Just got back from our SF mid year retreat and well it was worth my time and one day off to go for it full time and by God’s grace everything turn out well. It was more of a evaluative retreat where we just gather together and have some time off our usual schedule and just spend some quiet time together as a SF to think through the events for the past 6 months and also to reflect on what we have learn and whether have we really understand what we learn or are we just letting the messages get by us without truly getting the meaning of it. The other theme for this retreat is evangelism where we have a session on Friday about how to share the gospel and also to prepare us for the main event on Sunday which is the evangelistic BBQ where our friends are invited and we will try to share the gospel with them.
I went to the retreat on Friday night at around 8 I think and joined in a bit of the E action which is a workshop about sharing the gospel. From this session I think the thing that I have learned is sharing the gospel by taking about problems commonly faced by teens. The five points here are mainly Identify, where we discuss issues which our friends are concerned about and relevant to their lives. Next is Including our experience where GOD is relevant in the issues faces by our friends. Third point is Illustrating one of the gospel points to our friends which are the most closely linked to the issues faced by them. Next we get our friends to Inquire about anything that they do not understand and also listen to their opinion. Lastly leave a lasting Impression by bringing up gospel related matters in subsequent conversations. Well this is something that I have never tried before and I guess it is better than going straight to the gospel when sharing with our friends. At least it gives us a chance for us to talk to them first and slowly build up to the sharing of the gospel.
After the E action, we had evaluation together as a retreat group where we set out our goals and objectives for this retreat. For me the purpose of going to the retreat is to take some time off work and to really concentrate on building my relationship with God and to learn more from him during this time. At the same time, retreat is also the time to make more friends and know more people in the SF and also forge closer bonds with existing friends. After this evaluation, I went for I/Cs meeting with the comm members and then went to rest.
In the morning, we started off with a walk around the chalet near the sea where we stop at a place and read God’s word out loud about his creations and everything wonderful that he has created. It was truly a great way to start the day knowing that all the wonderful around us that was all of God’s creation. After the morning action, we went back for breakfast and later had our E shining family session.
E-Shining family is basically a time for us to do some personal evaluation after the creation of the family group concept and how we have each served in the family group. For me personally I have not served much in the family group yet but I brought out some evaluation that I had while organizing the Christmas Blog event. I guess I am the kind of person which is task orientated but may tend to neglect the feelings of others. I like to have control over stuff and make sure that I am aware of everything that happens. The difficulty I can foresee would be for me to serve under others. I am only willing to work under people I think are capable and worth his salt or I would seek to challenge the person in charge. I feel that this needs to be changed and we need to learn to work with others. I hope to have another major project after Christmas Blog and I got it now and it’s the year end retreat and I pray that with God’s help that this could be a chance for me to serve my family group and also the other Sfers by helping them organize a retreat to remember. After the session, we have family QT and family time for us to spend time together as a family and to have any discussions that we need. After lunch, our family went to changi village to have desert and at there we had a great time together chatting and also planning a family lunch next Sunday. After our desert, we went back to the chalet for QT with Justin and his sisters joining us.
After QT was Ooi – Lim – Pig where we played games within out retreat groups and well it was great fun and the worst part was the gymnastic station where we had to dance and we got the award for the most clever use of props for Keith and I throwing the hula hoop to each other. Lolz. And by popular demand, I performed by very special hula hoop performance for my fans who were all cheering me on. It was a good laugh for everyone.
After dinner was worship lead by me where we sang songs to praise and worship the lord and I shared about how we should not worry about things and that we should always trust the lord and pray about problems that we might have and God will provide a way out for us.
After worship, was E – Know Your Influence by Albert and it is a time for us to evaluate our own influence and one of which is the word and for the SSFers, we are given time to break up into our retreat groups and think through about what we have learn about the book of Mark during the past 6 months and do a skit to show the learning point that we have. For our group, we quote from Mark 11 where Jesus chases the people from the temple who are there trading and not worshiping the Lord. The learning point that our group tried to portray was that when we go to church every Sunday we have to go there with a heart that is to worship the Lord and not treat it as a chore and a ritual that our physical bodies may be there but not our heart.
Next morning, Jo, Terrence, Siew Hua, Xin Ying and I prepared breakfast for the rest. For my part, I help to cut the luncheon meat and also to fry a batch of scrambled eggs. It was a good breakfast and everyone I guess enjoyed it. We had TAG time after morning worship, followed by a prayer for the friends and the BBQ event. After which we started the briefing and preparation for the BBQ. Some of us practiced sharing the gospel to each other while others prayed for the friends.
When it was nearing the time for the BBQ to start, dark clouds started to form and Des suggested that we start praying for the weather and our friends and some of us went to the dorm and started praying. The BBQ was great with lots of food to eat and many friends came and we certainly had fun interacting with them. For me, I had the chance to have a chat with Edmund which is Des’s friend who came earlier that his group of friends. After chatting with him, I realized that he is very knowledgeable and that he is a Christian because of knowledge. So I see that he is lacking in the faith part and started sharing with him about how I came to know Christ and how I put my faith and trust in God and that our relationship with God should be based on faith alone and other stuff like history and work knowledge only strengthens this relationship. I guess it was a great time talking to him for he has indicated that he wish to accept Christ into his life (I guess this time for the right reason) and that he is also interested in coming for the I concert. This is indeed a good experience for me and its also my first to share the gospel to someone and by God’s grace I find it relatively smooth as I could quickly build rapport with him and I really thank God for his help and hopefully Edmund could place his faith in Christ and have a great relationship with him.
After the BBQ, I had a chat with Sam, Sam See, Jon and we had a look at some photos when they were young and well we certainly had a good laugh seeing how each has grown up and matured and well Sam K looked quite fat and his center parting hair style is funny and Danny looked very uncle. Haha.
The next morning, after breakfast, we had evaluation where we evaluated about what we have learned from the past 6 months of message and it was shocking to find out that many of us had not really learned anything or understand the messages. The thing is most of us did not bother to find out more or to asked around to make sure that we understand the messages taught to us. I guess this really wake me up to the fact that I have been going through messages without really understanding and this would lead to the danger of wrong application of lessons learned if we managed to learn any at all. Thus a learning point would be to really study the word after the messages and seek to understand the lessons. We had a sharing of the BBQ session and I shared with the rest about how I shared to the rest. From others sharing the problems we complied is that sometimes we may have left out the friends in our conversation and we need to be sensitive to them. The majority of the problems faced were that our friends tend to stay together as a group which makes it hard for us to talk to them and share. There were also friends who were interested in the gospel but find scientific theories like evolution more appealing. But overall our friends find us very friendly and nice to be with and they are interested to come for the I concert.
Overall this retreat has been timely for me to really take time off work and really stop and evaluate about myself, the past 6 months and about what have I really learned. It is also the first time I get to be a group I/c where I have to lead my group for discussions and also show an example by sharing first. After all the evaluation, I think I really need to starting taking notes for my messages and learn the messages well It was also a great experience for me to share the gospel with someone where previously I have my reservations and I guess a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step and this is my first step for greater things to come and finally this retreat also helps me plan for the year end one and we have to decide if we want to complement it or have a completely new idea and I guess it remains to be discuss and plan and may God bless us for the planning of the year end retreat.