It was Friday, a day I had been anticipating for the whole week. If you read my last post, you will understand a glimpse of the excitement I was looking forward to. This retreat had been constantly advertised to us Emmaus students on campus since the start of the term and many of us had just thought the significance of going out to this retreat was over exaggerated. Who hasn't been to a retreat to have fun and learn something new, why all the 'push' for us to go? Little did we know that this was a misconception of ours as this retreat was beyond our expectations and in all honesty, life changing.

As Korean class wrapped up shortly before 6pm, all of us going to the retreat grabbed our bags and headed as a group to 독바위 (Dok ba wee) station, north of Sinchon where our retreat was. It was supposedly only a 30minute travel by public transport, but all the bus and subway switching as a large group made it seem so much longer.

Finally we arrived at the retreat center where we would be staying for two nights. Having been to a handful of retreats back home, I thought the accommodations would just be similar to past experiences-bunk bags, a gym, cafeteria food, and closed door showers. Well, I had forgotten that this retreat was in Korea, hence everything I had imagined had its own twist to it. Instead of bunk bags, it was mats we slept on (the type you use for stretching in the gym and there was no gym by the way); food was in a separate building, but it was Korean food of course-rice with lots of side dishes, closest thing to 'cafeteria' food had to be these Korean style nuggets. Lastly, there were showers, but communal showers. If this was my first communal shower experience, I wouldn't have showered and probably would've sacrificed my cleanliness by just washing my hair in the sink, but having been through jimjjibangs and the whole naked spa experience, this was nothing (Praise the Lord for leading me up for this). So don't get me wrong, despite this retreat center being totally different from what I had expected, it was still comfortable and accommodating for all of us. If anything, I think this type of environment actually forces people to bond and grow closer with one another.

Anyways, it didn't matter, I survived, and in the words of one wise person, retreats are meant for you to get dirty. As there was more females than males, the larger room the females slept in doubled up as the praise and worship, main talk, and games setting as well. For a first time retreat experience in Seoul, I highly enjoyed it.

Aside from having the opportunity to get away from campus and spend a weekend with the Emmaus crowd, we all left hungry for more in terms of the spiritual whelm of things. It may be hard for you to understand if you don't have a Christian background, but on behalf of everyone who attended this weekend, I can truly say that we were all blessed and found a new dimension to God's zealous love for us. The pastors who spoke at the retreat opened up our hearts, stirred up a battle between the fight of having our past hurts and pains be released, and allowing God's unmeasurable love to heal us. I witness hearts being mended, sins being confessed, and the glory of God all around me. Saturday night was absolutely beautiful and many of us stayed up late just to dwell on everything we were learning and share with one another how God had given us a new purpose in Him. This retreat brought us out of our comfort zone and impacted us in ways we never thought possible.

Sunday came, and as sad as we were to leave, we left equipped with our physical and newly discovered spiritual baggage and headed to New Philly church for their Sunday Swim (aka prayer meeting), lunch, and service. The house was packed for service and we were all on fire during praise and worship. Despite the lack of sleep, eye bags, and tired eyes from crying the past two days, we were all singing, dancing, and moving with a non stop energy which could only be explained by a higher power. The only fool on April Fool's was the devil.

What a great start, and personally, this was only the beginning of giving up my own desires and living a life desiring God's way.

If you would like to read more on my experience, I actually have a faith and life blog aside from this one. I know some of you may just read this blog in order to keep up with my adventures in Seoul, but if you are interested, feel free to drop by Full of Pho to gain an insight on my spiritual walk.