First Men's Retreat

We had our first men's retreat last weekend. We had 16 guys participate, which is more than we had expected. Though it lasted less than 24 hours, the quality of relationship and interaction was excellent! The theme was "Wild at Heart," based on the book of the same title that we will be working through together for the next three months on Saturday mornings. Sascha did a good job leading the group in some devotional thoughts based on the biblical principles of spiritual adventure in the book. At various points we broke up into small discussion groups to elaborate on our ideas and applications to our lives of what it means to be "Wild at Heart" in Christ.

We stayed at a farm that formerly belonged to a famous gaúcho traditional musician and songwriter, a farm that is slowly being converted into a sort of rural inn.

We played "tug-of-war" to get the guys kinetically experiencing the adventure of spiritual life and teamwork. It worked too well in my case...my team got to the finals, but I ended up being dragged in the mud by my brothers!

And where there are men, there is food...and there was plenty of food on our retreat. Friday evening was a community snack, Saturday morning was a hearty breakfast, and Saturday lunch was an entire roasted lamb, fresh from the farm. You haven't lived until you've eaten roasted lamb, my friends. It is difficult to prepare, but when it is roasted right, it leaves nothing to desire in comparison to beef. Check out the "before" and "after" pictures below:

So history is in the making! For three years we had tried to form a strong men's group in the church with little success. Now we are in a cycle where we work through a Christian book for twelve weeks (we had just finished working through Every Man's Battle), take a month off, have a one-night retreat, and start a new study. With the momentum we have gained from this retreat, we are excited to see what God will do in terms of calling us deeper into relationship to Christ and relationship with each other - discovering our wild hearts that God has given us and how we can use those hearts to God's glory.

Front row (l-r): Regis, Lauro, Spencer, Alexandre, Paul. Back row (l-r): Renato, Garigran, Paulo Renato, myself, Roberto, Ricardo, Sascha, Silvio, Tiago, Jorge. Keep this group in your prayers!