The Experiencing the Presence of God Retreat from Friday, April 3 to Sunday, April 5, 2009 at the Burkeville Lodge for the Blind was all that God would have it to be. Twenty-one people attended. People's spirits were healed, delivered and set free.
FRIDAY
On Friday participants were given gifts bags with several useful gifts including the book, "The Prayer of Jabez." They were given name badges, a personalized three-ring binder with all workshop materials, a directory of all guests, room assignments, serving assignments and a sheet with the activity "Getting to Know You." Participants decorated hats with their names on them.
The dinner menu consisted of tossed salad, spaghetti and meat sauce, garlic bread, cream puffs, raspberry tea and coffee. After dinner participants questioned one another and filled out the "Getting to Know You" sheet. Questions included: Who is the youngest person on the retreat? Who is the oldest person? Who lives closest to the lodge? etc. They learned much about their fellow retreatants. The director used the pages in the notebook to explain what to expect during the retreat. The first night ended with a short soaking session where meditative music was played. With the lights out the director told the story of the rich young ruler who wanted to follow Jesus but didn't want to do the one thing Jesus asked him to do; that is, give up his possessions. The group was asked to think of what they were holding onto and when the answer came to them to turn on their battery operated candles. It was an awesome sight to see the candles go on one by one until the room was lighted by all the candles. Participants were dismissed with much to think about as they retired for the night.
SATURDAY
Early risers went on a nature walk and stopped to reflect on scriptures that had been posted along the trail. They collected stickers and placed them in their notebook as evidence they had been to that particular station and meditated there.
Tent cards with participants' names on them were placed at random for breakfast to give everyone a chance to get to know one another. Everyone had been given a large placemat to keep with either the Lord's Prayer or the Footprints poem on it. For breakfast the menu included boiled eggs, corn beef hash, apple sauce, croissants, orange, apple, or grape juice, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.
A leader was assigned to four small groups named Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. The leader was not to teach but facilitate the group by allowing each person to share based on the one page information provided for each discipline. A person from each group gathered snacks to take to their assigned areas. The snacks consisted of chips, crackers, Pringles sticks, water, sodas, etc. The groups began and ended each session with prayer. The groups discussed Experiencing the Presence of God through the first four disciplines: Meditation, Prayer, Fasting, and Scriptures. Then they all came back into the larger group for a Bible Bee where biblical questions were asked just like a Spelling Bee in school. Even though Rev. Blanche Murphy was the winner, all received a Bible lapel pin as a prize along with the tract, "God is My Teacher."
The four groups gathered additional snacks and went back to their small groups to discuss Experiencing the Presence of God through four more disciplines: Simplicity, Solitude, Submission and Service.
For lunch, participants made their own submarine sandwiches. Ham, turkey, and roast beef were available as well as egg salad made with the boiled eggs that were left over from breakfast. Amish potato salad, chicken noodle soup, pickles, coffee, tea, and sodas were available.
After lunch each person was given a small piece of rice paper and water in a clear plastic cup. The director led them in a prayer to think of the one thing that was keeping them from progressing spiritually and to write it down on the rice paper. When God revealed to them what needed to be eliminated from their lives, they wrote it down on the rice paper and put it in the cup of water and because the cup was clear, they could see the paper dissolve representing the disappearance of the thing that needed to be eliminated from their life.
There was time for more walking down to the pond to journal, meditate on the scriptures, and have quiet time.
The last session was Experiencing the Presence of God through the three more disciplines: Confession, Guidance, and Celebration. At the end participants were encouraged to announce an upcoming event they would be celebrating and everyone clapped.
They returned to the big group to make their Poster Board Testimonies for the video. Then they made an expression of their thoughts on construction paper for the Experiencing God Display Board. This was a hands on activity modeling the last discipline: Community. It was fun to see adults using glue, scissors, cut-out letters, crayons and markers to express themselves on sheet of construction paper.
The participants were dismissed to have free time before returning to the Elegant Dinner at 7:00 p.m. Dinner consisted of tossed salad, baked chicken, California vegetable medley of broccoli, cauliflower and sliced carrots, rolls, angel food cake with strawberries and/or peaches with whipped cream and nuts, raspberry tea, and coffee.
After dinner, a video was made of the Poster Board Testimonies that the participants had made earlier during the day. One side described the person before knowing God. The other side described how the person was after knowing God. We had another short prayer session. This time with the darkened room, each person was asked to pray a sentence prayer or share a few words about their experience and then turn on their battery operated candle. Many persons briefly shared how God was speaking to them through the retreat. Again, the darkened room was lighted by the battery operated candles that the participants got to keep.
Before leaving for the evening, the 21 participants fellowshipped.
SUNDAY
Early risers stopped by the dining room for a Continental breakfast before taking a nature walk and going down to the pond. At 8:00 a.m. Minister George Wilkerson led the group to the chapel with the palm branch still in the shape of a fan as the processional sang, "Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest." In the chapel Rev. Vanessa Carter sang and Rev. Vera Rhyne preached a sermonette about "The Crowd in the Crowd" where she said that we at the retreat were the crowd that had come out of the crowd that sang "Hosanna" on Palm Sunday and "Crucify Him" on Good Friday. In her brief message, she summarized all the disciplines we had discussed: meditation, prayer, fasting, submission, service, etc.
After the sermonette, people gave their testimonies and their reflections on how the retreat had impacted their lives. Palm leaves were distributed and everyone enjoyed a brunch of a variety of muffins, bagels, yogurt, sandwiches, apple sauce and leftovers from previous meals, juice, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.
Participants wrote a letter either to God or to themselves and placed it in a big envelope to be read in a year at the Experiencing the Presence of God Retreat that is scheduled for April 9-11, 2010.
People were invited to stay at the lodge, to walk the grounds or to meditate in the gazebo or on the swings. Some left early; others walked the grounds and prayed at the pond. The first person left around 9:00 a.m. and the last people left after 1:00 p.m.
God worked through everyone on the retreat. It is safe to say that everyone gained something from the retreat.
Each participant was given a $25.00 coupon for themselves and two $10 coupons to give to family members or friends for upcoming retreats. The coupons expire April 30, 2010.
The Experiencing the Presence of God will be an annual event in April. Easter is the first weekend next year; therefore the retreat will be the second weekend in April.
In the meantime, a retreat with a different theme is scheduled for the second weekend in October 2009. God wants us to continue to be revived and refreshed through retreats.
Plan now to attend October 9-11, 2009 if you can, but definitely make every effort to attend April 9-11, 2010 as we reunite to read the letter and discuss the marvelous works God has done in our lives during the year.
Shalom,
Rev. Margaret Minnicks
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