Article on June Retreat: From Friends to Family

Sorry for the late post, this was our post-JUNE-retreat write up which was published in the Parish Link recently.

OLPS Youth June Retreat
“From Friends to Family”
13 - 15 June 2008, held at CAYC
Organised by the OLPS Youth Ministry

The OLPS Youth June Retreat took place over 13 - 15 June 2008, at CAYC this year. It was short - just 2 days and 2 nights - but a wonderful experience, themed “From Friends to Family”.

It was a whole new and different experience for everyone. Our previous camp last December had about 30 youths participating but this round, we had a total of 51 youths, hailing from the various youth ministries within OLPS.

There were people from Catholeague, Youth Mentors, Youth Music Ministry, Youth Arise Ministry, Ministry of Expression (MOE), ACTS, Altar Servers and Chinese LOM, including a good handful of new faces too, which was uplifting for us. At least they dared to sign up and join this retreat!

Over the 2 days, we reflected on how we are ultimately ONE family in Christ, serving and growing together in church, and using our different strengths and talents to help each other in our different missions.

We also had Fr. Fred celebrating Mass for us, and Brother Surain, our final year Seminarian, currently attached with OLPS, support us in this retreat. It was a real pleasure seeing all ministries and people come together.

So what happened at the retreat?

On the opening night (Friday), with a session led by David Cheong from MOE, we were able to share about our pasts and about ourselves. Together with icebreakers led by Genesis Ministry’s Brandon, Keown and Jeffrey, we became more relaxed and open to each other.

The second day and third day (Sat and Sunday) were power-packed with sessions and games through the day. Here’s a brief outline of what we learnt:

From Friends to Family - Part I and II

Led by the Youth Mentors, each ministry focused on our inter-ministry relationships and discussed how we could be more Christ-like to each other. We then decorated a big “family” tree, which was painted by Julie from the MOE ministry, with little flowers containing our resolutions for change.



Part II took place on Sunday Morning, led by Catholeague and YMM. It was purely games, but teambuilding in nature. What was interesting was the “BIBLE” Taboo, the card-word-guessing game using biblical terms this time! The games ended with a massive candle fight – which got us really worked out at the end!

From Stream to the Ocean

For this groups were tasked to build a house but not told the purpose why. We only found out later that the “houses” we made were to be used to collect water! This taught us about how we should have Vision. Each ministry needs to have a Vision so that we would know what we should work on!



Finally, using our houses (some without a base!), each group had to transfer water from cup to cup, to the house we built, and finally into the drain.



The analogy? That we are all like streams, with water from each of us flowing ultimately to the big, vast ocean. So in a sense, our gifts and talents are all contributing to the bigger picture in the parish where we serve.

From Superhero to Servanthood

Led by our Altar Servers, this activity goal was to have a superhero get all “handicapped” people across the “river”. Each group had one superhero who was supposed to get them over – using just 2 chairs. We learnt many things about working together and that if we want to be great we sometimes have to be the greatest servant of all – like Jesus.




Saturday Late Night Movie!
Well, we even had a late night movie on Saturday night, with an excellent choice of movie – “Simon Birch”. The movie is about a 12-year-old, Simon Birch, who is afflicted with Morquio Syndrome, or “dwarfism”. In the movie, we see Simon's deep-seated belief that God put him here for a purpose. Finally, because of his faith, Simon became a hero at the end of the day. This was really impactful for many!

Prayers and Quiet Time

And not to forget, as with any retreat, we also had quiet reflections over a “silent dinner”, followed by the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament – and Mass celebrated by Fr. Fred.

Not only that, we also did morning, afternoon, evening and night prayers – if you’ve heard of terms such as Angelus, Vespers and Compliance. This was led by Brother Surain and David Cheong and for the majority of the participants, it was a new experience and refreshing one.

From Me to Multilpication

This was our final session, led by Brother Surain – about the Kingdom of God and Mission. We reflected on the Beatitudes, which remind us what we should be like in order to see God’s Kingdom here on earth. This was accompanied by an “art” session led by MOE, where we painted the beatitudes on a long sheet of paper.



We thus ended the retreat on a good note, with the thought that we had really worked together to bring about this retreat. Thanks to God and everyone who has supported us.

We now look forward to new events at OLPS in the next 6 months, such as the Archdiocesan Youth Day, the Confirmation 3 Service Attachement Programme, and our monthly Youth Mass. Join us and continue to support us.



Till the next update!