Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Rizal Retreat

We've been crazy-ass busy the days before, but (fortunately) we were able to join the JSF retreat at the Rizal Re-Creation Center last November 3 and 4.

My cousin Jolo was unable to join us so it was just Leah and me who took the long drive to Rizal. No breakfast? No worries with a whole Yellow Cab New York's Finest pizza to share just between the two of us!

What's the first thing we did when we got to the site? Eat again! Who'd want to waste that all-buffet lunch they prepared anyway?


Then came the team-building activities. John and Leah initiated a 'getting-to-know-you' activity for the new and old church members. It was fun, albeit confusing -- especially with Maeng 'Charity/Chabelita' Estropia befuddling all the non-oldies people with his... err... less-than-truthful embellishments.


Then came the group activities. A few days before, without rhyme or reason, I (Moks) unexpectedly volunteered to facilitate the team-building activities we need. Whatever happened to the anti-social, dark and brooding me?

The first challenge was to fit the group (around 35 people)to a steadily-decreasing number of hoola-hoops. Initially, they just laughed off the trip-to-jerusalem like activity. But with fewer and fewer hoops, pretty soon things got serious!




Then there's six legs and a funeral -- how do you get an 8-person group across an entire field with only three sets of feet touching the ground? After a half-hour of sweat and toil, what was the lesson that the group learned? NEVER GET MOKS AS CAMP DIRECTOR!!




Next came blind man shooting. An activity about leadership, the challenge to the groups was to get a ping-pong ball rolling on a tray across the field and shoot it to a basket... blindfolded!




Last was a cerebral game -- an expanded tic-tac-toe. In the end, can't we all win?

Even though the challenges were hard. Everyone had a great time. But I think the group laughed the most while they were planning revenge on me...




Had a late night talk with Abe and Timmy about time management and the differing perspectives of the nobyo versus the nobya. That was fun too.

The next morning was sweet -- church time plus some time for pictures. Here's a sample of what we did:






There it is! Although the retreat was a blast, we had to go straight to Leah's office afterward to work.


Lord, thank you for the break. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to have fellowship with our churchmates and with each other. Thank you for entrusting us to share the lessons you've taught us. Bless this family we're building, O God.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ansaya naman!!!
waaa...namiss ko ang retreat.=(
well,ung buffet lang pala.hehe.
-melai

leah said...

nice pictures, huh? hehehe. :-)