CHE Retreat

As promised (and it's very important to keep your promises here in South Africa), I (Kim) will be sharing a few more details and stories from our 2 day CHE retreat here at the Retreat Center at Bridges Academy. The overall focus for the CHE retreat was to encourage the CHE's in their spiritual development. On the first day, Emily kicked things off by speaking about the foundations of faith. Her vulnerability in sharing about her own experiences in her faith created a depth to the words she shared. When we finally passed out the notebooks and pens, the CHE's were definitely ready to write down what they had learned. Emily even had a little surprise for the end of her time with the CHE's. All of her final discussion questions about faith were posted in IsiXhosa. Throughout the room, you could hear, "Yho!" coming from all of the table groups. ("Yho" is basically yes with surprise and enthusiasm.).  It was a hit.

I was up next after a short break. I had the opportunity to speak to the CHE's about why and how we pray. We had an opportunity to delve into the Bible by examining what God says about prayer as well as discuss how God answers prayer. The main point I kept coming back to with them was how prayer connects our heart with God's heart. Like Emily, I was able to share some of the personal experiences I have had with prayer regarding how God has answered them and how He has changed the heart of my prayers, so that they align more with His heart. At the end of our time, the CHE's were able to practice two different types of prayers, intercessory and centering, before we headed off to dinner.

That night, the CHE's and their kids had a movie night complete with popcorn. When we came back from devotions to check and see how they were doing, we found that more of the kids were still awake than the adults. You wouldn't know it today. Those kids were ready and energized as soon as they came to breakfast this morning.

After breakfast, the CHE's lead us all in a time of worship. I'm always amazed at how rich and deep worship feels when they lead or the students at Bridges Academy do. I feel like every time I've left South Africa, I've tried to capture a piece of what it's like to worship this way and incorporate it into my own time of worship. Baby steps. It's pretty legit, and I've already put in a request to Andile, one of the students at the Academy, to give me a very basic lesson about how to play their drum before I leave. (I've gotta start somewhere). 

Today, Chris Kamalski joined us and spoke on who the Holy Spirit is and how the Spirit speaks to each of us. He gave a great illustration of how to explain the simplicity and the complexity of the Holy Spirit. He described it like a baby. They too are simple and complex as we all saw demonstrated throughout our retreat. This illustration and the content that Chris shared about what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit set the stage for our afternoon experience with the Holy Spirit. The CHE's spent an hour engaging with the Holy Spirit for one hour. During this time, they were writing down their thoughts and trying to discern if they came from the Holy Spirit, Satan, themselves, or their culture/family/school. There was a lot of chatter that took place after about 30 minutes of silence. I was honestly kind of nervous that they weren't taking this too seriously. When I started to pray about what to do about it, I just sensed that God was telling me that it's about one. Maybe this exercise was done for just one person. When we came back together, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they all had a lot to say to their groups what they had heard during this time. When I asked them to spend time praying for each other regarding these thoughts, I just sensed the movement in the Holy Spirit in the room. I especially felt it from the back of the room where the 3 men were praying for each other. 

There were a lot of encouraging things that came from the retreat. These 3 men were one of them. They technically weren't involved with the CHE program yet, but have been actively involved in the Men's Bible Study that just started in Sweet Home (this Bible Study was started in response to the Men's Event that took place in Sweet Home with the RockHarbor pastors back in June). Men have so much influence here in a township. We are praying that they continue to seek God and rise up as leaders within this community. With the women at the retreat, many of them were able to learn about new opportunities to serve in the community such as with the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) program. As we said our good-byes to them, they all commented how in addition to everything they learned, the retreat was a great opportunity for them to get to one know another better and enjoy a time of rest from their regular routine. 

We're definitely feeling a bit exhausted from "being on" for the last two days. Continued prayers for endurance as we enter into this second stretch of the trip are appreciated. 

Love,
Kim

P.S. Emily will post some of her photos tomorrow. :)

Our group photo at the end of the day.