Besides the COVID years, we have continuously hosted an annual family church retreat. For the past 20 years, Labor Day (first Monday of September) weekend has always been a time reserved to spend with our church families. Whenever I talk with children who have grown up in our church, we always come across the memories made at these retreats. At the retreats, we saw parts of ourselves and others that we had not noticed before, and we took one more step forward into each other's lives. The retreats were more fun and enjoyable than any other reality show on TV. We laughed all night long. We sat surrounded around a campfire reading letters to each other under the midnight stars. We were baptized in the beautiful lake. We held on to each other and prayed in tears. We listened to the Word of God and shared our testimonies with each other. We sang our hearts out in praise. Through these retreats, we were able to build a deeper family intimacy in our church.
As the COVID years had been passing, we shifted the balance of church’s focus to center around our children, and the church family retreat has been changing as well. We have officially changed the date of the family retreat to Memorial Day Weekend (the last Monday of May). The sole reason we have let go of the crisp autumn sky comes down to one rationale— for our children. College kids cannot attend the Labor Day retreat, but they will be able to attend on Memorial Day weekend. Thus, the 2024 annual family retreat will be held from May 25th (Sat) till May 27th(Mon). We will not plan a church event during Labor Day Weekend.
We are trying to make the upcoming Memorial Day retreat more focused on the English Congregation. In fact, we are also trying to find an English-speaking guest speaker starting from the Spring as well. If realistically possible, we will also try to invite other house churches, young adults, and youth groups in New England to have a joint church retreat. I’m hoping that it will be a “Joint Young Adult Retreat". If this dream does end up happening, then the Hanmaum adults, students, and children will most likely be on the serving side. Nonetheless, even if this joint retreat is not possible, we will still host a retreat centered around our children regardless.
It is burdening to step out of the comfort circle of the familiar church retreat we have hosted over the past 20 years. The reason is that we are uncertain of the results that could follow this change. However, we know this for sure; we are heading in the right direction praying for our children and developing a church centered around them. This directional assurance is the very reason why such changes and attempts are still valuable regardless of the results.
The reason I’m talking about a Memorial Day Retreat with nothing but a date confirmed is to ask you all for prayer. I want to show everyone the direction we aspire to head in, and successfully lead this walk. Let’s bring our hearts together that this retreat will be filled with full of grace.
Following the shepherd…
Pastor Jiwon Choi