September 22-September 23 - Men's Retreat
September 22, 2006 – September 23, 2006 – Friday/Saturday Men’s Retreat
This blog will chronicle our activities on the men’s retreat. I cannot speak for what the ladies did while the men were gone as I have not quite perfected being in two places at once. I think Erika will be writing a blog about what the women did while we were gone… I will post that as soon as I have it…
Friday morning. David and I woke up early to go to the ARC to publish Thursday’s blog before leaving for the retreat. It’s the small sacrifice I give to satisfy your longing for my blog entries… ;)
We got there before 8:30AM but the gate to the garage area was not open yet. We tried to open it but some other guys standing around told us it was computer-controlled (in broken English). So, we waited until it magically opened at its’ predetermined time.
So, we published the blog and waited for all of the other guys to show up for the retreat. We were expecting about 12 refugees to be there. Only 4 showed up, but it was the perfect number! It allowed for closer conversation, relationship building, and bible studying than a larger group would have allowed.
Rashed (I will be spelling all names phonetically here due to my keyboard layout lacking all of the different country characters and my lack of interest to type them) was our translator for the retreat. He showed up, and when everyone else was there, we headed for the bus station.
We got on the bus headed to Port Rafti. I sat down and prepared myself for the motion sickness that would soon come. Something about those larger vehicles… I usually try to sleep it off but it is not always an option. We arrived about 2 hours later in Port Rafti after switches to another bus at one point. The nice thing about the busses is that they were air conditioned and had very comfortable seats. We were not expecting that.
So, we arrived at the retreat center place (the bus did not stop there, we had to walk a bit to get there) around 11:45AM. While walking, we stopped a few times and took several group photos. One of the guys, A* (name removed for refugee), had his own digital camera with him, as did Skip and Kerry. All of the guys loved to have their picture taken. Scott had just pulled up in his van and we helped unload the groceries. He bought so much food for so few people; we had plenty of food to go around the entire weekend.
Once we set down our bags in the dorm-style room (we all slept in the same room, all 10 of us), we participated in the first team-building exercise. Before we left the Athens Refugee Center, we all tried to learn each others’ names in expectation of this exercise. This exercise was called “pop corn”. Basically, everyone stands in a circle, and someone stands in the middle with a stick, and he walks around and then randomly picks a person (this all happens very quickly). He will either say “pop” or “corn”. If he says “pop”, you have one second to say the name of the person to the right of you. If he says “corn”, you have one second to say the name of the person on your left. So, it was a name-learning exercise. If you failed to say the name quickly enough, you were hit (lightly, or not) with the stick, and then you became “it” and had to stand in the middle, picking the next person, etc. So, we all learned each others’ names very quickly.
After this, we played another little “game”, where we each chose cards out of a bag (without knowing what we were choosing), to then expand upon. For example, one said, “Tell a story you heard about one of your grandfathers.” David had this card and he shared a story about how his grandfather stowed away on a boat to come to America. My card said, “Tell about how you and a brother or sister are alike.” What an interesting card for me! I have an identical twin! So, we are alike in many ways. I explained to the guys that I had a twin, what a twin was, and then how we are definitely alike in many ways.
There were ten of us at the retreat altogether this weekend. From our group, Skip, Kerry, David, and myself. From the Athens Refugee Center, we had Scott and Rashed. The four refugees that came along were A* (name removed for refugee), S* (name removed for refugee), R* (name removed for refugee), and J* (name removed for refugee). Over the course of the weekend, we all got to know each other very well, often through non-verbal communication since they did not speak English, and we did not speak Farsi. Rashed would often translate questions and answers for us if it was difficult to express.
So, after the team-building exercises, we had a bit of free time while some of us prepared lunch in the kitchen. I helped cut the bread and tomatoes. I am not really good at cutting tomatoes, in fact, my mom (Hey Mom!) had always done it for me when I lived at home. But, somehow, this weekend, I was granted that special ability. Granted, they looked like I had cut them with safety-scissors on an uneven surface while standing on one foot and looking in another direction, they still somewhat resembled “slices”. Kerry stopped in to help too and he was quite good at it.
