BFC Retreat

Last week the Bauru Field Council went on our annual family retreat. This year it was at the Island resort on the Paranapamena River that divides the states of São Paulo and Paraná.
After getting turned around on roads to the island (with road construction, all highway signs had been taken down),

getting out to the island became another adventure, loading one speedboat with eleven people (with no life preservers) while the second boat took the luggage (one guy commented that some pieces were the size of small refrigerators). However it was worth all the “getting there”, and what a great time we had!

After Bible study together in the mornings, we would handle field council business and planning.

Free time in the afternoons was spent at one of the pools

or just relaxing in a hammock.

Evenings, we would have another Bible study before dinner. We ate our meals together. The food was excellent.

Then free time again for table games or visiting. It was interesting what you learn about people playing games with them! And laughter became a good medicine.

Sue made up goodie boxes for each family with cookies, chips and candies. Each morning she had bags with toys for each of the kids for that day.

In the past, our Bible study time would be a devotional DVD series. This year, for the first time, we had a live speaker. I won’t go into detail about how it all came together (which in itself became quite a saga) but we were glad to have Bruce and Bev McDonald with us. Meeting out on a veranda, it was a wonderful family time together. The first evening there was a beautiful breeze and sunset, but as the week went along the breezes died and the temperatures started heading up toward a hundred degree mark. Still we enjoyed the time together.

The afternoon we went out on a schooner ride – a three hour tour – the sky darkened while we were swimming off the boat in the middle of the river.
Suddenly, the skipper called everyone out of the water and back on board as he got the engines going. I was last one out as he turned us into a wind and rain storm. Pretty exciting getting everyone out of the water with whitecaps all around!

There were storms again on our trip back home, but we all made it safely. Bruce spoke again at our church on Saturday night, with a question and answer time afterward. A group of about forty-five folks that came out for that. Sunday noon they headed back to the states.

In our Sunday evening service, we had a missionary couple who are heading for Mozambique give an excellent presentation in our evening service.

Along with regular responsibilities this week, there’s a wedding coming up on Saturday. Sue’s responsible for setting up, decorations and floral arrangements. Tim’s got that service, but we’ve been invited to stand up with the couple.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!