Wood Green Mennonite Church awayday

So within the first month of being in London I get to experience a retreat day for the Wood Green Mennonite Church. It consisted of heading out to a retreat centre that was outside of London, but still relatively closeby for the day. At the centre we had a chance to contribute a "desert island song" of our choosing to play for the group along with an explanation for why we would choose that song. The essence of a desert island song is that if you could choose one song if you were stranded on a desert island, which song would it be, and why.

I chose "Runnin Down a Dream" by Tom Petty. I chose it because if I were stranded on an island I would want something that was upbeat (in terms of type of music, not necessarily lyrics) and also because it was a song I use to play when driving to and from school when I drove to school in VT (and it provides fond memories of that time). The diversity of the group was pretty evident as others chose anything from Gospel type music (as I went down to the river to pray), pop (the teen of the group), to instrumental or classical. This was a nice way for me to start to get to know church members outside of a general conversation.

Other activities of the day included morning and afternoon tea/coffee breaks, "free time" - which I spent learning how to play a game somewhat like mastermind except with triangles, a worship time, and finally a short information session regarding some ideas regarding reducing the church's carbon footprint.

Overall it was a nice day to have, and coincidently fell soon after I arrived and had just started to get to know a few people. Which on one hand made it easier to know people, but on the other was a retreat in which I might have enjoyed more after knowing people a bit more. Either way it was nice to have.