Good Icebreaker and Fun Group Activities for Retreats or Workshop Particpants

Our retreat was held at the Redeemer University College last weekend

We attended a retreat last weekend in Ancaster and we enjoyed the two days at camp. This time, instead of dividing people into groups according to age as some churches do in their events, we were all mixed up regardless of our age.

 It was nice to get to know some of the young people from the church.

Some of us had our group meeting outside

There were a few activities which were a lot of fun and woke us up a little at our meetings.I would like to share in my blog so that other people may find them helpful in the planning of their meetings.




A game for dividing people in a retreat into groups.

The leader called out the following:

1. People who prefer outdoor stand on one side of the room while people prefer to be inside on the other side. People are divided into 2 big groups.

A place for participants to relax and socialize at the Redeemer College

2. People who prefer spicy food  forms one group and those preferring mild food forms another group
   (From within the 2 big groups, people are further divided into 2 smaller groups. Now there are 4 groups  altogether. )





3. People who love to sing in one group and those who like to talk in another. ( From within the 4 groups, participants are further divided. There should be 8 smaller groups. This is a  good icebreaker activity and a fun way to divide people into groups if there are more than 50 people at a retreat.)

We enjoyed the buffet style meals at the retreat

Other excellent activities:

Everyone has been assigned a group made up of 6-8 people. They stayed with the group for the whole time of the retreat. \

The first activity the group did together was each person getting the exact number of small white cards as the number of people in the group. I had 7 people in my group so I got 7 cards.

A piece of indigenous  sculpture at the college

On these cards, we were asked to draw what God's grace mean to us. We needed to be honest and can express ourselves in drawing or symbols. After we spent about 5- 8 minutes drawing what God's grace meant to us, we took turn sharing with others what we have drawn on our cards.

This was an excellent team building activity as we shared with other members in our group, we were also getting to know each other better as they revealed their dreams and desires. One lady in particular shared about her fears an the trust she put in God in her current difficult situation.

I have never been to a meeting where the participants were so willing to share their deepest emotions and feelings. It really touched our hearts.

The Three Box Activity

Another activity I liked and appreciated was the 3 box activity

Pastor Joseph share with us a message on prayer. He gave us powerful testimonies of his life, about the birth of his daughter and the challenges his family faced.
Then we got a practical application about prayers.

There were three boxes placed on a table with each one labelled as:

a. Thanks you and Appreciation
b. Cracks in the Wall
c. Relationships to be Healed & Prayer Request

We lined up to get the cards from the boxes

Each one of us was given 3 pairs of cards of different colour representing items a,b and c.

a. We would write down on the first 2 cards things we want to thank God and the people for in our church.

b. Write down things that we see need improved in our church

c. Write down the relationship that would ask God to heal and other prayer items.

We shared our thoughts with our group members

After we mediated and wrote these things down, we put the cards in the appropriate boxes.

Then we lined up, each took out 2 cards from the boxes and shared with others as a group.

We prayed for the prayer request items on the card and the person who wrote them 

I appreciated and liked the idea when each person read out what others wrote down about what they were thankful for in the church. It was an uplifting experience.

Later, we got into our group and prayed for the relationships written on the cards we drew from the box. It was a nice prayer time together.

We had time to drive around the town of Ancaster

What we appreciated at this retreat was that we were also given some down time so that we could talk to people and also had time to drive around and enjoy the countryside.

R.T.
Ancaster, Ontario

Sharing Our Thoughts on God's Words in a Group Devotion

A church in Ancaster, Ontario

We were at a retreat in Ancaster, a small town about an hour and half drive from Toronto, this past weekend.

I was grateful that right after submitting my research paper last Friday, God has prepared us a place where we could relax and rest for a couple of days to recharge our spiritual lives. 

On the first full day of the retreat, we finished breakfast by 8:30apm and were ready in the lecture hall for the morning devotion session.

The Redeemer University was  the  site of our church retreat.

In our Christian faith, we have always been encouraged  by the church to have personal devotions at regular times during the day or the week.

Instead of having individuals doing their own devotion in their rooms, we had a group devotion with the reading provided;

With the passage of scripture provided to us, we were assigned a group and sat in a circle. The passage was as follow:










2 Kings 19:14-21

19:14		And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord.
19:15		And Hezekiah made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
19:16		Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord, and let your eyes be open, O Lord, and see; take note of all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living God.
19:17		Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste the nations and their lands,
19:18		And have given their gods to the fire; for they were no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have given them to destruction.
19:19		But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hands, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that you and only you, O Lord, are God.
19:20		Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer which you have made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my ears.
19:21		This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you.

