[Caroline]
For the past four days, I went on a church youth retreat! The theme of the retreat was forgive/forgiven. We all arrived to the venue, which was very nice. I have learned quite a bit about youth retreats in China. You do not sleep in bunk beds, you share a real bed with someone you may or may not know. In my situation, it was the latter. I was sharing a bedroom, and a bed with the sweetest girl. Her name was Rachel, and she was fairly quiet, but when she made noise, she was funny, smart, or laughing. We became friends quickly. We got there Saturday afternoon, unpacked, and went to the playing field for barbeque. Another quick fact about Chinese youth retreats. By barbeque, they don't mean that we are eating already cooked meat. They mean that the kids get skewers of raw meat, bread, veggies, and potatoes, and we cook it ourselves over an open grill. There were grills set up all over the field, and tables set up with buckets of skewers. We all just sat around, and grilled, and played with frisbees and volleyballs. We had worship, and a quick sermon, and then we went to bed. We had six beds, and13 girls, and two toilets and two showers, so it was tight, but we all got along mostly alright.
We went to bed, and woke up at 7:30 the next morning to get to breakfast at 8 am. It was Chinese breakfast,so it was noodles, toast, buns, rice, steamed buns, steamed broccoli, steamed spinach, some fruit, fried eggs, and some rice porridge. Lots of bread and starches, so I drifted more towards the steamed veggies, and the fruit, and the fried eggs. We went to morning chapel afterwards, to worship, and then we had a quick break, and then had our first sermon, on how God doesn't want us to sin because not only does it hurt him, it hurts ourselves. When we disobey God, it is a sign that we do not trust him. If he tells us not to go somewhere, and we do for the fear that we will miss out, we don't trust that God had a plan for our time, and that God was not going to let us miss out. We headed to lunch, and then to small groups with our cabins, and some free time. Then group games started. Everyone was divided into 4 groups, and were standing in a line behind a cone. The first game, you had to run around every team's cne, and around your cone one more time, and race to get the ball and cone that were in the middle. The ball was sitting on top and was worth more. if you got the cone, it was less points, but if you were the slowest, and got nothing, you had no points. Every person got a turn, and on my turn, I won and got the ball, but a debate started on whether I went around my own cone at the end, and they decided I didn't get the points. My team and I were so mad. but we still came in second place when all of the points were divided. The next game, there was a large rope tied like a circle, and every team had to send up four boys or four girls, depending on who they called for. You set your cone back a little, and when they said go, each team had to pull until you could grab your cone. My group won, and some of our other groups of four won as well. There were two other games, but I will not go into specifics. We headed to dinner, and then to worship and another sermon.
The next day we woke up, ate, did worship, had some free time that we spent in the cabins, small groups with our cabins, ate again, and went to the sanctuary. We got directions, and from there we went to launchpads. Launchpads are 4 stations where we learned about Jesus' life. First, we repented, then we learned how Jesus came down to Earth and was tempted, and was human, but was still perfect. We also spent some time in Luke, and digested the crucifixion. Then we had a couple of hours for free time. Almost everyone was on the field doing everything from playing volleyball, swinging in hammocks, jumping on the trampoline, playing wiffle ball, or playing frisbee. I was in the frisbee crowd. We had four frisbees, and some people were on one side of the field, and others were on the opposite side. The frisbees were just flying back and forth not really aiming for anyone in particular. We did that for so long, and I eventually switched to wiffle ball to give my hands a break. We headed to dinner, to the sermon, to cabin small groups, and then to sleep.
