CG Retreat - God is with Us (Psalm 46)

My CG, Whispers of Wind (WoW), went for our 2nd annual CG retreat at the residential campus of Montfort Youth Training Centre in Kinarut from 27th to 28th December 2008. I'm happy that 14 said "yes" to the retreat, but Maxwell couldn't make it due to wedding reception this weekend. Anyhow, here are some snippets of what happened and how God showed His grace and mercy to His children - us.

Last year WoW was in Alvin Voo's chalets behind his house, which was a blessing for us. We had our very first CG retreat with Salt of the Earth (SotE) somewhere in December as well. The retreat was focusing on Psalm 13. This year, our theme for CG retreat was "God is with Us" after discernment by our CGL, Denis Tsen. My part of discernment came up with the verse taken from Psalm 46, verse 10... Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth. Only during the retreat when I borrowed Denis' bible to make comparison between versions that I realized that the "title" of this psalm in Good News Bible is "God is with Us". Praise God for His plans, revealed for His glory, in His own wondrous ways!!!

Basically we planned for a free & easy retreat, where we get enough time to bond, rest, have fun with God and among ourselves. Not only we achieved building relationship bonds among us, we also achieved the purpose that God has for us, to venture into a journey with Jesus. In our very different ways, God touched each of us, all because we are all very special children of God. Thanks be to God, our Father! Amen!

What did we do? The activities started when we arrived Montfort about 10am... We were "residing" in the rooms of St. Gabriel's Annex in the residential campus of Montfort Boys. Upon arrival, we sent our bags to respective rooms, ensuring everybody had a place to stay was in fact my duty as the HR personnel for the retreat. Somehow it became mine after I've decided to assist CGL with that role. After that, I toured around the annex and showed the way to the room for Marcel and Jacinta (the married couple in our CG). Our chef of that weekend was Joanne's mom, Aunty Theresa. She was preparing our meal when we arrived. Thank God for her willingness to help us with the food... If not I guess my members would have to bear with my cooking~~ LOL! (Did I hear some "oh nooooo!!" somehow? I hope not.)

After everybody had enough acclimatizing time, we gathered everybody and had our first session of games in the hall, conducted by Joanne. Thanks to Joanne, we all had fun during the first 1.5 hours of arrival in Montfort. As everybody was getting hungry and Joanne's mom "beeped" us that lunch was ready, thus all of us sort of rushed back to dining area for our lunch... The yummy Nasi Lemak with sambal prawn, boiled egg and fried chicken. My goodness, it was so delicious that I wanted a second round of rice, but I didn't because I still have to take care of my carbo intake. But I had second helping of sambal prawn with cucumber slices. Everybody was given time to rest and unpack after lunch until about 3pm. Due to my dance class in KK, I had no choice but to leave everybody and headed down to Foh Sang for class. By the time I arrived it was about 5.20pm and they were playing balloon games outside the annex.

Remembering that all my stuffs were practically frozen and uncooked and dinner was about 1.5 hours away, I kept my stuffs into the room and "conquered" the kitchen until Jon Wee came in to fry bananas for the rest who finished games and kinda hungry. Thank God for the fried bananas, if not they would be complaining that dinner was served late. We only started our steamboat dinner at about 8pm, instead of the original plan of 7pm. Sorry guys! Praise and thank God also for the great help of Jacinta, Joanne and Denis, who helped in their own ways, especially Jacinta, without her, I doubt we could get the soup done by the time we prepared everything. I gotta learn more the art of cooking from moms.

The dinner was great, I guess the happiest moment for me was to see everybody whipped off practically everything on the table, including the fried nasi lemak with sambal prawn, as some of the members had to eat rice and the only thing I could provide them was the left over lunch. I guess that's the joy of it. I finally got my share of prawns when everybody slowed down and there were a great amount of prawns left. Knowing that CGL loves prawns as much as I do, I did share with him whatever that was left. Haha! Look! How kind I am!! (Ok, I know, minta puji a bit bit here... LOL!) I'm just joking~~

