EL RETO 2015 - WEEK FIVE REPORT

EL RETO WEEK 5

This ain’t no walk in the park! 

Known as “the walk” this was the week for the annual ‘stroll’ through the challenging terrain of Cofradia.  Before they ventured off, the night started with a mini-auction.  The red team won a taco night and the white team won all of the clues to the three hidden treasures, plus the code to read them! Once the auction ended teams quickly made their way to the start of the trail just outside of Cofradia. 

Teams were led by Cofradia's Pastor Goyo and Pastor Abimael from Tuxpan who were armed with bug and wasp spray along with machetes.  This first leg of the walk allowed the youth the opportunity to reflect on the past 4 weeks and provided a great backdrop to connect with God. 

About a third of the way through the walk, teams met up with Staff for their first team challenge.  A simple tug-of-war game was played, only this time you and your opponents’ team are standing in ankle deep mud/water.  Most of the youth were already filthy at this point, but if they did happen to bypass some of the messier parts of the fields, this was a sure way of getting them properly broken in.

The teams then made their way to the river where the next challenge was waiting.  Teams needed to make a human bridge to allow a member to cross safely to the other side.  At first, the youth used this opportunity to cool off and clean up!  There is a great short video below that gives you an idea of how excited they were to reach the water and how refreshing it must have felt. 

Once teams had a member successfully cross the river, they were all back on the trail headed to the finish.  Waiting at the end of the walk were two games.  The first had team members quickly un-thread rings tied to a rope in the river.  Once they retrieved all of the rings, they brought them ashore to play ring toss.  The second game had 3 team members dig their way underneath a cross bar in order to search for buried bags in the sand which contained puzzle pieces.  Once the members found their bag, they were able to bring them back to the team and work on completing the puzzle. 

All of these games, including the walk, bring about many teachable moments.  One is that they really focus on how we are all members of one body and function better when we come together.  Each piece has a role to play that is important for the overall success of the group.  Another is that on our walk, we all get dirty, we all get tired and we all need the living water to clean, refresh, and rejuvenate us.

Exhausted, and ‘the walk’ now complete, teams hitched a ride back to the church for the Refuge.  During Refuge this week a special video was played featuring the powerful testimony of Nick Vujicic.  The youth learned about the true source of their strength being God.   It’s not about comparing personal struggles/hardships with those of others in order to feel grateful for where you are.  Nick also reminded them that God would use whatever situation they are in to glorify Him if they are open to it.  The video ended with a moving reminder to not give up on God because God does not give up on us!

Below is a quick recap video of this week's RETO!!

You can be part of this great event by making a special donation to EL RETO online here.  Your gifts provide the resources, preparation, promotion, transportation, prizes, and the opportunity for the young people to come to this event.  NOT ONE of the students is charged any kind of admission fee because we want them to come.  We thank you in advance for participating with us!

EL RETO 2015 - WEEK FOUR REPORT

EL RETO 2015 – WEEK FOUR

Once again the night started with a short game for the teams, which allowed Staff to set up four activities at the nearby soccer field. The game included twenty team members being pulled individually for about fifteen feet on the church floor while sitting on a bucket lid in a race to the finish line.  Once all twenty members from each team finished, the teams headed to the field where they took turns participating in various races and a human bowling challenge.

For the bowling challenge, team members were first primed for the lane with a cold bucket of water dumped on them.  Plastic tarps for lanes were already ‘waxed’ with soap and water.  The bowling pins were empty water jugs.  Some team members got a long running start and were hitting strikes all day long.  Others were ‘gutter balls’ making it halfway down the lane before falling to a stop and hitting zero pins.

This reminds us that often we fall off course, and through those experiences can become un-fruitful. By the grace of God, however, it’s never too late to jump back on course.

In another game the teams first worked together to build a web from rope to help carry a member down the field to pick up puzzle pieces three at a time. 

The rest of the team waited, and once all the pieces were carried back, they worked together to complete the puzzle.  The teams were given 5 minutes to finish and received points for correctly completing the puzzle.

The teams also participated in two races.  One was a modification of the classic human wheel barrel race involving a coned course.  This was set up relay style where each member got to be the wheel barrel and the wheel barrel handler.

For the second race multiple team members stood on wooden planks, one for each foot, and had to cross the field walking as one. 

This proved difficult for the teams and highlighted the importance of unity and communication.

After the field games, teams ran down the street where a truck pull challenge was waiting for them.  Each team worked together to move a truck uphill to the finish line.

As we watched, the scripture that came to mind was Philippians 4:13 which states, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Once the teams reached the finish line, they were rewarded with rest and a ride to Sante Fe for the auction. 

Teams used their accumulated points to bid on unknown items such as cake, soda, a movie night, clues for the hidden treasures as well as one very interesting prize.

Usually the last prize of the night is saved for something really special.  Almost all teams jumped in causing a bidding war and driving the price/points way up.  Captain Lalo and the orange team made the final bid.  To everyone’s surprise, they had been bidding on the un-wanted responsibility for doing the nightly chores.  He was also given a consolation prize, which added to the embarrassment of bidding on the chores.  The consolation prize?  Pastor Luis’s dog Minnie.  This was a highly pivotal moment in the night as some were elated and relieved, while others were disappointed, even angry.  The situation spoke to a number of people that compared to what Lalo had just gone through, Jesus went through so much more for us.  Lalo was a very good sport and understood the principal of this teachable moment.

The teams packed up and headed back to the church in Cofradia for worship and the Refuge.  Since  the chores were already determined through the auction, teams voted for another team to receive points gifted to them instead.  Two teams received the most votes and the points offered were divvied between them. 

Here is a video recap of week four:


You can be part of this great event by making a special donation to EL RETO online here.  Your gifts provide the resources, preparation, promotion, transportation, prizes, and the opportunity for the young people to come to this event.  NOT ONE of the students is charged any kind of admission fee because we want them to come.  We thank you in advance for participating with us!

EL RETO 2015 - WEEK THREE REPORT

EL RETO 2015 - WEEK THREE

The race is on!  Week three started right away with a race to the Refuge.  A simple activity at the church allowed other staff members to leave and set up their activities in the other towns. 

This simple activity was to balance a ball on a table while eight team members carried the table from one side of the church to the other and drop the ball into a bucket.  They were not allowed to touch or blow on the ball; if the ball fell or missed the bucket, they had to start again.  

Most of the teams accomplished this on the first try.  In a surprisingly quick one minute, The Brave of Heart team finished first.  Along with first place also came a secret prize!  They were to detain another team for five minutes once that team showed up at the final activity of the day--which turned out to be the perfect teachable moment for which it was intended (I have placed an asterisk* at the beginning of the paragraphs that expound on the teachable moment).

Once they finished that task, they got a not that led them to find Martin in the town of Las Pilas.  He was waiting for the teams at the small lake where they were to fill up a bucket of water on a teeter-totter that had metal bucket on the other end where they were to make a fire.  As the water bucket got heavier, it lifted the fire bucket up.  

Once they caught on fire a bag hanging on a tree, they were finished with their task.  Their next clue was waiting for them inside an anchored balloon in the lake.

That message sent them to the town of Santa Fe and contained instructions for their next activity.  This activity was a revision of kickball where the base paths were plastic covered with soap and water and the bases were swimming pools.  Someone posted this of Facebook.  We liked it and tried it.  If you are a youth pastor, YOU HAVE TO DO THIS!  The students who participated loved it!  Here are a bunch of pictures...

1st Base

Returning to 2nd base

Sliding into Home!

3rd Base!

After they scored three runs, their team was to distribute care packages to families who had been affected in the recent flooding.  The river grew over its edges and some homes had three feet of water in them; the baseball field where they played kickball had been under water a week earlier.

As they left Santa Fe, they headed back to the mission base in Cofradia where there were a plethora of activities for them to do.  They divided their team into five small groups for five activities: Puzzle, Accounting, Sports, Couples, and Remembering.  The Puzzle group put together a 300-piece puzzle, which was the longest of the activities.  The Accounting group counted all the bricks in the south wall of the mission base (1,497).  The Sports group had to take turns at trying to make a difficult basket, The Couples group had to match two designs that were facedown (see picture), The Remembering team had to memorize the RETO theme verses (Psalm 139:13,16) and tell them to someone who lives about four blocks away.  If one of the five groups finished, they could help the other groups who were still working.  

The Puzzle

The Accounting

The Couples

*This was the final activity location of the day where The Recognized by God team was detained for five minutes.  This was a teachable moment that we took advantage of in order to bring to light the fact that the world rejects Christianity and tries to discredit our beliefs.  What does it feel like to be rejected?  What does it feel like when someone does something wrong to you when you didn't deserve it?  How do we respond as Christians?  Is it important for us to know who hurt us? (I did not tell them which team detained them).  Our reaction should be love and forgiveness.  In the end, there is a prize waiting for us in heaven.  We need to try our best to let Christ live through us to love and forgive others just like he has loved and forgiven us.

The Brave of Heart, The Christ-Sent, and The Recognized by God teams all finished before the allotted time while the other three teams came very close.  We sent everyone to the Refuge at the church at 7pm.

Pastor Luis did an excellent job of integrating these activities in his message to the students that night.  Using the story of the Prodigal Son, he related that family to a puzzle and the son that left was a missing piece to the puzzle of that family.  When the son came back, the Father was extremely happy, for that missing piece to the puzzle had been found and now they were complete once again!

We are all important to God the Father.  When we stumble and mess up, God is always willing to forgive.  He gets excited that we, as missing puzzle pieces, are found.

*During the reading of the votes for chores, it was revealed that the team that was detained was to receive a prize--Immunity to Chores plus all the clues to the Hidden Treasures.  As the captain was walking back to his team after receiving the prize, I stopped him and let him know that this is the principal that we wanted to get across to his team.  It could have been any team, but God chose his team to receive this message.  The message was to know that God rewards us for obeying him.  In this case, forgiving others for wrongs done against us.

There were a number of different teachable moments in this third week.   This is one of the exciting things that happen during EL RETO.  We get an opportunity to speak into students' lives that we normally don't have.  So many of these students don't know Jesus.  Please continue to pray for soft, open, and receptive hearts as we share God's love with them.

Enjoy the video recap...

You can be part of this great event by making a special donation to EL RETO online here.  Your gifts provide the resources, preparation, promotion, transportation, prizes, and the opportunity for the young people to come to this event.  NOT ONE of the students is charged any kind of admission fee because we want them to come.  We thank you in advance for participating with us!

EL RETO 2015 - WEEK TWO REPORT

EL RETO 2015 -- WEEK TWO

This week we had the pleasure of hosting a group of young people from Las Varas, Nayarit, nearly three hours from Cofradía.  In March, we went to their church to do a mini-RETO with them and they were anxious to be part of the original EL RETO.

With well over 100 students in attendance, the activities began right away due to a full agenda.  The first activity was "Jala la Dona" (Pull the Doughnut).  Six people, one member from each team, pulled on an inner tube as they tried to reach their team's flag outside the hexagon.  This game proved to be a lot of fun as they all battled it out on a big piece of plastic covered with soap and water.  Thank you to Pastor Joe Franco from 3G Student Ministries in Gresham, Oregon for this idea!

The next two events have become RETO classics as the students look forward to both of them each year.  The first one was Water Balloon Gladiators.  Each team had a chance to throw water balloons at the other teams running through an obstacle course that finished at the soccer goal.

The final event was our famous Fear Factor Banquet!  Our disclaimer is that they DO NOT have to eat any of it.  However, if they want points for their team, it needs to go down and they have to show a clean mouth.  This year chicken liver was introduced and also featured a couple of repeats form years past with green peppers and live gold fish!

After the events, we had a quick Refuge time with some worship and a message from Pastor Luis about how to find your identity in Christ.  Life is challenging and we are learning how to deal with those challenges through this creative outreach!

Here is a recap video of week two:

You can be part of this great event by making a special donation to EL RETO online here.  Your gifts provide the resources, preparation, promotion, transportation, prizes, and the opportunity for the young people to come to this event.  NOT ONE of the students is charged any kind of admission fee because we want them to come.  We thank you in advance for participating with us!