Relaxation and Rejuvenation in the Mountains of Sabah

                                         

                                         

I am gradually becoming accustom to my different pace of life here. I am enjoying the growing familiarity of Kota Kinabalu as it begins to feel more and more like a home. Although I do like the familiarity, I also like the fact that there is always something new to learn and experience just about every day. I am pretty certain this will continue for the entire year. (Photos: mountains surrounding the retreat center, Mount Kinabalu)

So I was pleased with the level of unpredictability that accompanied our journey to the retreat at the base of Mount Kinabalu. I had no idea what to expect which brought mixed feelings of excitement and a little bit of good anxiety. Would it be anything like what I considered a retreat to be? My experiences so far have taught me that it could be either extreme; either very similar to a church retreat back at home or so different that the same word should not even be used to describe it. Lauren (one of my roommates) and I were given a ride by a couple alsoattending the retreat. It was my first time meeting them and as with everyone I've interacted with here, they were so pleased to spend time with us and were very gracious. After about five minutes in the car, Shelley asked if she could pray for our journey to the retreat. I felt very comforted listening to her prayer. My mom always prays at the beginning and end of any trip we take. They pray aloud quite often here, especially before meals. This is something that certainly pushes my comfort zone, in a good way, and I hope to grow more comfortable with it through out the year. 

Although, there were differences between the retreat and a retreat we would have, the differences were pretty slight. Overall it was a very enjoyable weekend. For starters, it was 

absolutely beautiful. I know, I keep saying everything is beautiful, but I really feel that every new place I go is more beautiful than the last! We were up in the mountains and had a gorgeous view of the summit of Mount Kinabalu. On Sunday (my birthday) we had the whole afternoon free. For an hour or so it was raining, so we got a ride to Kinabalu National Park. Even in the rain, it was nice to see and I look forward to going back and exploring. When we climb Mount Kinabalu next year this is where we begin the climb. There are also many other trails available for your hiking pleasure. By the time we got back to where the retreat was the rain had let up. We were able to spend a couple hours hiking. This was definitely the highlight for me. It was so nice to be out in nature. Very peaceful and relaxing. It was also nice to spend some time reflecting on the month with the other YAGM (the five others doing this same program in Malaysia). (Photo: Kelsey, Ellen, Jacob, Erika, and me during our hike) 

The retreat itself consisted of four, two hour sessions with their guest speaker, a pastor

 from Australia. This retreat was family orientated so there were about eight young children under the age of six. We (the YAGM) were in charge of keeping them entertained during the sessions. We switched off going to sessions and watching the children, so we each were able to go to two of the four sessions. This was a very good happy medium because I enjoyed both playing with the kids and going to the sessions. (Photo: Me and Rachel, 3, one of the little girls I played with during the sessions. Although she looks shy in this picture she was extremely energetic and kept me on my toes). 

Leaving the retreat, even with my exhaustion (the beds were very hard and I didn't sleep too well) I felt quite renewed. It was a very good experience to get out of the city for a few days, to spend some time in nature, and get a chance to develop relationships with those at the retreat. It really had a camp feeling to it and we very quickly developed the camp family feeling. I particularly liked the length of the retreat. Until this point we have not had the chance to really be around the same people (church people that is) for three consecutive days and this made the development of relationships stronger. Now we have more of a church family as well as our work families. 

On our last morning there we were broken into five teams and did a scavenger hunt! It was actually pretty difficult, but lots of fun to work in a team. After finishing the scavenger hunt we had to finish a puzzle in order to win. I really enjoyed it and want to share it with you. If you are experiencing any boredom or need to procrastinate this should help!

Can you find the names of 25 books of the Bible in this paragraph? This is a most remarkable puzzle. Someone found it in the seat pocket on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping himself occupied for hours. One man from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Roy Clark studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Victs mentioned it in her column once. One woman judges the job to be so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help calm her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot... that's a fact. Some people will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. The truth is, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or scholar to see some of them at the worst. Something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have. Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation may help, books like! Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. And punctuation or spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete. Remember, there are 25 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph.