FRWY Retreat Part 2

I haven’t really looked for an internet connection yet to posts these so I might just end up posting them all at once, and then changing the date on the to make them look like I posted them when I wrote them. I can do that kind of stuff because its my website.

Today was a great day. I felt like I learned so much and was enriched in so many different ways. I started off the morning getting woken up by Mark who had just finished his yoga stretches. He invited me but I felt that my pillow and I could do all the stretching one needed for my healthy lifestyle. We had a session this morning of singing and taking time doing different things at different stations whether it be painting, reading, writing, molding, looking or simply meditating. I was pretty tired still so I think I did a mix of reading and unconscious meditating.

I then moved on to eat four hotdogs and a nice helping of rice. Randy taught Rachel and I how to play Settlers of Catan. What a fun fun fun game that was. I’d recommend anyone to go and play it if they can. The part that I really wanted to write about was tonight’s session.

Tonight started out like all the other sessions; singing a few songs and enjoying the music. This time we took communion, read a prayer and did a few other small things. We took some time apart and did some of our own ideas again whether it be reading or whatever. I’ll just get right to it. After all that was over we all got in a circle and started talking about what we learned and sharing with each other. Then Pernell said that we were going to do something, and like any good cult we did it. He started with himself and encouraged someone, and that person was supposed encourage someone else and around the circle it went. I absolutely LOVE moments like those. Intentional encouragement I think is amazing and a real community builder. By the end, every single person in the circle had been lifted up and encouraged about who they are or something they do or how they act. There was tears (even from guys), hugs, shyness and most of all, such raw community.

I’ve done this before. I did it once on a prep leadership retreat with a youth group I was running in Sarnia. It worked amazing then, everyone left feeling so uplifted and so much more appreciative of the people around them. I’ve done it before with my closest friends, and again only positive results. All this to say, I don’t know why we don’t do this more often. People need to hear that they are loved and they are special. Sometimes people need to hear that there work isn’t going unnoticed.

Going back to Sarnia in about half a year excites me because I feel like I’m going to plant a church having experienced such an amazing church already. I feel like I’ve been given a peek into what a solid, loving, Christ-like community looks like and I hope to be able to experience the same thing in Sarnia. The love and inspiration that I see for each other all internally excites me because for the first time in a long time I see a community that I feel is like the communities that Christ had in mind.

Ideas.
Inspiration comes internally, not externally.
Zachhius, see people like him, I want to