Confirmation Retreat Day 2

So, day two was pretty overwhelming. So many things were planned for the kids. The leaders were super tired and were awakened by the noisy chatters of retreatants who had waken up at 6 in the morning! They stayed up late and woke up super early! These kids have way too much energy! So, the leaders planned a little revenge, I guess you could say. I was very hesitant about what they wanted to put the kids through. We planned a game called The Egg Game for the kids first. Basically, each group was given an egg which represented their spirituality. They were to protect their egg at all times. So we had a couple of different stations where each team's egg was put in danger and they either had to take risks or be safe. If their egg cracked we gave them a plastic egg and they had to scoop up the egg into the plastic one. It was so awesome to see the kids really caring about their egg. When their eggs broke, they all got down to scoop it up...and every last bit of it. There was one thing that one of the kids said that really touched me. At one station, the leaders were pretending to throw a rock at each team's egg. Of course we weren't going to throw it for real. But,with the group that I was going to pretend to throw the rock at, I said are you sure you want to protect your egg like that, you might get hurt. One of the girls from that group, Julie, said " I don't care. I'll get hurt." These kids, although rowdy at times, are really great kids.

We went to mass after that and had reconciliation. Before reconciliation, there was a relay race for the kids. They had to do sooo many difficult things; eat a quarter of a fresh onion, eat clean a quarter of a lime without hands, do jumping jacks and push ups, lick clean peanut butter from a bowl without hands, and drink a really gross concoction E-team made. This was supposed to teach them about humility. It was amazing to see some of the kids working for their group, team work, and encouragement from everyone. It was great.

We also had a trust walk. I learned so much from that and I could only hope that the kids I led got something out of it. When I went outside, I noticed the beautiful city lights twinkling from afar.



If only I had a better camera....

But anyway, I think I skipped around a lot and probably missed a lot of details about day 2, but I really don't want to make this blog super super long so

to be continued....

(I'm also in class....shhhh..don't tell)

Unexpected Reminder

So, I was walking across the Humanities bridge to my class and this person handed me this flyer. I just thought I'd share it with you. =]



Just click on it and you'll be able to see a zoomed in version of it.

Let me know if you can't read it and I'll write it out.

Confirmation Retreat Day 1

We arrived at St. Anne's in the Mountains at around 10:30am I believe. I was a bit anxious because I had never led a group in a retreat before. My heart was pounding when I stepped inside to meet all the retreatants because I wasn't sure if they would like me or not. I joked around with the other leaders saying "I'm scared they're gonna pick on me 'cause I'm little." hehe.

Anyway, my fear went away pretty fast when I was able to interact with all of them. We had an icebreaker where we played the shooting game. Basically, when I pointed to someone, they had to duck and the people standing on both sides of that person has to shoot each other by imitating a shooting position and saying "bang." If the person in the middle was too slow and got shot, he/she had to introduce name and one fun fact; same went for the person who was slower in saying "bang." Now, I was beginning to feel comfortable.

We had a couple of activities for the kids to interact with each other and get to know one another and the leaders. We then had lunch, which was delicious! I regret not seizing the opportunity to take a picture of it, but it was pretty darn good AND spicy, just the way I like it!

Anyway, somewhere in the program, there was praise and worship. EEKK! I was pretty doubtful of my capabilities at this point, but I just went with it anyway. I taught them an action song called " We Wanna See Jesus Lifted High." It was pretty hard playing guitar, singing, and trying to do some of the actions with them, but I did it, with lots of mistakes, but I did it. =] Another song I taught them was "Light The Fire In My Heart Again." This one was full of mistakes on my guitar, but it was pretty fun. The kids had such a tough time singing the split part where the guys sang melody, and the girls sang the descant/harmony. I think they had a lot of fun with that song. I think after that, I got pretty comfortable with the idea of messing up...a lot.

I think my biggest fear though, was leading the small group discussions. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to help them to open up and share, and I was afraid they wouldn't get anything out of the small group sharings. The first small group sharing that we had, well actually almost all the small group sharings that we had, I was the one to share first. I can tell it was tough for some of my kids to open up but in the end, they all shared something, even if it was in two sentences. I was amazed at some of the sharings because it was very personal. I'm so thankful that they were able to trust me and each other enough to share. God definitely had something to do with that.

