A view of a river

We just got back from first year weekend away.  It was held at a conference site just out of Nowra on the Shoalhaven river, roughly a two hour drive from Sydney (though of course Sydney is so large that it really depends on where in Sydney you're coming from).

We got there very late on Friday night so it was dark and the view was hidden from sight.  This is what I woke up to the next morning!



There was a trail of cows walking across the far paddock in a leisurely way, which is a pretty accurate symbol of what the weekend was like for the rest of us.

In terms of formal structure, of which there was only a little, we had three talks and two small group discussion sessions over the two days, and a ‘compulsory fun’ night (Saturday).  All of Saturday afternoon was left for free time.  Four and a half hours of it, it was great!  People played sport, went for walks, swam in the pool, went down the waterslide (when the power came back on!), played games and just chatted.  I spent the whole afternoon sitting at one table playing games (Munchkin, Carcassonne and Blokus). 

The speaker was one of our lecturers from college and and he spoke about glory; what it is and how we should think about it.  You can see that post here.  

The weekend was a great opportunity to spend time with our fellow students outside of college and in a different environment.  It was also good to meet some of the wives and children, and meet some more people in our year who we didn’t know yet.  I don’t think I met too many new people, but I was able to put some more names to faces, and get to know people I already knew a bit better. I had some great conversations with a few people about what I did at work last year and what my plans are for the future. 

It’s too early to tell yet what impact the weekend away has had on our year group.  I have hope that it will be positive, even for those who couldn’t make it.  We’re a big year group so it can be hard to know or recognise everyone, and it can sometimes be overwhelming for the introverts or shy people among us. 

I think the weekend has helped me to have a bit more confidence in talking to people in my year at college who I haven’t talked to much.  I felt a bit less shy today at college, and encouraged to continue getting to know people.  Please pray that I would continue to do this, that I would reach out to others, and that I would be a friend to others.  Thank God for the weekend away.