monkey has to do to be free again is to let go of the food it's holding on to.
Is this comparable to our lives? Being constricted or trapped because we can't let go of some things?
Then we dove into the scripture. The passage tells of a rich young ruler confronting Jesus about how he should live a holy and right life. Jesus asks him what he is doing righteously right now, and the rich ruler answers with a few of the commandments from the old testament.
Jesus does not say anything to oppose that, instead, he agrees with the young ruler, only to add one more commandment on top - give your riches to the poor and needy.
The young ruler immediately became very sorrowful, because he is still holding onto his wealth and possessions. Even though the ruler is a good person, he still cannot do what Jesus asks him to.
Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
With the promise of eternal life and salvation, will you still hold on to something more than you would hold on to Jesus?
Obviously, it is easier said than done, even now, I still hold on to earthly things more than I would like to hold on to Jesus. It is definitely challenging to let go of things that we love.
But Jesus did say, "What is impossible with man is possible with God."
Jesus is always offering us help, and sometimes we need to rely on that steady hand, hang on to that help. Don't just let go of the worldly things, let go so you can hold on to Jesus instead.
Doesn't that sound like freedom? Freedom is letting go and holding onto God's waiting, loving hand, His great hand is an anchor so that we can safely be free of our bondage and let go without fear.
God's love is never forcing, in fact, in the passage, Jesus was inviting the young ruler to join him in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus never forced the rich person to do anything. God's love never forces, His invitation is love.
Are you ready to let go of your earthly possessions and go hold onto Jesus?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Small group question!!!
1. Where do I see myself in the rich young ruler, but don't want to see myself in him anymore?
We went through a couple of things, including a life of comfort, materialism, and spiritual pride. I personally said spiritual pride.
Life of comfort: It's easy to live a life of comfort, especially in Canda where resources are plenty. But sometimes it makes us too comfortable, and we are unwilling to step out of this comfort zone to help serve others.
Materialism: Similar stuff, we are able to get many things, especially things that we want. We often become selfish and neglect the needs of others because of this.
Spiritual Pride: Something that I sometimes struggle with, it is a kind of sin that really affects how you serve, we always think that we can rely on ourselves and forget that we should rely on God when we serve. The result by man alone often isn't the greatest, I can say that this is true because I lead worship. God is so important in how you serve.
2. What is one thing that I want to let go of and hold onto God instead of during the retreat?
We didn't get to this one, but answer in the comments, or add this to your devotion journals or something. It's a nice question to reflect on.
Self-reflection!!
What do I want freedom from today?
Personally, I want to be free from my social anxiety disorder, which is mild but I still get panic attacks sometimes. What are your shackles?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So that does it for this day of retreat, next post will be pure session, no diary entry. So yeah.
Stay tuned and
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, May 21, 2018
A break post
Hi guys, this is a break post, I will have one between each retreat post so it's more defined and a little less crowded. Have a look at some of my dragons, cos why not?
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Freedom pt.1
DEAR ALL HI I AM BACK!!
Hey guys, it's been way too long! I'm sorry for going on such a long hiatus, school has been busy, but hey guess what, I'm back from spring retreat!
This year, being a grade 11, I have had the amazing opportunity to be on the trip's week committee. I was part of the design team and was mainly responsible for designing the shirt for the retreat. I was also partly involved with deciding and checking over some other stuff (everyone on the committee had to).
This year, only one of my friends came to the retreat, it was originally going to be three (instead of four last year) but because of some personal reasons, my friend number was shrunken to two. I didn't really mind, I was just glad that I had a close friend with me.
I was surprised that I felt more comfortable this year during the retreat. My social anxiety was not as crippling as I thought it would be, maybe because I was in the older grade this time, or I knew the grade 10's better through the after-school orchestra. I don't know, but the comfortable feeling was nice.
This year's weather and black fly/mosquito situation were much better. No storms, no rain, not much bug bites. The weather was so nice that a lot of us got sunburns.
