Final Day of Canaanland Retreat 2009

Woke up after 6a.m. and before Corporate Prayer at 7a.m., I managed to check the clues I had stuck outdoor the evening before were still intact despite of the strong overnight wind.

The Corporate Prayer was led by Elder Fung and Yi Ping led the P&W. There were not many people attending since the cool weather was so nice to have a sleep in. I would have done that if I was not expected to be up early.

After Corporate Prayer, I started to get things ready for the treasure hunt and continued to stick some of the clues and the locations I chose were downhill, which meant I had to climb back uphill before I could have breakfast. Half way in climbing the hill, I saw Elder Fung’s car coming down and I waved goodbye to him and Ps. Steven.

By the time I reached the dining hall, I was famished. I ate more this time as compared to yesterday. After breakfast, I had to continue to stick the clues and it was a difficult with everyone being everywhere. The rain started to come down and I prayed that it would stop as we commenced the treasure hunt. While I was still sticking the clues, most of the people gathered inside the conference hall to chit-chat. Jacob Dalager was providing the entertainment.

Since I had been to Celyn Resort previously, I wanted to organise a treasure hunt that was both fun and challenging at the same time.

I was extremely ambitious in this matter and created a twenty clues treasure hunt using five different colour schemes – pink, blue, green, yellow and purple for five groups.

I allocated different people into different groups so that each group had a spread of young people and mature adults.

From the start, I gave them the rules of the treasure hunt. By then I had no problems in talking through the microphone. PTL!

I told them that all the clues were in place as I checked but if they had any problems in looking for any of them, they could come to see me and I would be glad to assist.

1) John 15:5 – “I am the vine and you are the ________es. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (FIND OBJECT)

2) Genesis 31:1 - _______ heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “ _______ has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.” (FIND CLUE)

3) Psalm 23:4 – Even though I walk through the _______ of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (FIND CLUE)

4) Ephesians 4:11 – It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be _________s and teachers, … (FIND CLUE)

5) Luke 15:22 – “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ________ on his ringer and sandals on his feet. (FIND OBJECT)

6) Matthew 5:23 – “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the ________ and there remember that your brother has something against you, … (FIND CLUE)

7) 1 Samuel 17:40 – Then he took his staff in his hand, chose ________ ________ ________ from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. (FIND OBJECT)

8) Daniel 10:13 – But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then ________, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. (FIND CLUE)

9) Exodus 3:5 – “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your ­­­­­________, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (FIND OBJECT)

10) Amos 6:5 – You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on ________ __________. (FIND CLUE)

11) One person from the group memorize Philippians 1:21 to Spinxie.

12) Luke 5:6 – When they had done so, they caught such a large number of ________ that their nets began to break. (FIND CLUE)

13) Genesis 8:11 – When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive ________! (FIND OBJECT)

14) Psalm 23:5 – You prepare a ________ before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (FIND CLUE)

15) Titus 1:6 – An ________ must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. (FIND CLUE)

16) Proverbs 31:15 – She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her _______ and portions for her servant girls. (FIND CLUE)

17) Mark 12:42 – But a poor widow came and put in ________ very small copper ________, worth only a fraction of a penny. (FIND OBJECT)

18) Matthew 9:12 – On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a ________, but the sick. (FIND CLUE)

19) 1 Corinthians 3:8 – The man who _________ and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. (FIND CLUE)

20) Proverbs 4:23 – Above all else, ________ your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. (FIND CLUE)

Site Plan of Celyn Resort

Legends for Site Plan of Celyn Resort

Upon finishing the treasure hunt, they were supposed to complete the following.

Can you find the names of 25 books of the Bible in this paragraph? This is a most remarkable puzzle. Someone found it in the seat pocket on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping himself occupied for hours. One man from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Roy Clark studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Victs mentioned it in her column once. One woman judges the job to be so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help calm her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot...that's a fact. Some people will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. The truth is, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or scholar to see some of them at the worst. Something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have. Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation may help, books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. And punctuation or spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete. Remember, there are 25 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph.

By the time the treasure hunt started, PTL the rain stopped. And in spite of my fault in mixing up some clues, everyone had fun and said that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. A person told me I was wicked in having them ran all over the place. Haha And this person is the oldest and fittest of the lot. And he happens to be a medical doctor.

The treasure hunt took longer than I expected and all the teams did not manage to finish looking for all the clues. Some teams blamed others for sabotaging their clues.

The people from the resort told me that some of their guests had already arrived and therefore we needed to start packing. Based on what each team could solve, I had to make a decision to rank them accordingly to give out the prizes. The doctor’s team won and everyone dispersed to their room to pack their things.

After packing we all met back at the conference room. Some people helped to clean up while others proceeded to the dining hall to have lunch. By then I was relieved that everything was finally over and I could breathe a sigh of relief.

Everyone ate more during lunch due to the energy used up in the treasure hunt. I also ate slightly more.

After lunch, most people came to thank me for a job well done. I told them I did not deserve all the credit as Yi Ping did most of the work.

The doctor’s wife asked whether I lost any sleep in organising the retreat. I told her I did not except I did not sleep a wink last night. She thought I was thinking too much about the treasure hunt.

As I reflected upon everything that had happened during the retreat, I remembered the words of Ps. Steven when I was introduced to him as the Camp Commander on the eve of the retreat. ‘So you are the person who gets the blame if something goes wrong or when someone wants to complain about something?’ I had to nod in agreement. And I was glad none of that happened.

To God be the glory for an AWESOME RETREAT!