Youth Retreat

We had the youth retreat in our new home in Santo Domingo.

As we worked on team building, patience and positive communication, the youth were given the task to put a puzzle together as a team.  Two people were blind-folded.  They were the only ones who could touch the puzzle pieces.  The rest of the team had to guide them to put the puzzle together.

There is a mango tree in our backyard with delicious mangos, ready to be picked and enjoyed!!

The leaders of the youth prepared a few team-building activities as well.

Both days, we had powerful times with the Lord in prayer, both individually and as a group.  We had great opportunities to worship together and study the Bible.

The presence of the Holy Spirit was clear during the second day of worship and prayer.  This is something that is hard to describe if you've never experienced it.  But, we had a really special time together as the Holy Spirit ministered to each one of us personally and intimately as we worshipped.
 

We had some teaching time as well.  I don't have any pictures of that.  We touched on several topics such as

- what does it mean to "make disciples"?
- how are we "making disciples" in our ministry?
- the importance of our own discipleship?
- what is the gospel?
- how do we share the gospel with children in a way they can understand?
- classroom management tips
- "Cone of learning" - kids learn 30% if the instruction is completely oral, 60% if there is a visual, 90% if they are somehow actively involved in the lesson

Then the students had opportunities to work in their teams to practice giving a lesson to the rest of us in an engaging and dynamic way.

We praise God for a great couple of days.  Again, thanks for all of you who were praying.  We needed those prayers.  Several challenges/distractions presented themselves to distract us from this retreat (me coming down with Chikingunya, the jeep not starting, etc.), but we praise God that we were able to preserver through them and had a FANTASTIC time together.

Please continue praying.  Now comes the real challenge -- putting into practice the things we learned.