EL RETO 2011 - WEEK FOUR

EL RETO 2011 - WEEK FOUR

TO BE CONTINUED...

Ninety-two students have participated in this year's event so far.  Right away, the students hopped in the vehicles to get started with all the action in Las Pilas, a town about 3 miles west.  EL RETO goes from town to town in an attempt to attract attention and draw in not just students, but adults as well.  As we are reaching out to the students involved, the people watching get interested and start asking questions.  What an opportunity!

Getting ready to start in Las Pilas

After taking roll call, the teams' first challenge was to toss as many small sandbags into buckets as possible.  Each bucket had a different value; the more points the farther away.

RESULTS:

• The Faithful - 1,350 pts.
• The Heirs - 900 pts.
• The Prudent - 750 pts.
• The Servants of the Lord - 400 pts.
• The Humble - 300 pts.
• The Chosen - 50 pts.

After finishing in Las Pilas, the teams travelled another two miles to the town of Paso Real del Bejuco.  There, the teams played a basketball/footbal style game as they tried to get as many balloons in guarded buckets as possible.

 

RESULTS:

• The Humble - 2,800 pts.
• The Servants of the Lord - 2,500 pts.
• The Heirs - 2,400 pts.
• The Prudent - 1,900 pts.
• The Faithful - 1,700 pts.
• The Chosen - 1,600 pts.

From there, everyone got back into the trucks and headed back to Cofradía for the much awaited annual RETO Banquet Fear Factor style.  This has proven to be one of the biggest events that everyone looks forward to every year!  This year, with Martín Garzon's homecoming, we asked him to prepare some of the food that he experienced during his time in Oaxaca (not that the food is bad, just different).  Also, some of the staff prepared some other dishes as well along with the classics that the students always expect: Cow Eyes and Jalapeño Peppers.

Here is the menu:

Chips

Mixed Cactus Drink

Grasshoppers (from Oaxaca)

Tamale with Black Beans (from Oaxaca)

Homemade Pocket Bread with Zucchini (from Oaxaca)

Eggroll-style flour burrito with zucchini and black beans (from Oaxaca)

Homemade Pocket Bread with Chicken Liver filling

Cow eye

Jalapeño Peppers

An onion the size of a racket ball

Then the whole team had to down a 3 liter bottle of coke.

The Banquet is always an incredible time with lots of energy.  It is probably the most desired event by the students.

RESULTS:

• First Place: The Heirs - 3,000 pts.
• Second Place: The Chosen - 2,000 pts.
• Third Place:  The Prudent - 1,000 pts.
• Fourth Place: The Servants of the Lord - 750 pts.
• Participation Points:  The Humble and The Faithful - 500 pts.

After the Banquet, we continued with Part Two.  This was going to be a very unique Part Two since the Lord showed us how we could incorporate a very important lesson about real life, "Things Done in Secret."

Part Two

Each year we have what in English would be called "The War of Coins."  Each Mexican peso coin has a point value. The greater the coin; the greater the point value.  The ten-peso coin is worth a negative 250 points.  Each team has the opportunity to deposit coins each week in their bottle as well as deposit ten-peso coins in other teams' bottles.  This is why it's called a War.  This year, the students have not waged any war for fear that they'll be seen.  So, we set it up for them to be able to wage war in secret while they had their voting time.  After each team had waged war, I removed the coins so that the other teams would not notice what had happened as they came in to vote.  The end result was that 5 of the 6 teams waged war.

After the voting and the Coin War, I shared about how hurtful things can be to others, ourselves, and God, when we do things in secret that do not glorify God.  Not only are those things hurtful, but also the Bible says, in real life, that those things that are done in secret will come to light.

At this point, I asked the students if they could put themselves in the place of being victimized.  Then, for those who were responsible for the actions, I asked if they would like to come forward to the microphone to ask for forgiveness for what they did against the other teams.  It was an amazing time!  EL RETO is just a game, but we were able to create a teachable moment that had a huge impact on the lives of not only the students, but the adults as well who were watching.  Four of the five teams came forward to ask for forgiveness, and each one was forgiven.  The negative points were nullified and the slates were wiped clean. 

TO BE CONTINUED...

EL RETO 2011 - WEEK THREE

EL RETO 2011 WEEK THREE

"TO BE CONTINUED..."

The beginning in Arrayanes

Eight more new students showed up as we started our third week of events.  This week we started in Arrayanes with the students painting their faces in order to get ready for one of our classic activities called "Gladiators." 

Guille, The Heirs Captain

Aidé, The Prudent Captain 

Alfredo, The Faithful Captain

Fernando, participant for The Heirs 

In Gladiators, each team is given the opportunity to throw water-balloons at the other teams as they run through the course.  The team running can hide behind block-aids, but they have to make it to the goal in less than a minute.

