The Alpha Retreat turned out different and I think better than we expected. It was very low key (major plus). We had a good number of people, although I was sad to note the absence of a few particular individuals. Here are the stats on attendance:- 23 people total (including us)
- from 6 families (including one family of 8 people over 3 generations!)
- 14 adults, 3 teenage girls, and 4 young boys (5-12?)
- of the adults, 5 men and 9 women
- of the adults, 5 people already involved in our "church" and 9 disconnected (in varying degrees)
For the last session of the retreat, we went back to Puerto Supe and to the Comunidad Cristiana building to combine our regular Sunday night worship service with the Alpha group. We had free food for all and were generally full and exhausted by the end of the night.
The retreat was actually somewhat uneventful (in a good way, I think), but I have one encouraging story to share. One family that came to the retreat has only attended 1 Alpha night before (2 weeks ago). They are definitely connected to people that participate in the Comunidad Cristiana but I haven't seen any real spiritual interest on their own part before. The father of the family approached Tim at the end of the night and asked if he could borrow the first 7 Alpha videos to watch this week. We're excited to see that kind of initiative, especially from a youngish guy! They're a great family that we would love to get to know more.