After lunch, we cleaned off the table and started our first Bible study. Throughout the entire weekend, we went through Charlie Boyd’s latest book, What God Has Always Wanted, with the guys. Scott would read a few sentences of it and stop, and then Rashed would translate. We would work through one or two pages, and then read some scripture to help support the basic idea that we had just read. All scripture was read aloud in Farsi, not English, so it was neat to hear God’s word in another language. At the end of this session, Skip shared the story of his spiritual journey. If you have never heard him tell it before, you are definitely missing out on an encouraging experience.
After lunch, we had some free time, so we all (minus Skip and Scott) headed down to the beach to swim. The sea was beautiful. I hope I can get some pictures posted for you to see. I will have to do it without the ladies on our team seeing because I think they are still jealous that we got to go to a beach. A few of us went swimming, I stayed and watched and just relaxed. I tried to talk to J* (name removed for refugee), but he doesn’t speak much English. He told me that he has a brother going to college in Chicago. I told him where I was from, and that I live in South Carolina. He told me that his entire family had been killed by the Taliban, right in front of him. Here is a young man (the same age as me, 22) who, through all the terrible things he has had to face, found Christ. In Afghanistan, he was witnessed to by a man who came to know Jesus at the very ministry we are serving at this week! It was amazing to see that God has His hand in everything. Think about it. A man came to this ministry. God lined him up with people here to share Jesus with him. That man then left to share the Good News in Afghanistan. He met J*, J* became a friend of God, and then J* came to Greece, and we were able to study the Bible with him! An interesting circle, indeed.
So, anyway, we got back from swimming around 6pm. We had another Bible Study, and Kerry shared his story. We continued going through Charlie’s book and scripture references. As always, at the end of each session, Scott asked if any of the guys had any questions. Sometimes we had a few, sometimes we had none. Scott left near the end of the session to go get dinner—gyros. Does anyone grow tired of those? I don’t.
So, after dinner, it was basically free time until bedtime. Before we were dismissed for free time, we played a game called “Iotola says”. Basically, it was like “Simon says”. Whatever Scott said to do, prefixed by “Iotola says”, we had to do. If he said something without that prefix, and we did it, we were eliminated. Skip won that time. I was eliminated quickly because he did not clarify if Iotola would ever decree more than one command at a time. So, without a justified pause, I assumed it was a part of the previously prefixed decree.
During free time, David and I made up more songs, this time, about ping pong, since that is what everyone was playing. Shahab and I both have “operatic” voices. He sang a few Iranian songs and I sang a few songs like “Phantom of the Opera”, etc. It was a great time.
I played a lot of ping pong this weekend. I am getting better but I still often miss the ball. I guess it will take practice. I played some tavli (we call it backgammon) with the guys. I lost pretty bad. They play so fast! I like to play slow, but I guess that’s just because I only learned to play about 2 days ago.
Scott brought his laptop with him on the retreat because he heard that I am some kind of computer “wiz”. He had a problem with some language-learning software that he had installed on there. I looked at it and fixed it pretty quickly for him. He is convinced that I have lifted the “McCracken curse” (they always have problems with technology, apparently).
We all went to bed around 11:30pm. I slept on the bottom bunk of one of the beds, below A*. I slept ok but it was kind of a pain because the top bunk was so low to the bottom bunk that I could not lean up more than halfway without hitting my head.
We woke up this morning around 8AM and got ready for breakfast. Scott had brought cereal, bread, juice, milk, cheese, etc. for everyone. There was plenty to go around. We ate breakfast and relaxed as the day was beginning until our first session of the new day at 9:15AM.
We continued going through our study of Charlie’s book and reading more scripture to go along with it. This time, we met outside instead of inside. We read through parts of Romans, Acts, and even Revelation, explaining the basic story of the Bible and what the Kingdom of God really is. It’s not just “something for when we die”. It is here and it is now, if we are followers of Christ.
We played another game of “Iotola says”. I won this time. I used a different strategy than before. I looked away from Scott so that I would not be tempted to do what he did until. I simply listened for that prefix before doing anything. Even when the game was over, I didn’t sit down until he prefixed the command with “Iotola says”.
