RETREAT 2012

It's been awhile since I had participated in some sort of camping for fun or for gospel.  Back then when Mizo population was less in numbers, Mizo Society of America used  to organized camping for fun once  year. An isolated camping site where we would never be bothered nor would we intrude anybody else was selected. Usually the camping went on starting from friday evening till sunday noon. We used to have social gathering, singing Mizo songs, games and sports were indispensable; of course Mizo good food was always the main attraction!

But thing have changed. More and more Mizo came from Burma and Mizoram and while I thought the more would be merrier, our MSA leaders did not share my thought anymore. They fear that we would not be able to control our youth, and we would lead them to uncontrollable temptations. With those skeptic thought  in mind, camping is never organized anymore by the MSA.

My church, Presbyterian Mizo Church of USA and the original Mizo Presbyterian Church USA merged as one Mizo Presbyterian Church on July 22 2012. The celebration of unification took place in our church, Greenridge Baptist Church in Clarksburg, Md on the same day with the presence of Rev.Vanlal Bela and a host of well wishers. It was a memorable day indeed!

And here we are after two weeks of the unification, our church leaders sorted out a retreat program in the woods. This was something I have not done in a long time, a time regroup myself, a time relax, a time to study the Bible, a time to pray more, a time away from phone calls, a time without GPS, a time free from alarm clock, a time to take a break from meat, hmarcha and fat restriction, a time to chit chat with friend without  keep looking at the watch, and most of all, a time to melt down for all of us as one Presbyterian Church.

Let me share with you some of the RETREAT photos, hoping it might be  a TREAT for you too.

The banner simple and sweet..

I led one of the services, while our speaker Rev. Dr. Lalsangkima of KY. pondering what he was going to say.

Rev. Dr. Sangkima and his wife Kimi  Pachuau( extreme left at the last row) with Nuho at their  cottage's porch.

All of us ..smiling.

Singing Mizo songs...some were learning.

Singing goes on..

Volleyball for young men in the evening while girls were cheering on..

We went hiking in the woods without a map, yea.. we got lost..

Time for food..yay..

One of the best part of the retreat..vawksa rep chhum on sunday lunch.. what a treat!