June 6-7 we took four of our oldest youth to Mazatlan for a 2-day student leadership conference. Chuy (age 21), Jose Luis (age 20), Sandy (age 20), and Martin (age 20) are our four oldest and most mature youth in the group, and all have shown signs of leadership among our youth. We had a great time with the four of them, and they really began to knit together as a leadership team over those two days. Our desire is that beginning this summer they be leaders in the youth group and not simply members/attendees. We're looking forward to seeing how the Lord develops this beginning and affects younger youth in profound ways.
Anyway...about the retreat. We studied the whole book of Nehemiah looking at his Devotion, his Action, the Opposition he faced and how he dealt with it, and how he Built the People, since the call on his heart was for his people and not just for his city of Jerusalem.
(Breif summary: Nehemiah who lives in Susa and is cupbearer for the king, hears that the wall of Jerusalem is still in ruins even though the people began returning there from exile 70 years previously. They had rebuiltt he temple but not the city wall and were therefore left exposed and vulnerable to the enemies aroudn them. He receives permission from the Persian king to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall and the king even agrees to pay for it all! Nehemiah returns and with the aid of the rest of the Israelites rebuilds the wall in 52 days (!!!) in the face of strong and scary opposition. The last half of the book is about how Nehemiah and Ezra (who had returned to the city with a group of Israelites 13 years earlier) lead the people back to a public and formal rededication to the Lord their God).
Steve taught the first three lessons (Devotion, Action, Opposition), and I gave the final lesson. It was a lot of information, but it was important information. However, the really cool about this lesson is that it may be the foundation for the mentor-training study/program I'd like to do in the fall with Sandy, and hopefully Mili as well. My desire is to equip them to be able to mentor the younger youth in the group and in the surrounding communities.
Anyway, one cool experience was that we climbed up to the Mazatlan lighthouse for our discussion on opposition. Our desire was that they hear this lesson with the entire city below them to emphasize the concept of standing on the rock and seeing the opposition (represented by the city below) for what it really is...small and easily squashed when you're rooted in the Rock of Jesus Christ and His Truth! It was really amazing, and the sunset was unbelieveable! Sadly, I did not get a picture of the sunset because I didn't want to distract from the lesson, but it was incredible to sit and watch it as we completed the study.
Anyway...about the retreat. We studied the whole book of Nehemiah looking at his Devotion, his Action, the Opposition he faced and how he dealt with it, and how he Built the People, since the call on his heart was for his people and not just for his city of Jerusalem.
(Breif summary: Nehemiah who lives in Susa and is cupbearer for the king, hears that the wall of Jerusalem is still in ruins even though the people began returning there from exile 70 years previously. They had rebuiltt he temple but not the city wall and were therefore left exposed and vulnerable to the enemies aroudn them. He receives permission from the Persian king to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall and the king even agrees to pay for it all! Nehemiah returns and with the aid of the rest of the Israelites rebuilds the wall in 52 days (!!!) in the face of strong and scary opposition. The last half of the book is about how Nehemiah and Ezra (who had returned to the city with a group of Israelites 13 years earlier) lead the people back to a public and formal rededication to the Lord their God).
Steve taught the first three lessons (Devotion, Action, Opposition), and I gave the final lesson. It was a lot of information, but it was important information. However, the really cool about this lesson is that it may be the foundation for the mentor-training study/program I'd like to do in the fall with Sandy, and hopefully Mili as well. My desire is to equip them to be able to mentor the younger youth in the group and in the surrounding communities.
Anyway, one cool experience was that we climbed up to the Mazatlan lighthouse for our discussion on opposition. Our desire was that they hear this lesson with the entire city below them to emphasize the concept of standing on the rock and seeing the opposition (represented by the city below) for what it really is...small and easily squashed when you're rooted in the Rock of Jesus Christ and His Truth! It was really amazing, and the sunset was unbelieveable! Sadly, I did not get a picture of the sunset because I didn't want to distract from the lesson, but it was incredible to sit and watch it as we completed the study.
The trailhead
Gena on the neverending stairs!
Arriving at the world's highest working lighthouse!!
Studying the opposition we face and how to deal with it -- all with a God's-eye view!
The city/port of Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico
The Pacific Ocean view just before we started our study
And the view just after the sun finished setting...breathtaking!!After that we headed to the YWAM DTS house there in town so that Jose Luis could meet the directors, see the facility, pick up and application, and hear about the program. He and Riki (Chuy's younger brother) want to attend DTS in the fall. It will be a feat, but all things are possible with our God.
Another aspect of the retreat was the team-building games, which I was in charge of. We did
several in the van on the way to Mazatlan, and we had fun discussions as we talked about answers to various challenges and get-to-know-you questions. We arrived in the city and had breakfast at Pura Vida (the greatest restaurant ever), then proceeded to the hotel for the first 2 studies (Devotion & Action). In between them we played a game called Human Machine. They had to come up with a machine that they could act out using all members of their team. They spent some time brainstorming and finally decided on a washing machine. Check out this video of their Human Machine!
Another aspect of the retreat was the team-building games, which I was in charge of. We did
several in the van on the way to Mazatlan, and we had fun discussions as we talked about answers to various challenges and get-to-know-you questions. We arrived in the city and had breakfast at Pura Vida (the greatest restaurant ever), then proceeded to the hotel for the first 2 studies (Devotion & Action). In between them we played a game called Human Machine. They had to come up with a machine that they could act out using all members of their team. They spent some time brainstorming and finally decided on a washing machine. Check out this video of their Human Machine!
Another game we played was called Blind Square. We took them to the beach, blindfolded them, then threw a really long rope on the ground and told them they had to make a squre with it. That was it!!! It was very interesting watching which ones took more leadership and which ones didn't, or rather which ones led and which ones followed and how well they did each of those. They started off well and almost had the square in under a minute. But they didn't realize that, so someone else started taking over and the ended up twisted into a figure 8. In the end they had to untie the ends of the rope and start from scratch to finally get the square. As we debreifed them after they finished, they admited that they had not been working as a team but rather each one trying to get the others to do it their way. It was neat to be able to draw parallels with past team-building experiences from the mini-reto that we did with them when Cy-Fair was here in March. In the end they decided they wanted to do it again and try to do it better, which they did.
The beginning --figuring out who was where and how much rope they had
They almost had it and SO quickly!
But then they got twisted -- here's the figure 8
Starting from scratch
Finally SUCCESS!!The final team-building game took place in the van on our way home on Thursday. It was called Desert Survivor. They were to pretend they were survivors of a plane crash in the desert. They had salvaged 11 items and had to order them according to their imporance to survival. This required them to colaborate as a team and come to a unified decision based on their plan of action for survival. This activity was really useful given the challenge we presented these four at the end of the retreat: they are to plan a 1-day camp for the rising 7th graders who will be joining the youth group this summer. The puropose is to welcome them into the youth group give the new students a sense of who we are and where're going. They have already had a couple of planning meetings and seem to be doing well so far. Please keep this planning and team-building in your prayers. We've encouraged them to plan something that will take us to a location outside of Cofradia (the beach perhaps??), and they will be the ones completely in charge of planning and executing the camp. We are here for guidance and resources as they require -- and of course for chaperoning and driving when the day comes.
Our new student leaders are off to a great start! I'm excited to see how God works amazing things in each of them and through each of them in the year to come! Please continue to remember Sandy, Chuy, Jose Luis, and Martin in your prayers!
Our new student leaders are off to a great start! I'm excited to see how God works amazing things in each of them and through each of them in the year to come! Please continue to remember Sandy, Chuy, Jose Luis, and Martin in your prayers!
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