Colluni Winter Retreat 2009

Back from Colluni Winter Retreat and I think this retreat was one of the most memorable...probably because of the crazy tubing injury/accident I had, and also the many thoughts/perspectives/ideas that were discussed during the sessions, but I would have to say the most memorable event was the moment/experience that I was truly blessed to finally have because I needed to have that for a long time. I'll talk about these in order!

OK, so the accident I had was from tubing. I was going down the hill with Sam on this sled thing called "Bladerunner" (haha, I love that name). We were going down pretty slowly, but then it picked up right before a jump...and we flew off....but the bad part was that we flew off to the side and so in the air, we were falling forward and to our left side. The result was that we landed on the left side of my face, with my weight and Sam's weight. It felt like my face was being crushed into a pancake, and it hurt a lot haha. But other than the wooziness, I tasted blood, so it wasn't that good. I got up and started walking back up the hill and then people started telling me my face was bleeding and I had a big cut on my forehead with a really big patch of scratches on my left cheek and chin. I blame it on the hard snow (not like the fluffy snow from last year)! So I had to ice it down. It actually felt better an hour later, but the marks are clearly there. Somebody said I looked like The Joker. I feel like I just "put a smile on my face" hahahaha. But ya, there is still one thing that was cool about this. A lot of people showed concern for me, even though it wasn't that bad, so I'm really grateful for people asking if I was ok...even if it was a simple checkup.

OK, so we discussed a lot of various things and some things I remember are the following. First thing was the parable of the talents and one thing that caught my eye was that the person with the one talent was "afraid" when he reported to the master about his doing. I was shocked because of why he was afraid. I wonder why...was it because of the things the master did previously? Why would he have this perception about the master? Are we ever afraid of our master (God)? It was kinda strange and made me think if we ever have the fear when we approach God, and if we did, why do we have it? Do we approach God as a master who overrules or is he also a friend? Sometimes we dont' even bother being a friend to God. I think it's moments where you spend quiet time with God as friends that you grow closer and feel the peace in times of stress. Another thing I got out of this retreat was about running the race, while being unafraid of taking risks to complete the task. It's these risks that allow opportunities for spiritual growth. More often than not we just want to stay in our comfort zone and just let things be, but in life, we gotta go hard at things because that's the only way to fully experience the good and the bad and learn what God wants us to learn. The Christian life isn't easy. God knows that and we should know that as well, but not to go through life blindly, but to realize that God is with us every step of the way. As long as we allow God to be with us and to always keep in touch with Him, then we can walk (or RUN!) our paths, whether straight or swerving, with perseverance and faith.

Lastly, I finally had the chance to talk to R again. It's been such a long time. I actually feel terrible about it because it has always felt weird, but for the most part of the past 6 months, things were getting normal and I didn't feel the weirdness anymore, yet I still neglected to reconnect. When we did get the chance to talk during a portion of the Prayer Walk (Quiet Time, I guess), we actually had to recap what was happening in each others' lives. It was disappointing because we used to be so close and we used to share so much stuff, but the friendship ended up going so far downhill that we didn't even know what was going on in each others' lives. We shared about how we were doing and also just what were on our minds and what prayer requests we had, and I have to say it was such an amazing moment to finally have that time again to just talk. We're great friends and will always be close, yet somehow we did let this friendship get worse, but I'm glad we patched it up and I really pray and hope we will go upwards after being in this big rut. And if there is anything to pray about, I would want to pray for her and how she's doing because she isn't doing that well in terms of spiritually. I take part of the blame because I wasn't there to talk to her and to carry her through, but I'm glad the timing was good this time because I can at least pray specifically for her now. I hope for the best for her and also our friendships. Who knows what amazing things God will have for our friendship?! =) Even though we had this bad patch, I don't regret it. I just look forward to what lies ahead and strive to be as close to her as I can, especially to help her through the struggles because I know she will do the same for me no matter where we go.