I brought my own bow and archery equipment to the camp this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed archery, I felt like I was shaking off the rust (I haven't done archery in a year) to my full potential. More on the activities later.
Like last year, there will be one post for each day of the retreat, with divided sections in between(the format will be very similar). There will also be pictures in the posts this year!
So, the first day - 15th May 2018...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We arrived safely at Camp Mini-Yo-We, no burst tires this time. Although we were promised one big coach bus for both trips (going and returning), they failed to provide that and gave us a medium coach bus and a school bus instead.
It was raining rather heavily at the beginning of Tuesday, thankfully, the weather cleared up after lunch. We unloaded the bus, got to our cabins, set down our things and began the retreat.
Speaking of lunch, we had a veggie dip platter, tacos, and apples with caramel dip. The caramel dip wasn't the greatest, but they had some good apples. The planning committee had loosened up the schedule this year, allowing lots of free time to do things and relax.
There were trampolines (three!) in the camp this year, I was also shaking off two years worth of rust in Olympic Trampoline. I had lost some of my skills, but I had fun, and I think that was sufficient. No flips were allowed anyways.
We had two consecutive activity periods, and I did canoeing for the first and archery the second.
Supper was one I would never forget, warm, sticky orange chicken breasts with rice. It was great! Our dessert was ice cream sandwiches which we all devoured with glee. That sounds a little weird but I haven't had an ice cream sandwich in so long!
We had two team games - 收賣佬 (so people find and bring up certain items that the host calls out) and team charades. They were fun, but it was also getting colder come sunset.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Session #1: What is Freedom?
(John 8:31-32) This is our theme verse.
Our speaker opened up the session with his chronicle of living in other people's basements, which included his friend's house. His friend had four kids, and living with them made our speaker realize something, that even though the kids were annoying it wouldn't make him or their parents love them less.
There is nothing that your children could ever do that will make you love them less, because they are your children. We won't love our children less because of what they do, we'll love them more for who they are.
Notice the word "love". Without love, there is no freedom, because you will always be trying to impress and live up to the expectations of the world. No one will love you for who you are, instead, they will always look at what you are.
Then, we moved on to the passage, which was also our theme verse. The context of the passage was Jesus vs Radical Jews, both parties were in a short conflict because of a woman who had committed adultery.
The way Jesus tackled the situation was appealing to the radical Jews, and they began to follow him. But the Jews thought they needed to follow Jesus, and also their laws (there were 613 of them!). Would you think that that would mean freedom? I don't think so.
The way Jews viewed salvation and getting themselves into God's sights was to "win God points". But the fact is, you can't win God points (I had something else scribbled but I can't read it lol).
Jesus was the gospel, the new covenant, the new way to ensure salvation and a connection between us and God. The gospel, quite simply put, is love - God's love.
The gospel is the love story between us and God, laws(in terms of the old testament) make us all trapped because we're always trying to follow them but always end up failing. The gospel is the truth (explained below), and it sets us free because God loves us not for what we do (well, partly, but not completely) but who we are (like the parenthood example above).
God looks at us like a parent, we are His children! Once we accept this unconditional love, we've found the beginning of freedom.
The truth that God loves you and me, it sets us free because this is the love story between God and mankind. The fact that God loved us so much, and will not love us any less, is why His love is so great.
This love will only increase.
At school (PCA), every morning we are told through the PA by our loving and kind vice principal we are loved. The exact words through the PA are "You are loved".
It's true, every one of us is loved, and that love is freeing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This year we managed to discuss and fill in all of the small group questions, which is great! So there will be a section for this every post, unlike last year. I will also have the self-reflection up every post. Alright, lezz go!
1. What do you think of when you hear the word 'freedom'? What does freedom look like for you?
Some of our answers were Jailbreak, slavery, doing what you want, not doing what you don't want, having a choice. I personally said holiday.
Jailbreak: our group leader shared with us about a coworker(in a restaurant) who was going to jail the next day for doing what they thought was best. The fact that our freedoms are fragile really made us think and reflect.
