Weekend retreat allows reflection

We went with our church's international student unit to Camp Casey on Whidbey Island for the weekend. (The above pictures are of Cora and I on the beach.) Since returning from D.C. last June, my wife and I have been helping out with the group. It's such a blessing to hang out with this crowd because it's not a problem for them to have three different church-related functions during the week. For families, it's understandably a more difficult thing to fit in small group Bible study, church on Sunday, and a reach-out BBQ.

Anyway, the theme for this weekend's retreat was godly teamwork. The organizers came up with an absolutely brilliant plan to divide everyone in teams where each competitive activity illustrated some aspect of godly teamwork. For example, a competition to plan, build, and decorate a cardboard house in just 30 minutes taught the need for cooperation, since everyone had to participate in order to get things done. We did a "Faith Walk" where a leader navigated their blind-folded group through exercises using only voice commands. Anyway, it all sounds hokey, but the atmosphere was of such love and welcoming openness that not even cynical ol' me minded.

It all fit wonderfully with the key verse I used in the lessons, a prayer of Jesus who was with His disciples the night before He was crucified:

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
~ John 17:20-23