The Ground of the Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontatio

 We were asked to read this scripture slowly. After reading this

 passage twice, we were to underline or write down the word ( words), or a phrase or sentence that touched our heart or caught our attention. No special reason needed to be given.

After underlining the the phrase or sentence, we had to read again that section of the passage twice.

After re reading of that same section, we were to mediate the following questions, one by one, slowly:

1. What does the underlined phrase/ sentence remind you of? What's being reminded of can be a person ( including yourself). or an incident.

2. Think about how are you impacted by the person/ incident? The impact can be positive or negative.

3. What emotions or feelings can be positive or negative. What counts is that they are genuine.

4. Let us invite you to tell God what has gone through your mind. Please also take this time to pray to God for yourself and that person/ incident.

Additional question to ponder: What is/ was your 'god of the nations' ( the things that are not reliable yet you have relied on)?

After we all have reflected on these questions, we went around our group and each shared their thoughts on the passage.

It was touching to hear others baring their souls and revealed their true feelings, desires and fears  in front of strangers. We only met each other for the first time at this retreat. Believing in the true God and sharing the same faith, we are sisters and brothers in Christ. Therefore, we were able to share our deep feelings; it was a touching experience for me. I thank all those ladies in my group for being so sincere and open about themselves in front of God.

R.T.

Summer Retreat at Redeemer College

Ancaster, Ontario

What do Tiny Ants do for Flowers and Plants in the Spring?

I love the garden in my backyard!

The perennials in our front garden

The perennials  I planted years ago in my garden are blooming year after year

In my younger days, I used to spend a lot of time digging, moving and planting in my gardens during the warmer season.




















I planted a few peony shrubs years ago in my garden. Every year around the beginning of June, we look forward to seeing the bright pink flowers blooming and gracing our garden.

After a few blooms appear on the plants, I would snip a few flowers along with some buds and bring them into the house. I thought after the blooms wilt, the buds would bloom giving me fresh new flowers.

While the buds continued to bloom in my garden outside, those buds I brought inside to the house
never bloomed at all.

I wondered about this for many years. I finally got my answer this spring.  One fine afternoon a couple of weeks ago, while admiring the many buds on the peony shrubs and thinking how beautiful my garden would look when these buds start blooming into gorgeous pink flowers,
I noticed for the first time there were numerous ants crawling all over the peony buds.

I found ants working hard on most of the buds on our peony shrubs.

Ants work hard to help open the petals of the bud into blooms 

As I looked more carefully, I discovered that  every unbloomed bud in the garden was a hot bed of activity for these ants. These ants were busy at doing something.

Their presence on those peony buds was not a coincidence. There was a real purpose for the ants' busy activities.

We enjoyed these beautiful peonies in our garden year after year

For after a few days, the buds, which were visited by ants a few days earlier, started to open up turning into beautiful pink flowers on the stems.

Like bees which  are needed for pollination of flowers and plants, tiny little ants are just as important and have their unique propose in mother nature.

Without their handwork, the peonies in my garden will not bloom. This was the reason why the snipped buds brought into my house did not bloom into flowers as they were devoid of the essential work performed by the ants in my garden.

Little insects like ants help flowers bloom in our beautiful garden

I learned a lesson about what ants do to our flowers and have a renew sense of appreciation for little insects running about in our garden.

R.T.
Toronto

How to Make a Low Maintenance Cactus Container Garden at Home

I have recently developed a real appreciation and love for cactus plants. I do not have a green thumb and the house plants under my care do not usually last  long as I often forget to water them.


After admiring many beautiful cactus container plants, I decided to try and made some at home.






After some research, I gathered the following material to create some container gardens at home:





1.  Glass containers or wide mouth jars -
     I picked out some old used glass jars lying          around my house and bought some in thrift
    stores.  .









2. Pebbles or small garden rocks - I got some small rocks from my garden and  washed them with detergent, water and dried them. I did not want bugs crawling out from my container garden.

If you buy the pebbles from a craft store, you won't have to wash them.

The small rocks/ pebbles went in first int the bottom of the glass containers.







3. Dry moss - After the small rocks, the second layer to go into the glass container was the green moss.

The moss would retain water and moisture better for the plants.


















4. Cactus Soil - The third layer that went into the glass container was some special potting soil for cactus plants.















5. A few baby cactus plants - I bought a variety of baby cacti when they were on sale. They ranged from $2.99 - 4.99 a plant.