Each team made it through successfully within the time limit.  Most teams were hit numerous times with water-balloons, but there was one team The Servants of the Lord who impressed us all with making it through twice without even getting hit once.  They were the team to win the activity; they also hit the most individuals of the other teams when it was there turn to throw.

RESULTS:

• The Servants of the Lord - 1,430 pts.
• The Faithful ­- 1,350 pts.
• The Prudent - 1,040 pts.
• The Chosen - 930 pts.
• The Heirs - 790 pts.
• The Humble - 600 pts.

From Arrayanes we began another race, but this time in the vehicles with their drivers.  Each team started in accordance with the points they had with the last place leaving first.  The Humble used the Medallion of Power in this activity to give them a 5-minute advantage over the next team to leave.

As they broke the code to where they were supposed to go, they ran to the basketball court where the drivers were waiting.  Once they got to the Arrayanes Bridge, they had to decide weather or not they wanted to "pay" to go across or just run through the river below and not pay.  Every team chose to run through the river!

The Prudent running the race

Crossing the river

After the bridge, they made it to the entrance of Cofradía where they had to draw a bottle with a message in it.  Whatever the message said is the route they had to take.  There were three messages:  "Life," "Death," and "To Be Continued...".

Life: In "Life," the teams had to make their way to the center of town and memorize a verse from the Bible, recite it to the staff that was waiting for them, make their way to the store that sold gas, buy 2 gallons of gas (money was provided), and continue on to the town of Las Pilas.  The Servants of the Lord and The Heirs both had to take this route.

Death: In "Death," they had to make their way around the outskirts of Cofradía and once they reached the soccer field in San Marcos, they had to run around the field two times, then continue to circle Cofradía, stop at the same gas store, buy 2 gallons, and continue on to the town of Las Pilas.  The Humble, The Prudent, and The Chosen had to take this route.

To Be Continued: In "To Be Continued," all they had to do was drive right through Cofradía without stopping and make their way to the town of Las Pilas.  The Faithful drew this one.

TEACHABLE MOMENT:

Sometimes, life throws curve balls at us and certain things that happen outside of our control can be either really great and easy ("To Be Continued"),  or normal ("Life"), or even sometimes it can be something very difficult ("Death").  Even though things come our way, we can still trust in the Lord for his strength and give him thanks for the blessings he gives us.

As they left Cofradía, they made it to the main bridge to town and again all the teams decided to run through the river.

Their next stop was Las Pilas.  The week before I had told them to study Matthew 5:1-12, The Beatitudes.  So this week, I put together a quiz for them to fill out.  Each team did pretty well; only one had some difficulty.

Arriving in Las Pilas

RESULTS:

• The Faithful - 2,000 pts.
• The Servants of the Lord - 1,500 pts.
• The Prudent - 1,000 pts.
• The Heirs - 750 pts.
• The Chosen, The Humble - 500 pts.

In Las Pilas, we had one more activity for them to do.  Near the small lake, they had to fill a bucket full of water as a team.  While most of the team was holding halves of PVC pipe, three individuals were running down to the water's edge filling up smaller buckets and poured the water from the beginning of the line.  This ended up being a really exciting game!  Hardly anyone was dry at the end, even the staff got muddy from the splashes of the student's feet as they watched.

The beginning of the activity near the small lake

RESULTS:

• The Servants of the Lord - 1,500 pts.
• The Heirs - 1,000 pts.
• The Prudent, The Faithful - 500 pts.

Finally, we ended the evening in "Part Two" as we do every Saturday.  This week's teaching was what the Bible says about Hell.  Is it Real? Yes!,  Where is it?  The Bible doesn't say, and How do I avoid it?  Jesus!  Scriptures we used were, John 14:6 and 1 John 5: 11,12.  As well as many that describe what hell is like.

Students listen in "Part Two"

We also continued with "generosity" as we did a two-for-one for the encouragement points we call "Filipos" or "Philippis."  This idea comes from the book of Philippians, which is filled with encouragement.  The drawback to this was that we also did the same thing for the penalties; and there were lots!  Some teams lost 1,000 points or more!

The last item as usual was the voting time.  This week the teams voted for a team to have to do clean up.  The team that received the most votes was The Chosen, but they also were the only team to receive clues to the hidden treasures after they cleaned up the speed soccer court in Arrayanes.

The RETO Graveyard

The voting table

Teams vote

The Chosen were chosen to do clean up

FINAL RESULTS AFTER WEEK THREE ACTIVITES:

• The Prudent:  2,863 (3); 7,413 (Total)
• The Servants of the Lord:  4,414 (3); 8,416 (Total)
• The Chosen:  -178 (3); 5,928 (Total)
• The Humble:  2,678 (3); 5,917 (Total)
• The Heirs:  4,319 (3); 12,384 (Total)
• The Faithful:  4,577 (3); 7,726 (Total)

TO BE CONTINUED...

EL RETO 2011 - WEEK TWO

EL RETO 2011 WEEK TWO:

"To Be Continued..."

The energy continues as 64 young people (14 new students) showed up for the second week.  That makes 80 participants after two weeks.

As normal, we start by taking roll call.  Then, we immediately got into the activities as we gave points to the first team to be able to break the code to

"才哦年他一年我啊日啊"

The Chosen breaking the code

This was the sign they would see as they made their way on foot to Arrayanes, a town just under 3 miles north of Cofradía.  The sign says "Continuará" which in English means "To Be Continued."  Each sign would have an arrow indicating which way to go.  Accompanied by chaperones, the teams took off one by one according to how many points they had from the previous week.  Before reaching their destination, they will have put together a brain teaser in Cofradía's center plaza, decided between toll road and free road in order to head to the river where they were to run through a long puddle and match photos one by one.  Once they matched 10 photos, they came to a tug-of-war station in the mud where they had to wait for the next team to arrive in order to realize the activity.  The winner kept going while the looser would then wait for another team.  Once they made it out to the main road (Plan A was to cross the river, but it rained too much so we had to go with Plan B).  After crossing the bridge, they came to the ruins of an old church and had to search for their team's color ribbon amongst the rocks.  From there, they made their way to the Arrayanes graveyard to unscramble some words before they reached their final destination:  the Arrayanes baseball field.

The Heirs working on the Brain Teaser

The Prudent working on the Brain Teaser

The teams that had arrived waited for the other teams at the Arrayanes Baseball field

This week ended up being one of the most impactful teachable moments in the history of EL RETO as the last team to leave Cofradía (45 minutes after the first team left), surprisingly arrived second in Arrayanes.  It seemed pretty odd that they could pass up four other teams.  However, after chatting with the captain, we learned that they made a wrong turn and accidently skipped the two activities near the river.  This caused some tension between our staff and the team until we were able to reason with those who were upset that this is "just a game."  One of the main purposes for EL RETO is to learn about God, life, and leadership.  This was the perfect opportunity of which to take advantage.  There are many deceptive philosophies and beliefs that look a lot like the truth, but are only counterfeits.  I have written a post about this circumstance titled "The Great Deception" on our blog.  I encourage you to read about it, as "Deception" was the lesson to be taught during "Part Two".  Everything that happened that day fit right into the teaching.  We had made counterfeits of the Chinese code signs the teams worked with at the beginning.  They looked very similar to the real sign, but they were counterfeits.  Every team had gone down a wrong road, but eventually found their way back.  One team was permanently lost...ironically, their name is "The Humble."

RACE RESULTS:

• First Place-3,000 pts. - The Chosen
• Second Place-2,000 pts. - The Heirs
• Third Place-1,000 pts. - The Servants of the Lord
• Fourth - Sixth Place-500 pts.
• The Prudent
• The Faithful
• The Humble 

The Medallion of Power was used by The Chosen at the beginning of the race to give them a 10-minute advantage over the rest of the teams.  They passed it to The Servants of the Lord who decided not to use it and passed it to The Humble who now have it in their possession.

In "Part Two" this week, we had the teams all come in together and meet in the sanctuary where we showed a PowerPoint of real signs and logos as opposed to fake ones.  This is where they found out that there were fake signs to Arrayanes.  Once we explained to them that in real life they will encounter counterfeit products, logos, signs, money, and even Christs, we had them one by one head over to the "Part Two" stage.

The lesson was all about Deception and our cry to them was that they would not be deceived by false teachings.  As they walked through the graveyard, they met up with three of our staff dressed up as people who are involved in false teachings.  Those staff members were pleading with the students to not go down the road they did (as if they had followed that teaching and already died).

Once they reached the voting room where I was, we talked with them on a serious note completely separated from the game of EL RETO.  We prayed with the teams for salvation.  There were at least one or two in each team who showed a genuine interest in accepting the Lord and their personal Savior.  We've never done this during a voting time, but I sensed it was the perfect moment for the message that was shared.

The Part Two Stage

Horacio representing someone who was involved in false teaching

Pastor Luis and Benito representing people into and influenced by false teaching

The Heirs praying to receive Jesus as their Savior.