Slavery: Again with the thought of what freedom was not, there was another variation to the answer, but I don't remember what it was.
The rest are rather self-explanatory.
2. How do you know that you are loved? How do you feel loved?
"You are loved", verbal confessions, the services of others, actions speaking louder than words, quality time. My sharing was related to the services of others.
"You are loved": pretty self-explanatory, we always feel like there's something missing if the message isn't spoken through the PA every morning. We all agreed that it just didn't feel the same.
Verbal confessions: Do you tell your friends that you love them? Do you tell your family that you love them? Do you tell God that you love Him? What about vice versa? Pretty self-explanatory.
The services of others: One of the 5 great love languages. In fact, if you would like, take a love language test here: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile/
A lot of us shared stories of how people expressed love towards us by acts of service, no matter how great or small. I personally shared my parents love for me when they'd stay up real late just for me to make sure that all the visa stuff is okay.
Actions speaking louder than words: Just a pattern that we noticed since so many of us shared about actions rather than verbal confessions
Quality time: Our group leader shared this, this is also another one of the 5 love languages. Take the test through the link above. But our group leader shared how she had quality time, no matter when or where, when she needed it the most with friends. It really made us think about our own experiences with how we interact and spend time with our friends and family.
Self-reflection: Do I know that I am loved by God and others?
Sometimes I really don't see it, but most of the time I do.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So what do you guys think? Feel free to answer the questions, share your reflections, or even ask questions (I'll try my best to answer).
Stay tuned and
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
Hey guys, it's been way too long! I'm sorry for going on such a long hiatus, school has been busy, but hey guess what, I'm back from spring retreat!
This year, being a grade 11, I have had the amazing opportunity to be on the trip's week committee. I was part of the design team and was mainly responsible for designing the shirt for the retreat. I was also partly involved with deciding and checking over some other stuff (everyone on the committee had to).
This year, only one of my friends came to the retreat, it was originally going to be three (instead of four last year) but because of some personal reasons, my friend number was shrunken to two. I didn't really mind, I was just glad that I had a close friend with me.
I was surprised that I felt more comfortable this year during the retreat. My social anxiety was not as crippling as I thought it would be, maybe because I was in the older grade this time, or I knew the grade 10's better through the after-school orchestra. I don't know, but the comfortable feeling was nice.
This year's weather and black fly/mosquito situation were much better. No storms, no rain, not much bug bites. The weather was so nice that a lot of us got sunburns.
I brought my own bow and archery equipment to the camp this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed archery, I felt like I was shaking off the rust (I haven't done archery in a year) to my full potential. More on the activities later.
Like last year, there will be one post for each day of the retreat, with divided sections in between(the format will be very similar). There will also be pictures in the posts this year!
So, the first day - 15th May 2018...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We arrived safely at Camp Mini-Yo-We, no burst tires this time. Although we were promised one big coach bus for both trips (going and returning), they failed to provide that and gave us a medium coach bus and a school bus instead.
It was raining rather heavily at the beginning of Tuesday, thankfully, the weather cleared up after lunch. We unloaded the bus, got to our cabins, set down our things and began the retreat.
Speaking of lunch, we had a veggie dip platter, tacos, and apples with caramel dip. The caramel dip wasn't the greatest, but they had some good apples. The planning committee had loosened up the schedule this year, allowing lots of free time to do things and relax.
There were trampolines (three!) in the camp this year, I was also shaking off two years worth of rust in Olympic Trampoline. I had lost some of my skills, but I had fun, and I think that was sufficient. No flips were allowed anyways.
We had two consecutive activity periods, and I did canoeing for the first and archery the second.
Supper was one I would never forget, warm, sticky orange chicken breasts with rice. It was great! Our dessert was ice cream sandwiches which we all devoured with glee. That sounds a little weird but I haven't had an ice cream sandwich in so long!
We had two team games - 收賣佬 (so people find and bring up certain items that the host calls out) and team charades. They were fun, but it was also getting colder come sunset.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Session #1: What is Freedom?
