Koinonia

(Warning: Long ‘and-this-is-what-I-did’ post) Family Retreat! I have to be honest; my trip up to Mission Springs, Santa Cruz wasn't as productive as I thought. I couldn't grasp hold of God or find his voice. I don’t know why but it was just very difficult, on the contrary, when I got home, I took the time to reflect a bit and that’s when I truly felt His presence. It felt warm and comforting - it made me very content with life as He knows all and will lead me onwards. --- Anyway, let’s backtrack, we all met up at church one scorching hot Friday afternoon and made way to Santa Cruz. According to Tiffany, the temperature peaked up to 111 degrees; luckily, it cooled down to a toasty burnt degree of 97 by the time we arrived. Aside from the weather (and crazy bugs EVERYWHERE), the area was quite peaceful - we had dinner, worshipped, and listened to Sharon Huey's message of unlearning old ways. Later on that night, after much cold-showers, some of us came into our cabin to play cards - very funny as we discovered that SOME of us are cheaters, but I still love you guys. The next day, we hiked up to the ropes course area. Sadly, most of up weren’t able to climb the trees due to the unexpected thunder clouds - so we went back and spent the rest of the day in the pool full of sweat and saliva (Goodie!). Towards the end, Tiffany, Neilson, Thomas and I went over to the deep end and started diving, and then EVERYONE came over. We did some entertaining stunts (Ill post some pics and videos as soon as I get them). During one of my cannonballs, my shorts were inching away as I tired to surface, so I was panicking underwater. Hahaha. After that we listened to another one of Sharon's message about Peter and Cornelius. That night, we went up to the campfire to share our experiences that weekend. I enjoyed Aaron's analogy of the ropes course event. There was this course where you climb 50 some feet up a tree and take a leap of faith as you try to ring the bell floating in midair. The analogy behind it is that we climb up the vigorous tree, not knowing where it takes you and trying to get the top, and once we get there we take a leap of faith as we try to reach for our goal (bell). And if we miss, God will slowly guide us down and let us try again. I thought it was very interesting. Finally, on our last day, we had Sunday communion, followed by Pastor Mark's message as he weaved in and out of topic. Hilarious. A couple of us, me included, have to leave early for the team's softball game. So we headed back up to glorious foggy San Francisco before lunch. I recorded the game as promised and went home EXHAUSTED. Took a 13 hour sleep, but enjoyed every moment of retreat. Fellowshipping, friends, cards, eating, swimming, worshipping, hiking, nighttime star field, even the insanely amount of bugs (okay, not really). <3