After dinner and washing up, we finally entered the conference room for our session. There wasn't any photo taken because I was busy crying. (HAHAHAHA!!!) Well, that was true, but I guess the real reason is this: the session shall remain as a mystery of love from God, which touched our very own lives in God's very own ways for us. Of course, I can share what we did... Firstly, we had the session of "washing of feet". Two thousand years ago, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples in the upper room before the passover meal (Do refer to John 13 for more info.) It wasn't His job to wash the feet of His disciples, but this act that Jesus had done shown great humility, servant leadership and most importantly, His forgiving heart... It also shown us the grace and mercy of our Lord who died for us on the cross a few days after He washed the feet of His disciples, including Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus. The first person to start was our CG leader, then me next... A few of us had the priviledge to wash everybody's feet... Towards the end of this session, the members were only asked to wash the feet of their neighbours due to time constraint. The next session was a Christmas Devotional session, where readings, reflections were interluded with Christmas Carols. Quiet, reflective and deep mystery of God's love - the birth of His Son, Jesus on earth to Mary. Because of Mary's willingness, a Saviour was born to us. That's the greatest mystery of His love for us...

After the session, some of us stayed back in the conference room to continue singing carols. After everybody left, I had a short discussion with CGL on the next day's plan. One thing I learned that night was the sessions conducted by leaders, many-a-times were done because the leaders (we) needed it more than the receivers of the sessions. Basically I was fretting over the morning prayer session. Though not all of what CGL said went into my head, but I still thanked God for the discussion. Nothing could be revealed about it... But it was something important for me, at least. Many might not know, but the last time I had spoken to CGL properly, one-on-one, about spiritual stuffs was about 5 months ago. I thanked and praised God for all that we had gone through, all that we are going through since July 2008 until now. I've to admit I had been a "man of little faith" like how Jesus scolded Peter when he was walking on water and sunk. God really slapped me hard enough the next morning when I saw Joanne's mom bringing the speaker right before our morning prayer session...

After discussion, I sat outside the room for a few moments of silence with God. All I knew was my strength came from God and only through Him things will be done. If He wanted a session without the speaker and the song, He would have it done that way. All I could ask was that I'm being used as His instrument of love. With peace at heart, I finally slept until the next morning. Probably I cried too much and my eyes were swollen when I woke up, I couldn't even open my eyes when I somehow managed to find my way out of my room to the toilet. When I finally opened my eyes, they were bloodshot eyes and swollen. Haha!

God was being so kind to me that morning. He had given me great joy of reconciliation, and a greater joy to know that He is God... Indeed, the verse "Be still, and know that I am God!" was exactly the verse for me throughout this retreat. Everytime when I let go and allow Him to take control, He made wonders out of me. I'm no super woman, but my God is a super God. Literally, "be still" has the meaning of keeping quiet, being silent, to listen. Biblically, if you had been following my blog, you'd know that I ever posted something on Psalm 46:10, "be still" has the meaning of to slack, to let drop, to be disheartened or weak. Thus, the moment when I acknowledged I couldn't do it without Him taking charge of it, He made all that was planned happened, despite the fact I doubted it. Not only I received grace, I also received mercy from Him. He had forgiven me even before I realized it. One part of that previous entry that I liked was this:

It is “God’s past” that provides calm for “our future.” Know that he is God! Know it, not merely intellectually, but practically, spiritually, and emotionally. He is your God. He is the ruler of kingdoms of this earth and the all-powerful Creator of the Universe.

Thus, the morning prayer session happened, and it happened to me specifically... The gospel reading, the psalm, the song which lyrics we reflected upon (This is Our God w/ What Child is This by Travis Cottrell) all spoke of the same theme - the grace and mercy of this little Babe who saved the world because of His great love for us. Indeed, God was made man and dwelt among men on Christmas. And as Christians, Christmas happens everyday to our hearts.

After the morning prayer session, we had to pack up and have our lunch because last minute Bro. Francis informed us he would not be in and thus would locked up. Not forgetting we sang him a birthday song because it was Bro. Francis' birthday on 28th December!! So instead of having our sharing session, we packed and cleaned up. After that, we had lunch and headed back to KK. Since we would be attending mass together, we hang out in TATU Cafe of Tanjung Aru Beach Hotel (Thanks to Marcel and Jacinta for the treat!!) and had our sharing sessions, brothers and sisters apart.

Indeed, God's promise is beautiful and far greater than what we expect Him to give us. Truly, this retreat brought me to a realization of how important is to wait patiently and seek Him fervently. The verse that Matthew written in his gospel... Matthew 6:33 Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all will be given unto you... It is real, like how real it is to pinch ourselves and we feel the pain of the pinch. That's how real it is.