Anyway, my bad memory is kickin' in right now. I don't remember exactly what else we did because I don't have my planner with me but, overall, the first day was awesome. Most of the leaders decided to sleep in the main room where the fireplace was. E-team (environmental team I think, they help us with all the preparations when we're in meetings) and Mike (oh, Mike is the confirmation teacher) slept in the cabins with the kids. It was such a humbling experience for me because I forgot my sleeping bag at home, so Alex used his sleeping bag as the mat and Jimmy offered his sleeping bag so we used it as a blanket and just shared it. The fireplace was a plus until all the wood burned out. Big thanks to Jimmy for offering his sleeping bag and slept through the cold.

Okay, I'm sure this blog is long enough, so I'll stop it here. Have a good night everyone. =] Wait, actually I should say peace and God bless because some of you may not be reading this at night. Durrhh Tracy... x_X

Confirmation Retreat to be continued...

His Blessings

So before I left this morning to school/work, I grabbed a banana and a Naked green machine (it's really good juice) on the go. I've learned to wait a while for my car to warm up after I start the ignition, so while waiting I figured I could start eating my banana. This banana really took me by surprise and I don't know why I didn't notice it before when I grabbed it. But take a look at this...



That is the fattest banana I have ever eaten!!! O_O Anyway, I thought that was really funny so I wanted to share it with you all.

So, I ran into two really cool girls today. First, I was walking and I saw ABBY! We both had a gap and didn't know what to do. So, we walked blindly for a while until I asked, "wait, why are we walking towards the arts?" LOL. So then I tried to think of what I could get done in the meantime, and we ended up at the ATMs where I got some money to pay for Thursday Lunch at Interfaith. So after that we decided just to sit at one of the tables outside student center. We talked for a bit until we saw.......Anna! So Anna joined us. She had just taken her senior pictures so we were talking about graduation and all that great stuff. Oh by the way, here are the pictures I took. Guess which one I chose for senior yearbook and for cap and gown? =]





I'm pretty proud of myself today. I was given some tasks for work that I wasn't very confident about. I was supposed to pick up some equipment from a class at 12:20pm but I had a class at 12:30 so I was afraid that I would be late for class. I hate being unprepared and having to look for a seat and all that. So, I was scared I would be late. But then, as I walked towards the arts building, I thought, "why not leave my stuff in a seat so it doesn't get taken, and go get the stuff right now. It won't be that long and I don't think anyone will take my stuff." Granted that I took the risk of maybe losing my stuff, I still did it anyway and it was a success! So, no more stress about being late to class. I love when I can solve problems like that. Thank God! No really, thank You!

So one last unexpected thing that happened that I truly feel is a blessing is when Alex texted me and said Peter wanted to cook for us. I was surprised because it was so random. So I came over to Thu's house, where Peter rents out a room, and Peter was making salmon pasta. mMMmmMMmm... It was so classy. I loved it. Look!



We had wine with our meal. How much greater can this get? A fine dinner with fine friends. Satisfaction.

This was my plate. YUmMMm...



*I took all of these pictures, except for the studio ones with my camera phone, so it doesn't really do Peter's salmon pasta justice because it was very pleasing to the eye with all its different colors and all.*

Anyway, I should get to bed. I'm helping with a confirmation retreat this weekend and I have to wake up at 6 tomorrow. EEKK! Please pray for all the leaders and the kids on this retreat. Thank you kindly. =]

And as always, have a great night and don't forget to pray!

Acceptance

I've learned that no matter how hard you try to fight it, it always come down to one thing...whether or not you are willing to accept what God has planned. You are hurt and you're broken, but it's your choice to embrace that brokenness and discern what God may be telling you in the midst of your brokenness. I've had my fair share of blaming, hating, and complaining about why certain things happened the way they did. I guess I owe it to myself and to God to look at it in another perspective.

Even though you chose a different path, I'm still willing to be there. What is God trying to tell me?
I can't go a day without music/singing. What is God trying to tell me?
I get this jittery feeling when I'm doing something for someone or helping someone because I love the anticipation of seeing them smile. What is God trying to tell me?

God is probably trying really hard everyday to tell me something and even though I haven't quite heard what he's trying to tell me, I'll still try to listen.

I guess there's one thing I'm confident of. God's always calling me to love and to love, I will. =]