Bible Retreat 2013

                Each year at Chuuk SDA school the teachers plan and hold a Bible retreat for the high school students. So this last week we had our Bible retreat which was themed, "Give Him All." It started on a Friday which was Parent Teacher conferences, (I only had 3 parents show up), at 3pm. Students slowly trickled in and helped us complete the rest of the set up. That night, after eating we had our vespers program. We split the students into three different groups, brown, red, and blue. I was a leader along with Jessrel (another teacher) of the blue team. During vespers each team presented a special music. After a short welcoming we took the students outside, spread them out, and blind folded them. Then using the animal noise we assigned to their group they had to come together into their color groups. So, if you can imagine, there was a large group of kids stumbling around trying to find each other making animal noises, it was pretty funny. The point was that it can be hard to find Jesus with all the distractions around us, but you have to focus in on His voice and follow Him.

                That night around 2AM a very loud knock came to our door. It was the girls dean who was there to get help. One of our girls was having a night terror that a man was strangling her, and she was screaming loudly. So we all ran over and helped them out. She was one of my students that I am pretty close to so I started talking to her. She needed to use the restroom so I took her but she was totally out of it and couldn't even hold herself up. The next morning I asked her if she remembered walking to the bathroom, she said she didn't. It was definitely a little eerie but our girls took it well and were able to settle down again and sleep again.

                The next day we had our Sabbath school and church program. After that we were planning on going for a hike up a nearby hill. Some of our students said they weren't going to go because they were on bad terms with the locals on that side and didn't feel safe. Later we cancelled it all together because of the recent fights and actions of violence that were happening outside our compound gates (such as rock throwing, knife fights, sling shots, etc). So instead we did several trust exercises with our groups and it turned out to be great fun!

                That night we had our Sabbath closing program followed by a talent show (they did lots of dancing) and then games such as a fear factor game, a game where the guys had to put girl clothes on and walk with a bottle between their legs (hilarious!), and other activities. After that we had a barbecue and celebrated one of the students birthdays. That night I was the dean so I had to sleep in the classroom with the girls. Well, that night a couple locals jumped our basketball court fence and got into our compound. One of them even peeked into the showers. My girls and I weren't feeling very safe up in my classroom because it is near the bball court and my door doesn't even lock! So, at 1 am we all moved to a new classroom near the boys. Although my girls had planned to stay up all night, they were out before I knew it.

                The next morning included basketball & volleyball games, followed by clean-up and our closing remarks and slideshow. The students had a blast! All today at school they kept asking me if the next one we did could be a week long, one of them suggested we do it during spring break, I told him that there was no way the teachers could survive through such a thing. Chuukese culture is continually teaching me patience, when i get back to America I feel like nothing will ever phase me! Overall, even with its bumps here and there, it was a success.