Annual Church Retreat - SAMARPAN 2017, Sep 2-3

We had a total of 43 adults & 16 children participating! The church graciously sponsored the Retreat expenses. We carpooled since 8am and reached the Mt. Lebanon Retreat Center, Cedar Hill, TX. We started with a brief orientation at the lodge and then had lunch. After lunch we all walked 6 mins to the Challenge Course, where 32 daringly participated in the Zip line. We came back tired for dinner and then for our first session where all of us were divided into 3 groups and given a topic: First Love/First Date, to perform a skit. Prizes were announced based on participation, creativity and message clarity. It was a lot of fun. Then we had our next session on First Love- Giving God our first priority based on Revelations 4:1-7. After the session we went back to the Redwood lodge and then went looking for the camp fire spot. After a long walk, we did find the camp fire spot which was wonderful sight in the dark; fire, a huge wooden Cross and the city of Dallas lit behind the Cross! Rachel taught us how to make s'mores and we enjoyed s'mores while others performed skits, songs and bro Paul narrated a story about a native Indian and his journey to be man! About the struggle he had to go through in the battle against evil, but won it because of the light of God and His Word! We all went back to our rooms, some had to leave back home due to their allergies, while some folks wanted to get a taste of Midnight biriyani. We woke up, had our quite time and headed for breakfast. We went to the chapel where we had our sessions and had our Sunday worship experience in the morning, more people joined us, pastor Immanuel began a new series: Spiritual Combat! We looked together at the sermon topic: the Nature of the battle! We concluded the worship with communion and then we had the quiz on Genesis conducted by Tarun. Later we had lunch and had a whole lot of free time, Tarun engaged all of us with his mimicking skills, all of us packed & cleaned the lodge and the children enjoyed human foosball and the men enjoyed playing cricket! We all drove back to our homes cherishing the memories of the Retreat! Indeed the Retreat was a blessed time of bonding and strengthening relationships! Sincerely appreciate all who participated, donated generously! Thanks to bro Rajesh/Mousumi for choosing the venue, brings snacks & preparing the Genesis quiz for both adults and children. Thanks to Dilip, Emmanuel, Savio, Tarun & Sridhar for helping with music and Ronald for helping with live streaming. Thanks to Rachel, Martina and Deepthi for missing sessions and taking care of our children. Praise the Lord! All glory and honor to Him!