After our morning session, we had some free time until lunch at 1:30pm. Before being dismissed to free time, we participated in a strange but serious exercise simply known as the “Hooga Booga club”. I can only express and explain this activity in person, so, if you would like for me to explain it, just ask me to the next time you see me. Just know this. I have pictures to help explain.
We went to the beach again and took lots of pictures. The guys really like having their picture taken. They also enjoyed taking pictures. I will try to post some of them later. We had lunch from 1:30 to 2:30pm. After lunch, we had to clean up the place. David, Kerry, and I finished all of the dishes and then did all of the sweeping inside and outside.
David, Kerry, Skip, A*, and I rode back with Scott in his van instead of taking the bus. It was a lot faster, we got onto the metro and were back to Omonia (think “ammonia”) Square very quickly. We got back around 5pm and headed to the ARC. I checked my email, caught up on the blog comments (keep posting comments! It encourages our team to read them to know you are reading…) before we headed back to the guest house.
When we got back to the guest house, we relaxed for a few minutes and then everyone but Skip (who was feeling tired) went to dinner. We went to the same restaurant that we went to on Thursday night. I got spaghetti this time. “It’sa gooda spageddi!” It started raining again on the way back to the guest house. Everyone in Greece says, “it never rains” yet it has rained nearly every day since we have been here. When we got back, we surprised Jean Young with a cake and card for her birthday today. Jean Andersen got her a card in English and a card in Greek, celebrating her first Greek birthday, which we all signed.
After eating some cake, we had another “pill popping” drug party. We are slowly disposing of all of these old expired drugs and pills left at the medical clinic below the guest house. We can’t just throw them out, or people might get them out of the trash. We have to pop every pill out of every sealed package and box, put them in a bowl, and then grind them up and flush them down the toilet.
So, that’s about it for what we did this weekend! Church tomorrow… I might bring my laptop with me. They had computer problems last week and I know that if I had my computer with me, I could help them have words to follow along with the songs.
Tomorrow, after church, we are going to the Acropolis, I think. Should be some good pictures!
Here to serve,
Joe
This blog will chronicle our activities on the men’s retreat. I cannot speak for what the ladies did while the men were gone as I have not quite perfected being in two places at once. I think Erika will be writing a blog about what the women did while we were gone… I will post that as soon as I have it…
Friday morning. David and I woke up early to go to the ARC to publish Thursday’s blog before leaving for the retreat. It’s the small sacrifice I give to satisfy your longing for my blog entries… ;)
We got there before 8:30AM but the gate to the garage area was not open yet. We tried to open it but some other guys standing around told us it was computer-controlled (in broken English). So, we waited until it magically opened at its’ predetermined time.
So, we published the blog and waited for all of the other guys to show up for the retreat. We were expecting about 12 refugees to be there. Only 4 showed up, but it was the perfect number! It allowed for closer conversation, relationship building, and bible studying than a larger group would have allowed.
Rashed (I will be spelling all names phonetically here due to my keyboard layout lacking all of the different country characters and my lack of interest to type them) was our translator for the retreat. He showed up, and when everyone else was there, we headed for the bus station.
We got on the bus headed to Port Rafti. I sat down and prepared myself for the motion sickness that would soon come. Something about those larger vehicles… I usually try to sleep it off but it is not always an option. We arrived about 2 hours later in Port Rafti after switches to another bus at one point. The nice thing about the busses is that they were air conditioned and had very comfortable seats. We were not expecting that.
So, we arrived at the retreat center place (the bus did not stop there, we had to walk a bit to get there) around 11:45AM. While walking, we stopped a few times and took several group photos. One of the guys, A* (name removed for refugee), had his own digital camera with him, as did Skip and Kerry. All of the guys loved to have their picture taken. Scott had just pulled up in his van and we helped unload the groceries. He bought so much food for so few people; we had plenty of food to go around the entire weekend.