We woke up, had our breakfast, and morning chapel. We had lots of free time today after our first session. We had tournaments today. There was a volleyball tournament and basketball tournament. I was in the volleyball tournament, and we got out in the first round, but it was still super fun. I hung in a hammock, jumped on the trampoline, and played some frisbee until the basketball tournament started. I was not participating, but I wanted to watch. I chatted with one of my counselors while we watched. We heard a splash during the second or third game. There were little pond like canals running through the whole camp. I high-school aged boy was running to grab the ball, and fell into the canal running by the court. Only a few people ran over, the others were either busy laughing or not caring. I was one of the few people who ran over. Two boys actually brought chairs over to watch what would happen. The boy who fell in, had gotten out with only one shoe! The other had fallen off in the canal. What is even worse was that those were the only shoes he had brought! He was sitting on the other side, ready to give up. I was not. I asked where he fell, and on what end did he lose the shoe. Sam, one of the boys with a chair, went to go put on his swimsuit to help find it. I didn't have a swimsuit, so I just slipped off my socks and shoes, and got it. Sam got back, and all three of us were in looking for the shoe. The mud was black, and gross. I discovered that the first two steps are solid mud, only three feet or so, and then it turns into sinking mud so I am up to my hips in water and mud. We kept coming up with rocks that we thought was the shoes. They were nice shoes too. Some big ol' Nikes. Eventually, I stuck my hands down into the black mud, and I Tugged on something I thought was a rock for a long time until it got loose, and I pulled out this once before all white shoe, covered in black. We all got out and went to shower.
After I took a shower, I went to our last dinner, and I saw the boy who fell in, and he told me that after he wiped the shoes off, they were cleaner than they were before! I spent my last evening in charge of the megaphone, walking around the field, commentating on everything including the game of Nuc' em that was going on, reviewing the retreat, and people's eating and cooking skills. It was really funny. We went to sleep, and woke up late the next morning, of course, and hurried to breakfast. We shared our testimonies in front of everyone until we had to leave. I got up and shared, which was really hard for me, but it was all good. We were walking to get on the bus, and they had a table set up with leftover half loaves of bread, jars of peanut butter and jelly, bags of rolls, and some chips up for grabs. I came home with bread and peanut butter. I also grabbed a big bag of chips, but they got eaten on the ride home. We were all talking and listening to music on the ride home, and then Mom picked me up. I had really enjoyed my time away, but was glad to get home to my own bed :)
For the past four days, I went on a church youth retreat! The theme of the retreat was forgive/forgiven. We all arrived to the venue, which was very nice. I have learned quite a bit about youth retreats in China. You do not sleep in bunk beds, you share a real bed with someone you may or may not know. In my situation, it was the latter. I was sharing a bedroom, and a bed with the sweetest girl. Her name was Rachel, and she was fairly quiet, but when she made noise, she was funny, smart, or laughing. We became friends quickly. We got there Saturday afternoon, unpacked, and went to the playing field for barbeque. Another quick fact about Chinese youth retreats. By barbeque, they don't mean that we are eating already cooked meat. They mean that the kids get skewers of raw meat, bread, veggies, and potatoes, and we cook it ourselves over an open grill. There were grills set up all over the field, and tables set up with buckets of skewers. We all just sat around, and grilled, and played with frisbees and volleyballs. We had worship, and a quick sermon, and then we went to bed. We had six beds, and13 girls, and two toilets and two showers, so it was tight, but we all got along mostly alright.
We went to bed, and woke up at 7:30 the next morning to get to breakfast at 8 am. It was Chinese breakfast,so it was noodles, toast, buns, rice, steamed buns, steamed broccoli, steamed spinach, some fruit, fried eggs, and some rice porridge. Lots of bread and starches, so I drifted more towards the steamed veggies, and the fruit, and the fried eggs. We went to morning chapel afterwards, to worship, and then we had a quick break, and then had our first sermon, on how God doesn't want us to sin because not only does it hurt him, it hurts ourselves. When we disobey God, it is a sign that we do not trust him. If he tells us not to go somewhere, and we do for the fear that we will miss out, we don't trust that God had a plan for our time, and that God was not going to let us miss out. We headed to lunch, and then to small groups with our cabins, and some free time. Then group games started. Everyone was divided into 4 groups, and were standing in a line behind a cone. The first game, you had to run around every team's cne, and around your cone one more time, and race to get the ball and cone that were in the middle. The ball was sitting on top and was worth more. if you got the cone, it was less points, but if you were the slowest, and got nothing, you had no points. Every person got a turn, and on my turn, I won and got the ball, but a debate started on whether I went around my own cone at the end, and they decided I didn't get the points. My team and I were so mad. but we still came in second place when all of the points were divided. The next game, there was a large rope tied like a circle, and every team had to send up four boys or four girls, depending on who they called for. You set your cone back a little, and when they said go, each team had to pull until you could grab your cone. My group won, and some of our other groups of four won as well. There were two other games, but I will not go into specifics. We headed to dinner, and then to worship and another sermon.
