Year 10 Damascus Day Retreat
On Wednesday 6 March, the Year 10 cohort enjoyed their Damascus Day Retreat, with the keen focus being on servant leadership. The retreat was hosted by the Youth Mission Team, a group of young adults who give up a year of their life to minister to high school aged youth all around the country. It was a fantastic day filled with high energy games to get the Year 10’s moving but also thinking about the deeper meaning behind each of the activities that they were led through.
Some of the key focal points for the day were:
- For students to appreciate their own worth as a starting point of their leadership journey; for students to understand what leadership looks like and the relationship between leadership and service
- That students would encounter the core Gospel values that drive true servant leadership and
- That students would recognise that it is both possible and desirable to develop a personal relationship with Jesus, only to help them serve as He served.
Each session had a particular theme following the trait of Integrity, helping students to identify integrity as the most valuable quality in a leader, but also the capacity to be true to themselves and their own beliefs and values, regardless of the pressure that others may place on them. It was a great way to be able to spend time as a cohort, to build relationships and community, but also to engage on a more personal level by inviting Jesus to empower us as leaders and to pray for the grace to be instruments of His love.
The day ended with an Ash Wednesday Liturgy led by the students and the launch of Project Compassion for 2019. Overall a truly memorable experience.