Once we set down our bags in the dorm-style room (we all slept in the same room, all 10 of us), we participated in the first team-building exercise. Before we left the Athens Refugee Center, we all tried to learn each others’ names in expectation of this exercise. This exercise was called “pop corn”. Basically, everyone stands in a circle, and someone stands in the middle with a stick, and he walks around and then randomly picks a person (this all happens very quickly). He will either say “pop” or “corn”. If he says “pop”, you have one second to say the name of the person to the right of you. If he says “corn”, you have one second to say the name of the person on your left. So, it was a name-learning exercise. If you failed to say the name quickly enough, you were hit (lightly, or not) with the stick, and then you became “it” and had to stand in the middle, picking the next person, etc. So, we all learned each others’ names very quickly.
After this, we played another little “game”, where we each chose cards out of a bag (without knowing what we were choosing), to then expand upon. For example, one said, “Tell a story you heard about one of your grandfathers.” David had this card and he shared a story about how his grandfather stowed away on a boat to come to America. My card said, “Tell about how you and a brother or sister are alike.” What an interesting card for me! I have an identical twin! So, we are alike in many ways. I explained to the guys that I had a twin, what a twin was, and then how we are definitely alike in many ways.
There were ten of us at the retreat altogether this weekend. From our group, Skip, Kerry, David, and myself. From the Athens Refugee Center, we had Scott and Rashed. The four refugees that came along were A* (name removed for refugee), S* (name removed for refugee), R* (name removed for refugee), and J* (name removed for refugee). Over the course of the weekend, we all got to know each other very well, often through non-verbal communication since they did not speak English, and we did not speak Farsi. Rashed would often translate questions and answers for us if it was difficult to express.
So, after the team-building exercises, we had a bit of free time while some of us prepared lunch in the kitchen. I helped cut the bread and tomatoes. I am not really good at cutting tomatoes, in fact, my mom (Hey Mom!) had always done it for me when I lived at home. But, somehow, this weekend, I was granted that special ability. Granted, they looked like I had cut them with safety-scissors on an uneven surface while standing on one foot and looking in another direction, they still somewhat resembled “slices”. Kerry stopped in to help too and he was quite good at it.
After lunch, we cleaned off the table and started our first Bible study. Throughout the entire weekend, we went through Charlie Boyd’s latest book, What God Has Always Wanted, with the guys. Scott would read a few sentences of it and stop, and then Rashed would translate. We would work through one or two pages, and then read some scripture to help support the basic idea that we had just read. All scripture was read aloud in Farsi, not English, so it was neat to hear God’s word in another language. At the end of this session, Skip shared the story of his spiritual journey. If you have never heard him tell it before, you are definitely missing out on an encouraging experience.
After lunch, we had some free time, so we all (minus Skip and Scott) headed down to the beach to swim. The sea was beautiful. I hope I can get some pictures posted for you to see. I will have to do it without the ladies on our team seeing because I think they are still jealous that we got to go to a beach. A few of us went swimming, I stayed and watched and just relaxed. I tried to talk to J* (name removed for refugee), but he doesn’t speak much English. He told me that he has a brother going to college in Chicago. I told him where I was from, and that I live in South Carolina. He told me that his entire family had been killed by the Taliban, right in front of him. Here is a young man (the same age as me, 22) who, through all the terrible things he has had to face, found Christ. In Afghanistan, he was witnessed to by a man who came to know Jesus at the very ministry we are serving at this week! It was amazing to see that God has His hand in everything. Think about it. A man came to this ministry. God lined him up with people here to share Jesus with him. That man then left to share the Good News in Afghanistan. He met J*, J* became a friend of God, and then J* came to Greece, and we were able to study the Bible with him! An interesting circle, indeed.
So, anyway, we got back from swimming around 6pm. We had another Bible Study, and Kerry shared his story. We continued going through Charlie’s book and scripture references. As always, at the end of each session, Scott asked if any of the guys had any questions. Sometimes we had a few, sometimes we had none. Scott left near the end of the session to go get dinner—gyros. Does anyone grow tired of those? I don’t.
So, after dinner, it was basically free time until bedtime. Before we were dismissed for free time, we played a game called “Iotola says”. Basically, it was like “Simon says”. Whatever Scott said to do, prefixed by “Iotola says”, we had to do. If he said something without that prefix, and we did it, we were eliminated. Skip won that time. I was eliminated quickly because he did not clarify if Iotola would ever decree more than one command at a time. So, without a justified pause, I assumed it was a part of the previously prefixed decree.
