Thursday, March 24, 2011

LaPorte Tween March Retreat

15 tweens gathered at Manna House in LaPorte on March 18 - 20, 2011 to participate in the Heavenly Human retreat. Ages 10 - 13 were invited. The retreat was all about the human body and how it relates to the heavenly kingdom. We learned about how becoming an angel in heaven follows a process like the digestive system in the body. When we pass on to the spiritual world and no longer need our physical body, we move like food through the lips, tongue, esophagus and into the stomach. The stomach is like the world of spirits, where most souls go to sort out their intentions and desires and decide on which heavenly community to join. Some spirits are so good that they are immediately taken up into heaven, or so evil that they are rejected and quickly move into hell. For most of us, however, the world of spirits is where we end up for awhile. We discussed the various body parts and what the correspond to in heaven. We talked about how the small and large intestine are for souls who have much to hide and need additional time and effort to let go of their external thoughts and feelings. We learned that all who enter heaven eventually enter the blood stream, get "filtered" out of their less then heavenly thoughts and desires and move into the perfect cell (community) just right for them. The tweens made little tag people that represented who they are, with pictures, photos and drawings of all the things that they love. The tweens also made a life size human body with internal organs. This human body was used to put thumbprint people on which represented where you thought you might like to live in heaven (e.g. esophagus = tour guide, colon = corrections officer, eye = intelligent visionary, hands = waiter, waitress or service provider). The Saturday afternoon session was spent discussing the five senses. Much of the session were workshops where the tweens spent time feeling, sniffing, tasting, listening and seeing. In some of these workshops we read braille, sorted safety pins from rice without vision, sampled foods and smelled odors, and viewed optical illusions. During free time, the tweens enjoyed running around outside playing "capture the flag" just about every chance they could get. Some of the girls had a nail painting party and Bekka and Savannah did "Helen Keller" blind makeovers! Manna House was a wonderful place to meet. Saturday weather was beautifully warm and sunny. Lori Steinhiser prepared great food. Jenn provided caring and craft supervision with Rachael who also did most of the dishes! Thank you to everyone who made this event so incredible. It was a pleasure to be a part of such a great group of volunteers and tweens. Hope to do it all again very soon!

3 comments:

Rev. Jenn said...

Fun was had by all.
~Rev. Jenn Tafel

Trevor "The Games Man" said...

Glad to see they use "electricity" in jail while playing Capture the Flag!

Kurt Fekete said...

yes trevor. the jail chain grew quite long. at one point i thought, is it really safe to have all these tweens laying in a parking lot! (lucky the lot was empty for the weekend)