ENREACH – Final Day, Sept 3rd

So, in a blink of an eye the retreat is over and we’re right back into the routine of our daily living…or have we? One thing’s for sure - we’ve come out “enriched” and changed for the better.

In our final Small Group Activity, we were asked to write and/or draw our actions on a good and bad day. This is from Jo:

Bad Days:
"When I have no appetite"
"When I have to restrain myself from eating my favourite foods" (ie. Bak kwa, char kway teow, laksa, satay…list goes on and on)
"One day before I go for chemo or CT Scan"
"When I feel I can’t plan for the future"

Good Days:
"Pray to God and commit everything into His hands"
"Pour out everything to Alex and discuss possible solutions"
"Talk to close girlfriends"
"Do a new interesting activity" (i.e travel and try new foods/restaurants etc)
"Go to Sunday School and collect hugs from kids"

Writing down stuff like that can be quite daunting actually because it makes you stare reality in the face (bad days)…I hate that. But the positive thing is that it makes you more aware of how precious the Good days are and that planning is sometimes to make each of these days the best!

What we learned or was reinforced:
- Count your blessings each day for there are many who are much less fortunate than we are.
- Live each day at a time and take time to smell the roses.
- You lose nothing in giving of yourself to others.
- Crying is absolutely fine…
- We need to continuously draw strength from our “anchors”
- Keep yourself occupied
- Always ask and seek help
- Stay positive

We want to say our hearty thanks to Judy and her fantastic NCC team and beyond for having organised such a wonderful programme.

Our group Lilies was truly an amazing group made up of:
A father and son, mother and daughter, 2 wonderful friends, a brave responsible father and 2 excellent facilitators. Thank you Simon, Gerald, Janice, Joyce, Persis, Siew Hong, Poh Leng, Anita and Serene for sharing your lives with us and for being so positive.