Entry for May 28, 2007
Our Alpha Retreat was great! There were 14 of us total: 6 girls, 5 from New Generation & 3 from Paradigma church. The retreat started with God answering our prayers to get us on a bus out of town headed toward the dacha. The last time we went, it was a Sunday afternoon and we had not trouble getting on the bus. Evidently, Fridays are the busiest days and people reserve tickets in advance. We did not reserve tickets and others waiting for the bus told us it could be 10 p.m. before we could catch a bus. God worked it out for the driver to allow us to stand/sit in the aisle of the bus and we were all able to get on. We arrived that evening around 9:30 or 10. We fixed dinner and then had a time of singing and getting to know each other. Then, we gave everyone time to hang out a play games before going to bed. A few of us went to bed ‘early’ (that means any time between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m.) while most of the kids and a few of the college age kids stayed up until 5. Kyle was hoping everyone would sleep until noon, but everyone was up and at breakfast by a little after 10 a.m. We had a time of praise and worship following breakfast. Then we played a fun game outside. The weather was beautiful. It was pretty warm – 80s and the sun was shining. There were lots of mosquitoes, but we just put on bug spray and stayed outside anyway. The kids loved the game we played. We spent time during lunch getting to know one of the girls who came on the retreat. Each meal we ate with a different person so we could get to know several of them better before the weekend was over. After lunch we gave everyone free time to play sports, games, hang out, etc. Some played badminton, others read, played guitar, played games, and eventually, there was a water fight to cool off those outside. It was a fun afternoon. Before dinner, we had a question and answer time where they could ask any spiritual question they had and we answered it for them. They asked some good questions and I think they got a lot out of the discussion. It was one of the things they said they enjoyed the most about the weekend. After dinner, we had more music time and then Denis (he’s a seminary student) shared a short message with them about spiritual growth and what it means to be a Christian. The remainder of the evening was spent playing board games and talking. Everyone made it to bed before 3. J (Welcome to Russian lifestyle…stay up late…sleep late…good thing I’m a night owl!…) Sunday morning we had another praise and worship time followed by their last chance to play games and have fun together. Then we had lunch, packed our things and cleaned house. We hiked back out to the road with all our stuff and flagged a bus to take us back to Moscow. God again answered our prayers because we didn’t wait more that 5-10 minutes before a bus stopped that had room for us and all our stuff. We were in a traffic jam on the way home so the one hour bus ride was more like two hours with no air conditioning and the temperature being 90. The good part is that everyone got so spend more time together that way! I think I finally arrived home about 8:30 Sunday evening.
