~~~~~RETREAT: BE STILL~~~~~

It was a refreshing and fruitful 2 days and 2 nights Small Group Retreat... Starting on Friday night to this morning, we were all at PA Pasir Ris Holiday Complex...

On Friday night, I had to rush from school back home to grab my stuffs and to buy dinner for all of them... Lucky for me, my Sis was on leave and she offered to buy for me dinner first so that when I came back, I just had to go with her to carry the food... Barry and KK came to my house to help me out as I had lots of things to carry, logistics staffs... KK drove the both of us there... When we arrived at our destination, we settled down and unpacked some of our stuffs... KK, Zeyi and Yeang Chyn booked 2 apartments... One was for the girls and the other was for the guys... Each of the apartments had 2 bedrooms... At only around 8pm, then all of them came and we could start on our dinner... Anybody can guess what I bought??... If your guess was Chicken Rice, you were RIGHT!!...

After dinner, KK and the other guys went to get 3 more mattresses, pillows and blankets as there were 7 guys and only 4 beds in total... Later after that, we had worship and the Barbeque Department was up... Anastasia led us into the time of worship with Darryl and Shui Min as their guitarists... Thanks Ana for leading and thanks dudes for such wonderful guitar skills... Soon after that, we started on Workshop 1: The Privilege of Prayer and it was led by Yeang Chyn... We all learned why was prayer important, what should we pray for, why we should pray in the name of Jesus and what do we do if our prayers are not answered... After the inspiring Workshop, the girls went back to their apartment... For us, guys, we played Uno till it was 1130pm then we took our baths and headed to bed... What a lousy bed they had... There was sand all over my bed and since I was so sleepy and tired already, I swept off only the top half and tried to sweep off the bottom half using my legs while I was lying down...

Yesterday morning, we woke up at around 7:30am and had our breakfast... Next up was worship and it was the Food and Beverage Department... It was led by Barry and with Darryl and Shui Min as guitarists... Followed after that was Workshop 2: Life Management for Busy Youths, which was led by Zeyi... I just want to share with all of you on the Rules for Daily Life...

Rules for Daily Life

Begin the day with God
Kneel down to Him in prayer;
Lift up thy heart to His abode,
And seek His love to share.

Open the book of God
And read a portion there,
That is may hallow all thy thoughts,
And sweeten all they care.

Go through the day with God
Whatever thy work may be;
Wherever thou art - at home, in school,
He is near to thee.

Converse the day with God
Thy sins to Him confess;
Trust in the Lord's atoning blood,
And plead His righteousness.

Lie down at night with God
Who gives His servants sleep;
And when thou tread'st the vale of death,
He will thee guard and keep

After the workshop, we were given the time to do our Quiet Time... I decided to go to the beach to spend an intimate with God... During that time, a lot of things that were unclear became clear and I began to realise that putting God first will be the solution to all problems but I can't just wait for it to happen, I have to follow what He instructs me...

I went back to the apartment after that... We waited for everyone to settle down before we headed out to Elias Mall to have our lunch... We went back to our apartments thereafter and had another round of worship and it was our turn, the Logistics Department... I led through the worship with Yong Wei alongside... Next up was Workshop 3: Group Dynamics and it was led by KK... He did an exercise, where there were observers and participants... The participants had to make 5 squares in total and no form of communication was allowed... It was really difficult as we had missing pieces and there was no way to ask for a particular piece... We still in the end managed to complete the goal as we decided to look at the entire group's missing pieces instead of caring of self... At around 3pm, it was games time... So us guys, we decided to shoot some hoops... The girls joined us after the third of fourth game... I really enjoyed myself and I hope all of you felt the same too...

When it was 5pm, the delivery van came with our food for the barbeque... We decided to end game and helped out the barbeque team... Barbequed dinner was served at around 7pm... It was delicious and our stomachs were filled to the max... We also had a cutting of Birthday cake for Darryl and Shui Min... After resting for a while, the girls wanted to play a game of Twister... It was really a tangled up game and the girls were really good at it compared to us guys... We did our sharing session at the barbeque pit and cleared everything up after that... Shower was a must for all as we were all dirty and bitten by many red ants... After shower, Barry and I went over to the girls' apartment to have a game or two of MagBlast with Marianne... We stayed up till 1:30am before we decided to hit the sack...

This morning; we got up at around 8am to have our breakfast... We packed our things and around 10am, we made our way to church for 11am Youth Sunday Service...

In conclusion, it was really refreshing being away from my hectic life and just spending 100% of my time with God together with my Small Group... Thank you God for making this happen... Thank you to KK, Zeyi and Yeang Chyn for the workshops you planned for us and helping us out a lot... Finally, I really would like to thank all my Small Group brothers and sisters for making everything lively... Thank You All!!... This will be the retreat I'll remember for as long as I live... What a SUCCESS!!... This is JoNaThAn... signing out*...

Spending time with God at the beach


God's Blessing to us, breath-taking sceneries


Never alone