It's raining retreats

I almost couldn't get up on Mon, 29 Aug because yesterday was such an exciting day. My faithful wife was there to help me. I was up and about on Monday, a day of preparing for upcoming retreats.

Then it was raining retreats. Tue and Wed (30-31 Aug) was our planning and praying retreat for 2006 ministry. Tuesday is normally our day off but we needed to be here. Wed was to follow through on many matters before taking Thur off.

We spent Thur with my aunt from Canada. She is en route from Sabah to Canada. She had a great time sharing my childhood stories with my kids. I was glad to be able to catch up with her after so many years.

Fri and Sat passed by quickly as the weekend set in. Dinah was on duty at our Sunday morning services. I had lunch with a Nigerian couple who has been attending our church. It was a great time to get to know our guests. Later our family did not get to swim due to the weather. It was packing time again.

Mon to Wed (5-7 Sep) was the annual staff retreat. We met at the East Coast beach on Mon morning and we did a 'bike hash'. Then we took the coach to Kukup in Johor. This year the retreat venue was a fishing village by the sea.

We stayed in a house built on concrete columns. We arrived late afternoon and a few of us enjoyed the view and the sea breeze on beach chairs. The rest enjoyed board games and just catching up with colleagues. We celebrated Simon's birthday. There was a steamboat dinner followed by more board games, karoake singing and sea breeze on beach chairs. I was so glad to see good bonding among staff. I must mention that the wash room is quite basic so the ones who tend to spend a long time in the bath room don't anymore.

We awoke on Tuesday to fish porridge. Then we had devotion from morning till noon. It felt strange but good to have lengthy time with God. I sat there with the Bible, journal, sea breeze in my face, surrounded by fish farms and a community whose entire livelihood revolves around the sea. Civilisation seems distant and less attractive. At lunch we celebrated Cryst's birthday. Afternoon was a boat trip to the forest reserve in a swamp followed by an awesome excursion to a fish farm on the sea. I loved this floating farm learning experience. Then we went back. Evening started with a praise and worship followed by a seafood barbeque dinner. We had hilarious team presentations. Hope those photos don't get circulated. We capped off the evening with fireworks that Steven got.

Most of woke up later on Wed. We had praise followed by open sharing. Today we celebrated Jeff's birthday. Then we packed up and had lunch at the restaurant. The coach driver for some reason drove very fast on the bumpy road out. So I got this headache. We finally reached Singapore. We reached home and unpacked a little. Then we swam followed by more house chores. Later I read my blog and realised someone said I haven't updated my blog recently. So comes this post.