Let Me Sow Love

Sophomore class retreat 2015

Goals/themes: Deeper community, love, everyone is needed, empowerment, and acceptance

Get there at 9:00

30 min - settle in
30 min - ice breaker- human portrait
30 min - team-building- marble pvc pipe

10:30

20 min - talk- Isabelle

20 min - small group discussion
20 min - large group discussion

11:30

15 min - break

11:45

45 minutes- Body of Christ

25 minutes- Craft- star thanks

12:45

30 min - lunch

1:15

50 min - graham cracker

2:05

10 min - break

2:15
20 min - talk - Domenica
20 min - small group
20 min - large group

3:15

40 min - pull up & fruit basket

10 min - cross the line

4:05

60 min - Talk cycle- McKenna

5:05

15 min - 10 commandments Intro

6:05

35 min - Dinner

6:40

15 min - 10 Commandments - small group

60 min - Reconciliation Service

7:55

15 min - change into PJs

8:10

30 min - Circle & Affirmations

8:40

120 min - Movie

10:40

Lights Out
Day 2:

7:15

Wake-up call

8:00

40 min-Breakfast

8:40

20 min- movie discussion

9:00

60 min - Miranda's talk

10:00

Mass

11:00

30 min - Activity- tie blanket

20 min - Small group open mike

11:50

30 min - Lunch

12:20

20 min - Talk - Juliana

15 min - small group activity
20 min - large group activity
1:15

15 min - pack up

1:30

LEAVE

Activity Descriptions

Human Portrait- Ice breaker

Groups attempt to recreate scenes called out by retreat leaders

Marble PVC Pipes- team building in groups

Each Person gets half a PVC pipe and moves in a way that the marble doesn't
fall or stop moving. For this everyone must work together.

Isabelle's talk-
Talk followed by small group discussions and a large group discussion.

Body of Christ-
Read 1 Corinthians 12 to remind everyone we are the Body of Christ. Divide into
body parts: feet, hands, eyes, and mouth. The feet can touch the ground with their feet; the
hands can touch the ground with their hands. The eyes can see and the mouth can talk. The
eyes and mouth can walk while connected to the legs. Those who are not the eyes are
blindfolded. The legs should find a way to bring the rest, the eyes should navigate and convey
directions to the mouth who will instruct the rest of the Body. The hands open a closed Bible to
complete the activity.

Thank you stars-

Fold paper stars as Gifts for the teachers who have helped us.

Graham crackers-
 Each group together builds a house of graham crackers. Everyone contributes
and puts in their own individual style showing that everyone is needed.

Domenica's talk-
Talk outline followed by small group discussions and a large group discussion.

Pull up- A break game

Everyone sits in a circle on the floor. There are two teams. You start with four
girls from each team in the middle. Music starts and the girls "pull up" someone from the other
team. When the music stops, any one in the middle counts as a point for the other team. The
team with the most points at the end of a few rounds wins

Fruit basket- Get to know everyone's interests

Everyone sits in a circle in chairs. One person is in the middle and calls out "I
like..." Everyone who also likes that runs to a new seat. If the person calls out "fruit basket"
everyone runs.

Cross the line- we are not alone. Understanding of each other

There is a line on the ground. Everyone starts on one side. One of the leaders
will call out things starting with simple things like, "who has been on an airplane" and eventually
deeper things such as, "who fears disappointing others."

McKenna's talk-
Talk followed by small group discussions and a large group discussion.

10 Commandments-
Dissect what sins fall Under each commandment.

Circle/ Affirmations-
Each person has a notebook. Everyone goes around and writes affirmations in
the books of other people.
Reconciliation service-
Ms. Leslee's Reconciliation prayer service that Mrs. Townsend has a copy of.

Movie- Mean Girls. Discussion the next day

Miranda's talk-
Talk followed by small group discussions and a large group discussion.

Tie Blankets-
Working together, everyone cuts and ties the edges of two pieces of fabric
together to form a large blanket.

Small group open mic-

People in their small groups can share about anything appropriate.

Juliana's talk-
Talk followed by small group discussions and a large group discussion.
Isabelle's talk

-Play You and Me by Lifehouse

This is one of my favorite songs. It reflects love pretty well in my opinion. I

adore the chorus, "'Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do,
nothing to loose. And it's you and me and all of the people and I don't know why, I
can't keep my eyes of of you."

In case you couldn't tell, I'm here to talk to about love. So what is love? I once
found this quote "Love is giving someone the power to destroy you but trusting
them not to." And I think this quote is saying something. When you love someone,
you open your heart up to them and invite them in. You spill your guts to them. You
give everything to them. They now know everything there is to know about you. The
person you love has the opportunity to see you break and fall, but they have also
have the opportunity see you fly and help you.

When you love someone they become the ones with power. You willingly give
up power to them and you trust them not to abuse it. They are able to do anything
with that power, but you trust them. That trust you place in them, that is love.

