Land of Mechuana Retreat

Historical Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church

Epilogue 6                Part  72         The Land of Mechuwana

Day 1

Once upon a time in the land of Mechuwana the brethren of the Land of Peoples came to find Spiritual Communion with each other. Mechuwana was an oasis in a heavily forested region. It would provide 28 people with a place to stay for 24 hours, a place to find sustenance and a place to learn from the Bible and a place to learn from each other. Among the first to arrive were the “Old Ones”. Since they were retired they could leave their home grounds before those that were still out planting and sowing in many different fields. Soon they were joined by those responsible for setting up the camp. Registration, Name tags and journal supplies were soon in place in the Great Hall. Tom and Kelly and Irene along with Carol and Kathy, Kit and Randy were among the first in the Great Food Emporium.  It was a quiet and soothing place for those first to arrive.

Early arrivals at the great camp were first to find housing accommodations in the shelters on the edge of the forest where the floors, unlike the old days, were heated with radiant heat. Bunks with thick mattresses were soon spread with bedding brought from home. As soon as people found their accommodations over the course of the next few hours and had moved in all left and headed for the Great Eating Emporium for the evening meal.

A sumptuous buffet greeted all after grace was offered. The dinner hour provided an opportunity to socialize and to meet some folks that we may not have known well.

Once the meal was over it was time to begin activities. Kit was responsible for not only showing how to make journals, but also how to use them. Many different thoughts would be written in the journals before our “QUEST” was complete the next day.

Mystical satchels had been passed out in four different colors; Red, Blue, Green and Purple. No one was told at that time what the colors meant, but they would represent four teams that would travel one of four virtual trails from lakeshore to mountain top on the following day.

Kelly was responsible for the Devotional time that we would share later in the evening. Weather prevented the participants from having an outdoor campfire, but the Great Meeting Hall provided the opportunity for all present that evening to experience music and spiritual growth through the camp songs led by Irene and supported by Kelly. Kelly and Tom also led us in devotions with the use of two books; The Voice by R.W. Mellen and Messy Spirituality by Michael Yaconelli. Both provided a very powerful message for our Quest search for greater spirituality and community.

After several hours of socializing in the shelters all finally retired to their quarters. During the night one person’s bed folded up on her and later there was a great clang on the floor where the shower handle had fallen off someone’s shower.

In The Land Of Mechuwana

Day 2

As the day dawned somewhere in the land, the drizzle of yesterday continued at Mechuwana. Many folks were up and about by 6:30 AM. The early risers supped on fruit juices and coffee, socialized and developed more journals. Soon it was time for brief devotions and breakfast. Everyone that had been overnight was there and ready to hit the trail.

No one was told what trail they would be on, but were sent to their Trail Hut 1 where they were instructed to go off on their own, read the Bible verses they were given and to think and write on the message of their favorites. They needed to know how the message related to their own spiritual growth and that of Peoples church.

A sample of those Bible verses follows:

 Proverbs 15: 8 God can’t stand pious poses, but he delights in genuine prayer.

Psalm 95:6 So come, let us worship, bow before him, on your knees before God, who made us! Oh yes, he’s our God, and we’re the people in his pastures, the flock he feeds.

 Matthew 6:24   No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the             other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Proverbs 20:11 Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right.

If you are so inclined look at these verses and see how they lead you to some thoughts on your own developing Spirituality and how that reflects on your relationships with family, friends and Peoples Church.

As the Quest of the day began by being alone, Trail Hut 2 provided each team time to discuss what Bible verses they had concentrated on and what the experience alone in communion with the Lord had meant to them. Most of the folks had discovered what trail they were on once they had been shown direction by the verses. The green trail was following the Trail of Prayer while the Blue was the trail of Worship. Red was the Trail of Service and Purple was the Trail of Stewardship.

After nearly an hour of sharing members of each group were asked by their group leader to develop some visual means of sharing what they had learned about themselves and each other relative to the Biblical verses they had worked with. This visual would be used later to show the other teams what they had learned on their respective trails. Each team would work at their Third Trail Hut on their Activity to Share with the other teams.

Before working on the activity an hour of free movement was allowed with folks sharing snacks and drinks and then taking a hike around the camp led by Pastor Tom and Kelly. We visited the waterfront to see the peaceful Lower Lake Narrows, the old Lodge that because of its condition is used for little today, the Asbury Center where the summer theater camp holds sway and the old cabins near the lake shore. Fortunately the weather was beginning to clear and the walk in the woods was refreshing. Many of the people had never been to the Land of Mechuana before but some like myself, could reminisce about times long past and see the changes that had taken place.

It was now time to put those ideas that had been developed over the previous 18 to 20 hours to work. Each group went to their Trail Hut 3, which for most was the same place as the meeting location for each of the two previous Huts. Ideas flowed and within the next 50 minutes all groups had developed a means of showing what they had thought about and shared within their own teams.

The dinner bell rang and everyone was off to The Great Dining Hall where Carol, the weekend cook had prepared yet another sumptuous selection of quality food items for us to indulge in.

Socializing during lunch across team lines was begun with brief devotions and then for a short time people went back to their rooms, packed their belongings and took them to their means of transport.

At about 1 PM all gathered in the Great Hall and in turn teams shared their trail adventure. This provided our mountain top experience at Trail Hut 4. All of the trails led to this location and as each presentation was made we could all see how the four trails; prayer, worship, stewardship and service intersect. Oral and visual presentations helped us all see how our Spirituality and Community had developed and grown beyond where we were when we arrived in the Land of Mechuwana.

When our Trail Hut 4 experience was concluded it was time to return to the Lake Shore Base Camp and talk about where our experiences should lead us. Those who served as leaders and preparers of Quest will get together to evaluate what was right and what could be improved. How the Quest experience may continue remains to be determined and will wait upon the results of paper evaluations and time and person availability.

The concluding worship experience was very meaningful and Spirit-filled. Perhaps the most inspiring element of the closing was through the means that Communion used. Pastor Tom began by serving one person then that person would select someone else to serve until the last person served Pastor Tom. Extremely meaningful and spiritual and personal were among the immediate comments made by those who were about to depart for their homes in the land of the Peoples clan.

We had come to the Land of Mechuwana, in some cases, only aware of who the “others” were. I feel that we left with a new understanding of who we as a community are. It is perhaps what we experienced at Quest that we need to feel, see and nurture more fully in the Land of Peoples. We did find that we were a diverse group by age, by sex, by need and that we can all grow spiritually learning through prayer and worship to be good stewards in service to others, at home and away.