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Alexandra school retreat

3Rock youth was joined by Youth Alive and Scripture Union for the first school retreat of the year. There were quite a few newcomers to the team and Clare, from Youth Alive shares her experience:
We had our first schools retreat with Alexandra College on Thursday the 4th. We began the day with an energetic game of Fruit Basket led by our game masters for the day Suzie and Niamh. There was a lot of high pitch screaming involved and that was just Doug and Scott. After we were all sufficiently out of breath, we all took a seat and had a Music Quiz, where the girls were given the opportunity to express their personalities through their team names. Some were interesting to say the least. We then had our first talk of the day by Susan from 3Rock. She took the topic of identity, using her own personal story to express this message. The girls took some space in the morning and reflected on their own past. Once again Suzie and Niamh introduced a game to allow the girls to show off their artistic side. They were given a lump of playdough and were asked to create camels from them. The results were interesting but creative. We then had another talk, from Sarah-Jane who used her life experiences as an illustration of Hope and Faith which led into a time of small group discussions. The girls got into their groups, each one facilitated by one of the team members. In these groups we took topics like Influences, Friends, Relationships and God and discussed them. After the groups we all joined into one big group where the girls gave their opinions and views. Together we watched a video ‘Lump’ which illustrated Gods love for each of the: “There’s nothing you could ever do to make God love you less”. We finished up the day with a prayer and another crazy game where the girls had to create a mummy with toilet paper and one of their team members. There results were hilarious, the girls accessorized very well with what they had. The winning team was announced and received their prize. The girls were amazing and were so responsive to the discussion and topics brought up throughout the day. We had so much fun with the girls, they were great!