During free time, David and I made up more songs, this time, about ping pong, since that is what everyone was playing. Shahab and I both have “operatic” voices. He sang a few Iranian songs and I sang a few songs like “Phantom of the Opera”, etc. It was a great time.
I played a lot of ping pong this weekend. I am getting better but I still often miss the ball. I guess it will take practice. I played some tavli (we call it backgammon) with the guys. I lost pretty bad. They play so fast! I like to play slow, but I guess that’s just because I only learned to play about 2 days ago.
Scott brought his laptop with him on the retreat because he heard that I am some kind of computer “wiz”. He had a problem with some language-learning software that he had installed on there. I looked at it and fixed it pretty quickly for him. He is convinced that I have lifted the “McCracken curse” (they always have problems with technology, apparently).
We all went to bed around 11:30pm. I slept on the bottom bunk of one of the beds, below A*. I slept ok but it was kind of a pain because the top bunk was so low to the bottom bunk that I could not lean up more than halfway without hitting my head.
We woke up this morning around 8AM and got ready for breakfast. Scott had brought cereal, bread, juice, milk, cheese, etc. for everyone. There was plenty to go around. We ate breakfast and relaxed as the day was beginning until our first session of the new day at 9:15AM.
We continued going through our study of Charlie’s book and reading more scripture to go along with it. This time, we met outside instead of inside. We read through parts of Romans, Acts, and even Revelation, explaining the basic story of the Bible and what the Kingdom of God really is. It’s not just “something for when we die”. It is here and it is now, if we are followers of Christ.
We played another game of “Iotola says”. I won this time. I used a different strategy than before. I looked away from Scott so that I would not be tempted to do what he did until. I simply listened for that prefix before doing anything. Even when the game was over, I didn’t sit down until he prefixed the command with “Iotola says”.
After our morning session, we had some free time until lunch at 1:30pm. Before being dismissed to free time, we participated in a strange but serious exercise simply known as the “Hooga Booga club”. I can only express and explain this activity in person, so, if you would like for me to explain it, just ask me to the next time you see me. Just know this. I have pictures to help explain.
We went to the beach again and took lots of pictures. The guys really like having their picture taken. They also enjoyed taking pictures. I will try to post some of them later. We had lunch from 1:30 to 2:30pm. After lunch, we had to clean up the place. David, Kerry, and I finished all of the dishes and then did all of the sweeping inside and outside.
David, Kerry, Skip, A*, and I rode back with Scott in his van instead of taking the bus. It was a lot faster, we got onto the metro and were back to Omonia (think “ammonia”) Square very quickly. We got back around 5pm and headed to the ARC. I checked my email, caught up on the blog comments (keep posting comments! It encourages our team to read them to know you are reading…) before we headed back to the guest house.
When we got back to the guest house, we relaxed for a few minutes and then everyone but Skip (who was feeling tired) went to dinner. We went to the same restaurant that we went to on Thursday night. I got spaghetti this time. “It’sa gooda spageddi!” It started raining again on the way back to the guest house. Everyone in Greece says, “it never rains” yet it has rained nearly every day since we have been here. When we got back, we surprised Jean Young with a cake and card for her birthday today. Jean Andersen got her a card in English and a card in Greek, celebrating her first Greek birthday, which we all signed.
After eating some cake, we had another “pill popping” drug party. We are slowly disposing of all of these old expired drugs and pills left at the medical clinic below the guest house. We can’t just throw them out, or people might get them out of the trash. We have to pop every pill out of every sealed package and box, put them in a bowl, and then grind them up and flush them down the toilet.
So, that’s about it for what we did this weekend! Church tomorrow… I might bring my laptop with me. They had computer problems last week and I know that if I had my computer with me, I could help them have words to follow along with the songs.
Tomorrow, after church, we are going to the Acropolis, I think. Should be some good pictures!
Here to serve,
Joe
posted by Joe at 11:13 PM
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