(John 8:31-32) This is our theme verse.
Our speaker opened up the session with his chronicle of living in other people's basements, which included his friend's house. His friend had four kids, and living with them made our speaker realize something, that even though the kids were annoying it wouldn't make him or their parents love them less.
There is nothing that your children could ever do that will make you love them less, because they are your children. We won't love our children less because of what they do, we'll love them more for who they are.
Notice the word "love". Without love, there is no freedom, because you will always be trying to impress and live up to the expectations of the world. No one will love you for who you are, instead, they will always look at what you are.
Then, we moved on to the passage, which was also our theme verse. The context of the passage was Jesus vs Radical Jews, both parties were in a short conflict because of a woman who had committed adultery.
The way Jesus tackled the situation was appealing to the radical Jews, and they began to follow him. But the Jews thought they needed to follow Jesus, and also their laws (there were 613 of them!). Would you think that that would mean freedom? I don't think so.
The way Jews viewed salvation and getting themselves into God's sights was to "win God points". But the fact is, you can't win God points (I had something else scribbled but I can't read it lol).
Jesus was the gospel, the new covenant, the new way to ensure salvation and a connection between us and God. The gospel, quite simply put, is love - God's love.
The gospel is the love story between us and God, laws(in terms of the old testament) make us all trapped because we're always trying to follow them but always end up failing. The gospel is the truth (explained below), and it sets us free because God loves us not for what we do (well, partly, but not completely) but who we are (like the parenthood example above).
God looks at us like a parent, we are His children! Once we accept this unconditional love, we've found the beginning of freedom.
The truth that God loves you and me, it sets us free because this is the love story between God and mankind. The fact that God loved us so much, and will not love us any less, is why His love is so great.
This love will only increase.
At school (PCA), every morning we are told through the PA by our loving and kind vice principal we are loved. The exact words through the PA are "You are loved".
It's true, every one of us is loved, and that love is freeing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This year we managed to discuss and fill in all of the small group questions, which is great! So there will be a section for this every post, unlike last year. I will also have the self-reflection up every post. Alright, lezz go!
1. What do you think of when you hear the word 'freedom'? What does freedom look like for you?
Some of our answers were Jailbreak, slavery, doing what you want, not doing what you don't want, having a choice. I personally said holiday.
Jailbreak: our group leader shared with us about a coworker(in a restaurant) who was going to jail the next day for doing what they thought was best. The fact that our freedoms are fragile really made us think and reflect.
Slavery: Again with the thought of what freedom was not, there was another variation to the answer, but I don't remember what it was.
The rest are rather self-explanatory.
2. How do you know that you are loved? How do you feel loved?
"You are loved", verbal confessions, the services of others, actions speaking louder than words, quality time. My sharing was related to the services of others.
"You are loved": pretty self-explanatory, we always feel like there's something missing if the message isn't spoken through the PA every morning. We all agreed that it just didn't feel the same.
Verbal confessions: Do you tell your friends that you love them? Do you tell your family that you love them? Do you tell God that you love Him? What about vice versa? Pretty self-explanatory.
The services of others: One of the 5 great love languages. In fact, if you would like, take a love language test here: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile/
A lot of us shared stories of how people expressed love towards us by acts of service, no matter how great or small. I personally shared my parents love for me when they'd stay up real late just for me to make sure that all the visa stuff is okay.
Actions speaking louder than words: Just a pattern that we noticed since so many of us shared about actions rather than verbal confessions
Quality time: Our group leader shared this, this is also another one of the 5 love languages. Take the test through the link above. But our group leader shared how she had quality time, no matter when or where, when she needed it the most with friends. It really made us think about our own experiences with how we interact and spend time with our friends and family.
Self-reflection: Do I know that I am loved by God and others?
Sometimes I really don't see it, but most of the time I do.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So what do you guys think? Feel free to answer the questions, share your reflections, or even ask questions (I'll try my best to answer).
Stay tuned and
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
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