The Servants of the Lord praying to receive Jesus as their Savior

FINAL RESULTS AFTER ALL THE ACTIVITIES OF WEEKS ONE AND TWO:

• The Heirs - 8,065 pts.
• The Chosen - 6,106 pts.
• The Prudent - 4,550 pts.
• The Servants of the Lord - 4,002 pts.
• The Humble - 3,239 pts.
• The Faithful - 3,149 pts.

TO BE CONTINUED...

September Update

Greetings Everyone from Cofradía, Mexico!  August has been a very busy month!  Two days before my 39th birthday, I got stung by a scorpion.  Rebecka’s birthday was a week later and we had a fun activity filled (RETO) birthday party for her.  Throughout the month, we planned details for our Student Ministry event of the year: EL RETO.  We have a number of blog entries with photos and videos we’d like to pass to you so you can read them at your leisure.

Links to the news:
The RETO Captain’s Retreat:  We took all 6 captains to the beach to start EL RETO with their choosing of team colors and Bible Stories.  We also introduced the Medallion of Power.  Watch the video to see what happens.
Identity Time in EL RETO Week One:  This is a very short video clip (48 sec) with an explanation and showing the students making their flags, banners, and epitaphs.  It really brings the atmosphere to life and makes you feel like you’re there.  Watch it here.
Full Report of EL RETO Week One:  This is a detailed report of the first week.  Read it here.
The Great Deception:  This is a report on one of the most impactful teachable moments we’ve had in the history of EL RETO.  Read here to see what happened.
Follow EL RETO on Facebook.
EL RETO Donations:  We have not received any donations as of yet.  This is the most impactful outreach this youth ministry has ever had.  It draws in many students who have never stepped foot into the church and don’t know Christ.  I believe in this outreach and Geña and I invest a lot of time and money into making this possible.  Please consider how you can help us.  We need $2000 to keep reaching the lives of students.  Click here for instructions on how to donate to EL RETO.
August Video Update:  Last month I put together a video explaining some of the ways lives have been touched through the ministry and some of the changes we’re going through.  Watch it here.

This Month’s requests:
Finances for EL RETO
Lives impacted through EL RETO.

Thank you very much for partnering with us through your prayers and financial support.
Click here to donate to our personal support.

Blessings,
Steve, Geña, Rebecka and Emma Rose Silberman
Missionaries to Mexico
Alternative Missions Cofradia
Area Director
SKYPE: “srsilberman”

The Great Deception

"But the sign said go this way!" 

There are many counterfeits all around us; counterfeit products, counterfeit logos, counterfeit money, and counterfeit Christs.  They are all "signs" that deceive us into believing a lie.

This last week in EL RETO, the lesson to be taught was "Deception."  As the teams took off from the church to run their race to Arrayanes, they didn't know that the Chinese code sign I gave them had counterfeits to lead them down incorrect paths.  They needed to make sure the sign really said what they thought it said; they needed to make sure the sign said the truth and that it was going to lead them to where they needed and wanted to go.  The problem was, they didn't know there were counterfeits and every team went down a road that led to a sign that said "Wrong Way; go back to the last sign that led you astray and don't pay attention to it."

There were activities throughout the race that they had to accomplish.  Some were individual team activities; others were activities to be realized against other teams so they had to wait for a team in order to do the activity.  Their final destination was the baseball field in Arrayanes.

One team showed up incredibly early.  We found out that they made a wrong turn, misinterpreted one of the signs and ended up skipping the two activities near the river.  This caused a lot of frustration on the captain's part, even the adult we had as a chaperone.  Once things got a little heated, I realized that this was going to need to be dealt with and looked at through the eyes of the purpose of EL RETO.  Learning things about God.

What happened next, turned into one of the most impactful teachable moments EL RETO has ever had.  In real life, we can get deceived very easily if we don't know the true signs very well.  There are many false religions, false prophets, and false Christs deceiving people into believing a lie that looks a lot like the truth.  The good thing about EL RETO is that it's just a game.

The truth is:  (Jesus is) the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through (him).  John 14:6.

The lie is:  You need to be good and work for your salvation.

In "Part Two", we talked about the counterfeit doctrines, beliefs and religions.  We exposed how Satan is out to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  Here are the verses we used:  Matthew 7:15-23; 24:10-13; 23-24; Galatians 1:8; and 1 Timothy 1:3-8; 4:1-8.

During the voting time, we spent time with each team giving them the opportunity to ask Jesus Christ to become Lord of their life.  All the teams but one wanted to pray.  In each team, there were at least 1 or 2 who I could tell were pretty sincere.  That was time well spent.

WHAT IS TRUTH IS TRUTH.  WHAT IS NOT TRUTH, LOOKS LIKE THE TRUTH.  That is the Great Deception.

Identity Time in EL RETO

Here is a quick clip of the students working on their flags, banners, and tombstones for EL RETO 2011!