7.  Choosing the right size glass containers, my    friend and I placed the different cacti in the appropriate jars.
















8. Decorative stones - Last to go in was the decorative stones on the top of the soil.
You can buy different colour of decorative stones that go with the decor in you home.

Using a spoon and carefully, we put the decorative stones in the jars for the final touches.

Viola!  In less than an hour, we put together  five beautiful cactus container gardens!




























Now these low maintenance cactus container gardens are placed on the coffee table and dining room table as decorations in our home.











We made these container gardens in April,
I only watered them lightly once so far.

They looked healthy and they are growing well!

Susan, our visitor from Germany, was happy and proud to have learned how to make these desert plant decorations during her stay at our home.

She wanted to make some for her house too. It was a fun activity for both of us!


R.T.
Toronto

Our Good Old Maple Tree Had to be Removed!

We love our backyard garden

We love our gardens both at the front and the back of our house.

Our backyard is my sanctuary

Our backyard is my sanctuary and I love spending time reading there or simply strolling around looking at the flowers and shrubs and saying hello to them.

The mature majestic trees are the best part of our garden

One thing we love dearly in our garden is the majestic mature trees.

Due to age and decay, we cut down three or four trees in the last three decades. We love our trees and always try to save them as much as we could.














At the beginning of spring this year, we noticed that the old Maple tree at the very end of our garden was completely dead without any leaves at all on its branches, not even one.

Sadly, this dead Maple tree is dead and had to be cut down

We resigned to the fact that this old Maple tree had to be cut down.

Following all the procedures required by the city of Toronto: we measured the tree and  submitted to the city'e appropriate department information regarding the size and condition of the tree as well as sending them pictures.

After a couple of weeks, we got the city's approval and could proceed to have the tree removed.

Dave n his partner arrived early last Friday to remove the dead Maple

We were fortunate enough to have used the service of a reputable tree cutter who did an excellent job in removing some of the trees on our property in the cottage country.

I called Dave who gave us a reasonable quote for his service and  was  willing to travel from north of Barrie to  help us with the removal of our tree at our Toronto
home.














Dave told me he would come on Friday; he did arrive with his helper and were at our house first thing in the morning. No excuse of any traffic jam etc. We really appreciated Dave keeping his word.

Some contractors have made us wait for the whole day and never showed up. Dave was as good as his word.

Dave making a climb to the top of our tree

Operating in a professional manner, Dave examined the tree carefully and planned his moves. The old tree was pretty tall yet some branches at the tiop were not too thick.


Dave was all ready with his tools and gear to make his climb.  He was careful; he knew what he was doing.

 Not long after he climbed up near  the top of the tree, we heard a big thump sound, the falling of a big branch hitting the ground.

















The tree was more rotten and weaker than Dave  and we had expected. Being a pro and very experienced, Dave was able to avoid any unintended consequences.


However, we all know that there is always an inherent risk when a tree cutter has to make a climb for his job.

I heard the sound, looked out from our second floor window and prayed to God for his protection  for both Dave and his partner.













With calculated moves and precision, Dave cut the rest of the tree into smaller manageable logs and dropped them  to the ground.

For a few brief moments, I thought I saw smoke coming out from his chain saw.

Dave and Greg - an awesome tree cutting team 

Dave cut the dead Maple tree to the height we had specified.

He and his partner, Greg, worked efficiently together cutting the logs into 16 inch pieces.

Within a couple of hours, they moved and piled all the cut pieces neatly on the curb in front of our house.

They did an excellent job cleaning up the mess too.

We are fiercely attached to the trees and plants in our garden. We did not want to see our old Maple tree  cut down and just disappear entirely from our garden.



Therefore, I showed Dave a picture of a bench cut from a big tree resting on two smaller logs and asked him to do something similar for us.

A Flintstones style bench made from our old Male tree 

He and his partner, Greg, did exactly that!

I know Dave is not a woodcarver, but he and Greg  did make me a Flintstones style bench after a few attempts.

It was harder than we had anticipated.

We love the bench!!!

We are glad that our old dead  Maple tree has been cut down and that it would not post any danger to us or to our neighbours. We can sleep much better at night now.

Thank you and hats off to you,  Dave Veitch and Greg! You guys are an awesome team!  The best tree cutter anyone can find in the Toronto, GTA, and Muskoka area!




R.T.
Toronto
A very happy homeowner