The next day we woke up, ate, did worship, had some free time that we spent in the cabins, small groups with our cabins, ate again, and went to the sanctuary. We got directions, and from there we went to launchpads. Launchpads are 4 stations where we learned about Jesus' life. First, we repented, then we learned how Jesus came down to Earth and was tempted, and was human, but was still perfect. We also spent some time in Luke, and digested the crucifixion. Then we had a couple of hours for free time. Almost everyone was on the field doing everything from playing volleyball, swinging in hammocks, jumping on the trampoline, playing wiffle ball, or playing frisbee. I was in the frisbee crowd. We had four frisbees, and some people were on one side of the field, and others were on the opposite side. The frisbees were just flying back and forth not really aiming for anyone in particular. We did that for so long, and I eventually switched to wiffle ball to give my hands a break. We headed to dinner, to the sermon, to cabin small groups, and then to sleep.
We woke up, had our breakfast, and morning chapel. We had lots of free time today after our first session. We had tournaments today. There was a volleyball tournament and basketball tournament. I was in the volleyball tournament, and we got out in the first round, but it was still super fun. I hung in a hammock, jumped on the trampoline, and played some frisbee until the basketball tournament started. I was not participating, but I wanted to watch. I chatted with one of my counselors while we watched. We heard a splash during the second or third game. There were little pond like canals running through the whole camp. I high-school aged boy was running to grab the ball, and fell into the canal running by the court. Only a few people ran over, the others were either busy laughing or not caring. I was one of the few people who ran over. Two boys actually brought chairs over to watch what would happen. The boy who fell in, had gotten out with only one shoe! The other had fallen off in the canal. What is even worse was that those were the only shoes he had brought! He was sitting on the other side, ready to give up. I was not. I asked where he fell, and on what end did he lose the shoe. Sam, one of the boys with a chair, went to go put on his swimsuit to help find it. I didn't have a swimsuit, so I just slipped off my socks and shoes, and got it. Sam got back, and all three of us were in looking for the shoe. The mud was black, and gross. I discovered that the first two steps are solid mud, only three feet or so, and then it turns into sinking mud so I am up to my hips in water and mud. We kept coming up with rocks that we thought was the shoes. They were nice shoes too. Some big ol' Nikes. Eventually, I stuck my hands down into the black mud, and I Tugged on something I thought was a rock for a long time until it got loose, and I pulled out this once before all white shoe, covered in black. We all got out and went to shower.
After I took a shower, I went to our last dinner, and I saw the boy who fell in, and he told me that after he wiped the shoes off, they were cleaner than they were before! I spent my last evening in charge of the megaphone, walking around the field, commentating on everything including the game of Nuc' em that was going on, reviewing the retreat, and people's eating and cooking skills. It was really funny. We went to sleep, and woke up late the next morning, of course, and hurried to breakfast. We shared our testimonies in front of everyone until we had to leave. I got up and shared, which was really hard for me, but it was all good. We were walking to get on the bus, and they had a table set up with leftover half loaves of bread, jars of peanut butter and jelly, bags of rolls, and some chips up for grabs. I came home with bread and peanut butter. I also grabbed a big bag of chips, but they got eaten on the ride home. We were all talking and listening to music on the ride home, and then Mom picked me up. I had really enjoyed my time away, but was glad to get home to my own bed :)
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