The Retreat

Who will give the retreat?
Three weekends ago, I went to Baguio to give a retreat to two branches: Lingkod Baguio and Dagupan. I only learned that they still didn't have a retreat master and there are only three weeks left. I looked for one but each one had their valid reasons and I don't. It was quite late to invite.

But God encouraged me to do it and confirmed it when a sister texted me that they think I can do it. "As long as the Lord wills it, then I can do it." was my reply. This can be translated to "Lord, please will it that there will be another one to give the retreat". But I think the Lord heard only the first one.


What now?
And it was official. I will be giving the retreat. I prayed to the Lord to make the retreat worthwhile for the participants. I was afraid I might fail them in this area. This was the first time I am going to be the retreat main servant and have the great task to lead the participants to the Lord. So I prepared for it with two weeks left. It was a very stressful preparation for me.

I started reflecting on the theme and think of a topic. I had a lot of topics in mind but I cannot seem to finalize it. I tried to read books and got some insights. Yet they don't seem to fit. But I worked on it and I was able to create one talk (yipee!). I created a draft on the other two talks but they seem to be out of synch with the first talk. I prayed to the Lord for guidance as nothing seems to work. Two days before the retreat, I was so stressed out, exhausted, having fever and wanting to back out. But I surrendered everything to the Lord and asked Him to take over.

Retreat!
Friday night, my wife and I were dropped off the Dau Terminal by Wyatt, a brother from Lingkod Angeles and left Dau for Tarlac where we hoped to get more chances of having a bus ride to Baguio. I brought with me two books, my devotionals, my journals and my Bible. I was still praying to the Lord that He will guide me in the retreat.

As we were waiting in Tarlac, I tried to think of how to stitch it all together. Suddenly, God gave me an insight on how to begin the talk through one of the books I brought. But that would mean I have to scrap everything that I have prepared.

Peace be with you
The thought of scrapping what you prepared for two weeks with only around 12 hours left before presenting was dreadful. But not for me. Ironically, I felt at peace with the thought. God's grace was really giving me the courage to do as God prompts me and to do it in faith.

I thought it was a good idea to read the book on my way to Baguio. Apparently, most of the bus going to Baguio at that time were filled with commuters since it was a weekend. We were only able to ride on the third bus as chance passengers, with my wife sitting at the center aisle (on my bag-turned-to-seat-cushion) and I sitting at the conductor's seat (which I managed to grab while he's checking out the passengers. Sorry po.) beside my wife. We were able to get a decent seat after an hour at the back (where I wasn't able to read and got a little sleep).

We arrived in Baguio around 2am. When we settled in our hotel room, I had my prayer time and then tried to read through the book just to fill my thoughts on which one God would give for the retreat. I didn't have a clue except that I was very tired and sleepy. So I went to sleep.

God's surprises
The next day, we went to the venue, it was good to know that it was just around 10 minutes ride from the hotel. As we arrived, I greeted the participants and then went straight to our room to do the first presentation which was scheduled in less than two hours.

I just read the book again and then God showed me which one to present. It was already there and I just need to fit it into the retreat. I was done in time for the first presentation. I did the same for the second presentation in the afternoon and the third one the next day. What was amazing is that, God still made us of the preparation I did that helped me finish the presentations.

During the sharing, I learned how fruitful the retreat was for the participants. It was an answer to my prayer. God took care of making the retreat worthwhile for them. It became worthwhile for me as well. We all went home fired up and blessed by the Lord.

Looking back
As I look back at what transpired, I realized that I was taking charge of the retreat during the first two weeks that I was preparing it. But only when I let God be in control did God use the preparation I did and made everything fall into place. Because God was in control, everything was blessed and hopefully bore fruit. I, on my end, was blessed to have seen it happen again, another of God's great surprises. I saw a lot of these surprises before and I look forward to seeing more in my journey with Him. May He be glorified forever. Amen!