Thank and praise God for this opportunity to share all these on my blog. Thank and praise God for such a wonderful retreat! Thank and praise God for the mass and the homily that was said by Fr. Cosmas in St. Simon Church... I realized God's plan and timing truly is different from mine. And all I can do is to obey and wait patiently. I guess eventually everybody, except myself, Denis, Karen, Joanne, Jonathan Wee and their mom, attended mass in Stella Maris. Hehe!

Here are the pictorial descriptions of the retreat:

Entrance of Montfort Retreat Centre in Kinarut (Taken some days before as I didn't have the time to stop and take on the day itself...)

Our Chef, Aunty Theresa

Them at the swing (Denis, Ester, Karen, Mathida, Jacinta, Brenda)

Another shot of them... Umm... What are you guys doing, Denis? Hanging like monkey on the swing... Haha! Indeed, the tale of monkeys of MN came from you~~~

Jonathan Lee and Marcel nearby, chatting... I wonder what they talked about? Hehe! It's their secret... For them to know, for me to pray for them.

The statue of the patron saint of Montfort - St. Louis Marie de Montfort

Joanne, our games mistress giving explanation to the first game

Another shot of her! (Joanne, I couldn't decide which one is nicer, so I put both, coz I think both also equally nice!)

The member listened attentively!

The only SS photo I took this time... Background got Ray, Ah Boon and Jon

Denis: Kidz, make sure you all concentrate properly in discussion ahhh!! (Actually I have no idea what he was telling them... LOL!)

Lovely Mathilda about to be "blinded" with newspapers.

Self-explanatory! It's pay-back time!!!! Hahahahaha!!! Who asked him to design such a surprise for my birthday??? LOL!

Haha! Karen was trying to find where others were... She really couldn't see...

Mathilda grabbing the rafia string to pass to Ah Boon

Hehe! Another photo of them with me!

*smiles*

The Holy Family at Montfort hall... I didn't see a baby in the crib, you know why??? Because the Babe was in the arms of Mary!!!!!

After games, heading back for food~~

Queuing up for "fat rice" (nasi lemak)

Jon waiting for his turn with plate ready

Ray, smile! Click! Orait... continue whatever you are doing... :P Yummy food...

Denis finishing everything when everybody left...

Me with cucumber slices...

Preparation for steamboat dinner... My advisors, Jacinta and Joanne.

Tom yam soup base ready to be served. Yay!!!

Ah Boon, Ray and Jon found durians... There are several durian trees behind the Gabrielite brothers' house. And Bro. Francis said we could eat the durians we found I think...

Yeah... Dinner time...

I'm so happy the tom yam was popular~~

Everybody waiting for the food to cook in the pot~ I heard the word "hungry".

Yes, can eat already!!

Ah Boon... Help us to take please???

Oh! The durians that we found last night... Hopefully later dessert after lunch???

What they do before lunch???

Denis and Jon in conference room to teach and learn guitars...

Joanne transferring photos in Aunty Theresa's room

Ester and Mathilda napping in room...

Guys camwhoring in their room... Jon was the model, Ah Boon dressing him up and Ray taking photos... Umm... Hi-tech la, you guys!

Then Denis and Jon reading the Montfort newsletter in dining area...

So I took the chance to take photos with them... First with Joanne...

Then with Denis...

Next with Jon...

Finally with Brenda and Karen...

The guys started complaining their fingers were painful because of playing guitars...

Camwhoring with Joanne... Lovely shot~

Brenda doing sign language of her name

Jacinta made milo for Marcel~ Lovely couple~

Lunch time!!!

Jon said I had been taking photos but not being taken photo, thus this shot~

Jon Lee: Can I have the durian please?

Jon Wee: Aiyah! Just use your hand to press the skin, then the durian will buka!

Jacinta: I also want to try one~~

Our group photo... All from left to right - Front: Ray, Jacinta, Karen, Brenda; 1st row: Mathilda, Ester, Marcel, myself, Joanne, Jon Wee; 2nd row: Jon Lee; last row: Denis, Adrian Boon.

The sisters' sharing (Denis, the photo is blur la! Your hand shaking ka when taking the photo???)

The brothers' sharing

Alright, that's the end of my entry... Thank and praise God for this two-day retreat! I hope I could serve as a leader again when God calls me back to serving. As for now, all I want to do is to sit at the feet of Jesus to listen to Him and learn from Him.

Till the next entry, Pax et Bonum.