Every so often, I decide to challenge myself with a blog
post. Maybe it's by being extra-vulnerable and talking about a difficult topic.
Maybe it's by trying to walk that tight rope between heartfelt and humorous
which is more difficult than you as a reader may think. I should probably put a
disclaimer on that statement and say that at least I think it's heartfelt and
humorous. Who could forget that time I tried to challenge myself to see how
many 'Back
to the Future' references I could fit into one blog post. Probably not one
of my better efforts, but at least I enjoyed it.
Now, I find myself challenged in a brand new capacity as
this past weekend marked the second annual Northland Baptist Church men's
retreat. While at said retreat, I received a challenge from Ellie's
"Uncle" Malachi to write a blog post about another friend, Randy
Maltbia. According to Malachi, my weekend should have consisted of following
poor Randy around nonstop, even to the point of snapping pictures of him in his
sleep. Taking Randy's past in the U.S. Air Force into account, I decided that
it might not be in my best interest to do something creepy like that (though it
didn't stop me from taking a quick shot of him as I left the retreat just for
the sole purpose of awkwardly shoving in this post).
 |
| The aforementioned Randy Maltbia |
Instead, I decided it might be entertaining to give people
an inside look at what kind of things actually happen on a men's retreat. You
may not believe it, but a men's retreat does not actually consist of chasing
wild buffalo with spears across the plains. Well, some men's retreats might but
not Northland's. Instead of chasing wild buffalo, we chase fun with the aid of ATVs,
guns, video games, ping-pong, pool, and board games.
For a short play-by-play of the weekend, my buddy, Dustin,
and I drove up together, leaving Kansas City around 3:00 on Friday and reaching
our destination around 4:30ish. What was our destination you ask? Cainsville,
MO, home to what we affectionately call "The Barn", a lavish
multi-million dollar barn built by a very well-to-do Cerner employee as a place
to get away from it all. Lucky for Dustin and I, we were among the first to
arrive which meant we were able to stake out our lodging for the weekend early
from the available areas before taking the Polaris RZR out for a drive as we
knew it would be harder to get a chance
to do so on Saturday. In hindsight that was a good idea as the RZR suffered a broken tie-rod on Saturday, sidelining it for the rest of the weekend.
Once we got back from our exciting ride through the
countryside, people had slowly started to filter into the barn. As Malachi and
I had already discussed "bunking" our hammocks we packed, I headed
down to the storage room to get my hammock hung below his before joining the
rest of our group for dinner. Following dinner, we headed into the first of our
weekend sessions, led by Matt Miller of New City Church. Our first two sessions
with identifying problems in our lives keeping us from being right with God or
others and how to eliminate that sin in order to better see fruit in our lives.
 |
| Home sweet hammock (for the record, the red one is mine) |
Following that session, it was time to take part in plenty
of board games and ping-pong, as well as conversations with other guys, before
finally calling it a night around 1:00 am. For the record, if you ever find
yourself sleeping in a hammock made out of parachute material in a storage
room, just assume it might get cold during the night and have something more
than just a light blanket handy. I know this because I had to get out of said
hammock at 4:00 am to find my sleeping bag just so I could stay warm.
The next morning consisted of breakfast and a few games of
Scrum before heading to session 3. Oh, you want to know what Scrum is? Easy,
played on a pool table using the cueball and one other ball, you use your hands
to sling the cueball into the other ball in an attempt to hit it. Once you hit
the cueball, the next person in line then goes and so on. If you miss the ball,
then you get a letter. Once you get five letters, you're out and now you know
the rules of Scrum.
Where was I, oh yes, session three. This session entitled
"Don't Be a Knucklehead" had a major focus on examining how we
receive the Word of God. Is it argumentative, quick to give up, overwhelmed by
things of the world, or open to God's role
in our lives. Following this session, we shortly broke up into small groups to
discuss. This didn't last long for yours truly as I was on the lunch team for
the day. My group, consisting mostly of youth and youth workers, got lunch
pulled together with nary a hitch. The menu? Fancy grilled cheese (with bacon)
and soups.
 |
| Pre-session worship time. |
Once everything was finally cleaned up, it was time to play
for the rest of the afternoon. It may not shock you to hear that me with my
short attention span spent the afternoon going back and forth between Scrum, VR
video games, and putting together a puzzle (that one's for my brother-in-law!).
After dinner for the evening (taco
bar!), it was time to head to the fourth session, "I Don't Want to be
Right." The main theme for this session revolved in part around the
concept of what does it look like to seek wisdom in our lives and in what areas
of my life should I seek said wisdom.
Following session four (and the accompanying small groups),
I found my way downstairs to the board game table where I would spend most of
the evening playing large group games with a multitude of people. I finally
decided to call it a night around 12:30 am and retreated to my hammock accordingly. Lucky for me,
adding my sleeping bag and pillow to the hammock blessed me with an epic night's
sleep.
Day three began with assorted pastries and a breakfast
burrito station. Once breakfast was in the books, it was time for me to pack
some of my belongings up before heading to our fifth and final session, "A
Faithful Follower." This session strove to drive home how practicing the
concepts of lordship, maturity, accountability, ownership, and Kingdom living
in our lives will help us to call our lives a successful journey. Once this session
came to a close, it was time to clean up "The Barn" and ultimately
leave to head home.
Even though this event has only been going on for two years,
it has already become something I really look forward to each year. Not only is
it deeply encouraging but it gives me the opportunity to build friendships with
people in my church that I may not get to talk to as often. Of course, it also
gives me the chance to build on existing friendships to make them even deeper.
If there are any guys reading this who are interested in participating next
year, I highly suggest you do so.
Now, if there are any women reading this who are interested
in participating next year, I highly suggest you consider the women's retreat.
That being said, I don't have any information for you on that front. Sorry.
#DaddyWrite
 |
| I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that a men's retreat is in fact different than a women's retreat. |
No comments:
Post a Comment