"Who am I, that the eyes
that see my sin would look on me with love and watch me rise again?
Who am I, that the Voice that calmed the sea
would call out through the rain and calm the storm in me?"
-Who Am I by Casting Crowns
Every Pentecost weekend for the past five years, the Mudika (our Indonesian youth group) from UKI (Umat Katolik Indonesia) embark on a three-day retreat. This year, we go to Camp Medeba to have our retreat.
This year's theme is "Journey." There were around 50 of us that went, and it was a blast! I met a lot of new people and we were blessed with amazing weather. We had a lot of time to reflect on our lives spiritually, grow in the Holy Spirit and of course, have a lot of fun.
The speaker this year is Father Ben St. Croix who is an associate pastor at the Catholic Chaplaincy at York University.
Note: Most of these shots were taken using the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 paired with the 40D. There were a few photos that I did not take.
***
Father Ben giving a talk during a session.
"Bong" giving us an awesome testimony about his own spiritual journey.
The early mornings are hard for us, but we try our best ;)
I didn't take much pictures from the sessions because I didn't want to disrupt anyone.
Camp Medeba has many recreational facilities such as high-ropes, low-ropes, rock climbing, tetherball, trampolines, disc golf, and my personal favourite, the zip-line. We didn't get to go on all the facilities, but zip-lining for the first time was pretty cool.
Pretty amazing how this little thing can hold so much weight.
Brandon after going down the line.
We had to walk up a steep hill and a tower to get to the starting point. Launching off was probably the most intimidating part, but besides that, it was like riding down a huge slide. T'was awesome!
The ladies :) The sun was shining super bright that day.
I didn't take this one, so I'm not too sure about what's going on x)
Little brother getting all set up.
Not sure what pose this is supposed to be...
After you go all the way down, the zipline ascends and the person riding it goes backwards back onto the platform.
LOL Karina. This picture definitely made me smile.
All better now :D
The guy on the left was supposed to catch you as you came back down the line, but sometimes he doesn't, lol.
Another person that didn't get caught xD
I think I always catch Mike in awkward poses...
...but this one was pretty wicked! Not awkward at all...
...and now back to being awkward. Sorry Mike.
My dad going down the zipline!
After our group finished with the zipline, we moved on to some team-building challenges.
For this one, everyone from out group had to cross a super-unstable rope bridge. It was pretty difficult.
A little slip and this can happen. We ran out of time and couldn't get everyone all the way across.
Some of us played disc-golf during our free time. This was pretty fun too.
We had three different discs to choose from: one for long distance, one for upshots, and one for putting.
Captain Morgan pose?
We had a very intense session of adoration and prayer for a couple of hours. After that, we sat around the bonfire and to toast fish tofu and sing songs.
The photos are kind of grainy, but I like em.
Tess breaking out her Ukelele and now I want to buy one too.
Just like that, the day was over.
Girls in our cabin :D
Girls in our cabin + girls from the other cabin?
We had tacos for lunch, it was awesome. The food here was pretty darn good.
"Classic Karina" pose :)
Following our tradition by taking a photo of this pose every year during the retreat!
"Medeba Lanes." A game like bowling where each side sets up 5 red balls on their side. The opponent uses a shooter ball to knock out the red balls. The one who knocks out the opponent's red balls first wins. It sounds pretty simple but it was so much fun.
Setting up for our group photo. We were all dead tired at this point from all the activities and lack of sleep.
Yeye
It's a bird...it's a plane...it's Superman?
Group pictures are honestly difficult to do b/c someone's BOUND to look somewhere else or blink.
I couldn't decide which one was better. Unfortunately, not all of us had our feet up. Nevertheless--still awesome!
Special thanks to everyone who made this retreat possible, especially to our Lord Jesus Christ for giving us infinite blessings :) A lot of us experienced God's presence during the retreat. We were able to let go of the burdens that weighed us down with confession, sharing, tears and laughter. The retreat is over but our journeys continue.
"And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." - Acts 2:38
God bless you all and until next year!
-e.m.
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