Love gives you something to care about. Once you care about something it
becomes your greatest weakness. But it also becomes your greatest strength.
Everyone in this room has someone they love. Think about a person you love, just
one. What's your favorite thing about them? What efect do they have on you? What
would you do for them? What would you do to make them happy?

Love is a tricky thing. It's also the most rewarding thing in the world. True love is wanting-

no, needing- for the other person to be happy, safe and having the best that life can offer.

Temporary love is enjoying the way the other person makes you feel. As soon as that good

feeling is gone, so is the love. Temporary love is not a bad thing. It helps you to love and learn
more about yourself. Without love and understanding of yourself, how can you truly love

another? You are too focussed on yourself, you fail to pay full attention to the person you love.

True love is not only romantic. True love is between friends and family. But what is

family? Family is not just those related to you by blood; family is made of the people who you

love enough to risk your life for. Family is those people who are there for you at the worst. They

cry with you in your darkest times and rejoice in your best times. Those people care for you with

their whole mind, heart and soul. "Some people care too much. I think it's called love." A. A.

Milne. The people you love are the people who's burden you would shoulder along with your

own just to see them smile. Those you love are your family.

-Play You Found Me by the Fray

I once read a quote, "When the world walks out, friends are the ones who
walk in."

I'm not going to sugar coat it for you; life sucks. I'm sure many of you have
already come to this conclusion. But the thing is, it only sucks some of the time. You
will get hurt. Your heart will be broken. How many of you have broken a bone? How
many of you broke it doing something you loved? Sometimes we get injured in the
process of doing the things we love.

That's the way life is. We get hurt. We risk everything. But in that risk we can
gain the greatest things. I know when I was younger I loved climbing trees. It hurt
like heck when I would fall, but I would get up and get back in those trees. Why?
Well, because the view from the top of the world is the greatest.

The thing is, life is hard no matter what. We will all fall down. However, when
you have someone by your side, you stay down for a much shorter time. Having a
friend with you does not mean you don't get hurt. What it does mean is you have
someone there to help you along the way. When the world seems to leave you and
nothing is going your way, friends are there. They come to your aid and stick with
you.

The hardest thing about life is somethings you have to do alone. But really,
no one is alone. Some choices you make alone, but someone is always on your side.
Those who are always on your side, those constantly support you, those are your
friends.

Friendships are true love. You give and take and help each other to the best
of your abilities. Friends follow each other down the rough roads. They stick it out
together.

Sometimes everything falls apart. People walk out on us. Life just plain isn't
fair. But your friends will be there. After a nasty fall they are the ones who kneel
down next to you and tell you at least you know gravity is still working. Friends are
the ones who love as we are and as we will be. Friends take us with all our faults, all
our baggage, all our trouble, because they have them too. Friends are the ones who
find you when you're lying on the floor.

-Play You Got a Friend in Me by Randy Newman

We don't have to hang out with everyone, but can't we care about each
other?
Retreat Leadership Talk
Theme: Deeper Community
Retreat Leader: Domenica Diaz

Introduction
What is a community? Scientifically speaking it's defined as an ecological unit
composed of a group of organisms or a population of diferent species occupying a
particular area, usually interacting with each other and their environment. In short,
a community is a group of diferent things that come together in the same place,
working towards similar goals with the help of each other.

Star Ideas
*How we are diferent
-ACTIVITY: four corners of likes/dislikes/hobbies/sports/etc.
give people two to four options of something they may like or do and ask them to
stand in that corner to see who else likes are does those things
EX: If you like soccer got to corner one, basketball to corner two, softball to corner
three, swimming to corner four.
GOAL: To see how diferent we all are by examining the wide range of answers, but
also how similar we are to each other by seeing how the diferent groups change
every time.

*How we are the same

-what we externally have in common (same school, relatively the same ages, etc.)
-what we all internally have in common (we all fear things, diferent things make us
happy, etc. )

*Common Goal
-stereotypical goals (college, good grades, graduation, etc.)
-we are all working to create a better community for ourselves and each other
-we are all connected, the actions of one can impact the lives of many

Conclusion
We are all unique individuals. We may look diferent, come from diferent places,
speak diferent languages, practice diferent faiths and have diferent interests but
there is one common thing that unites us: our community. We are a community by
its most specific definition. We rely on each other, be for a group project or
emotional support from friends in hard times. We interact with each other, just think
back to last year when you probably didn't know the majority of people in this room.
How many of you now have close, maybe even best, friends here? It should not
matter how diferent anyone else here is from you. Our job in this community is to
be loving and accepting, caring and compassionate. We should celebrate our
diferences because they are what make us unique. There should be no mold or
profile that you have to fit to be accepted here. After all, while it is our similarities
that brought this community together, it is our diferences that make it strong.