Spiritual Retreat Conference

This past week I was at the SIM Spiritual Life Conference in the wilds beyond the town of Paraguari.  It was great gathering together everybody as well as teachers from the United States.  It was 4 days in mid-winter in a collection of little huts that had no heating.  It was, in the freezing conditions in the woods, what Calvin's dad from Calvin and Hobbes would have labelled 'character building.'

We had great teaching from from the life of Saul's son Jonathan and his belief in God despite overwhelming odds whereby he and his shield-bearer scaled a hill to attack the Philistine army by themselves as Jonathan's father Saul worried and procrastinated.  It also was a good time for the missionary kids as we had games of rugby (instructed by the South Africans) and soccer, as well as airsoft shooting games for the teens and adults.

Here are some pictures of the week:

Teaching and worship time at the conference.

Hannes playing airsoft using pistols which shoot small, hard, plastic pellets.

Dr. Jeff taking aim.  He later shot me perfectly in the back of the head when I stormed his base.  It jolly well hurt!

Geoff, one of the teachers, wearing a hat as protection the day after I shot him in the side of the head.

Hannes led the MKs in a grub-hunting mission, here breaking open a rotten tree trunk for grubs.

Tyler, happy after finding some huge grubs which were later eaten at the campfire.

A fallen telegraph pole was converted into a game for the MKs.