Before coming into the S.E.E.D. III retreat, I felt very apprehensive and concerned for this year’s retreat. Planning for S.E.E.D. was a tough process and we came over many obstacles: the new teen track, some of the leaders being unable to make it, and simply just finding time to come together and meet was difficult. However, with all that came a good learning experience, especially one of patience for other people. Our meetings would start as late as 8:00 PM and end late into the night. Many nights we would meet and order pizza since most of us had missed dinner.

As a member of S.E.E.D. II, I was with many leaders who were experienced with S.E.E.D. already, and became dependent on those leaders. This new S.E.E.D. team consisted of many new people other than Steven, which brought a new dynamic upon the retreat. And with each new person the retreat was colored a different way, this is what makes S.E.E.D. so unique, the people. S.E.E.D. III pushed me to new limits and made me take on more of a lead role in the team. At first it was daunting, especially leading the new teen track, but helped me learn more about myself as a leader. What I know from this is that teen track was a success and we will continue with it.

The planning was tough but seeing the children and families made this process COMPLETELY worth it and more. We came to Arizona exhausted, I personally had many sleepless nights before S.E.E.D. We were generously welcomed by Anh Hung and Chi Kim Anh, the hospitality was refreshing. I just want to take this time to say THANK YOU, S.E.E.D. would not be the same without everybody’s kindness. Even though I felt completely tired on the way to the retreat site, once I saw the kids and how excited they were about the retreat, I was filled with excitement. The kids reminded me of why I was here and from that a great passion grew within me. Although we were there to teach the kids, I feel as if they are teaching me as much as I teach them. They reminded me how it was to be curious, to be fearless, and especially how to be happy and content with the simplest of things. The happiness and excitement they brought to the retreat will carry on with me as a great lesson that they taught to me.

I will always remember what Thu Nguyen told me, try your hardest and leave everything else up to God. And I truly believe that that’s how S.E.E.D. is, our worries of the retreat and its planning left me when I saw the excitement the kids brought. They were happy to just see us, and we were just as happy to see them.

Thank you for the great opportunities and experience!

- Christopher Pham

My dear Anh Chi from Arizona, Hello!!

This is Kevin speaking, and enclosed is my own personal reflection for Seed Retreat 2008. Firstly, I want to say that I truly miss you and your families a great bunch! I’ve never experienced such hospitality from anyone in the world before in my life! I mean, from the moment we arrived in Arizona, I felt a very warm welcome and we were taken into your very own homes just like members of your family. I especially enjoyed your wonderful Vietnamese cooking that was truly comfort food to our bodies and our spirits, and gave us a wonderful feeling about the weekend ahead. I truly feel that this new energy you provided during our first days in Arizona carried us throughout the weekend retreat.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for that!

I want you to know that I will continue to pray for the well-being of your families and for your children to grow up strong in mind and body.

Planning and Preparation:

To sum it all up in one word, planning was: Tiring.

We started planning more than a month before the retreat, and things were cutting close in the last week before departure from California. Before our meetings were weekly, but now they were every other day. I felt that this definitely took a toll on my energy-level (which rarely runs out) and I could also see that the rest of the SEED Team was burning out.

However, the experience we had from our veteran members carried us through. We had a great E-Team member taking great care of our logistics (Vinh), which allowed us to focus on our own tasks (mine were: Scavenger Hunt and Talk #1: Companionship) I felt that the delegation of tasks worked out GREAT, and it all came down to knowing our group’s strengths and weaknesses as SEED Leaders.

The most difficult obstacle that I encountered when trying to complete my tasks was hitting the right target age. I have experience taking part in several Scavenger Hunts in my church involvement; however, some of the puzzles and activities that I created were aimed at the high school track. Also, some of my Talk had a deeper level of meaning, which often does not resonate well with younger children.

What I have learned that I want to share with New SEED Teams is that having many pictures from SEED in previous years will tremendously help for the preparation of any and all activities. Although we were supplied with the ages of all the children who registered, a photo just says so much more because then you can picture yourself talking to that specific audience as you are planning your activities. In the future, I will make sure that the photos from this year’s SEED are easily accessible to any New SEED leaders.

When it comes down to it, everyone knows who this retreat was for: the Kids.

Even though planning this retreat took a bunch of energy out of our SEED Team, the kids literally gobbled up everything we had to offer and THEN SOME! They brought an unmatched amount of enthusiasm from their young childhood to all of our activities. Because of their positive feedback, our team was able to deliver successful activities one after another.

One thing that stuck out to me during the retreat was that the kids just loved to hang out and have "free-time" with each other. At first, I thought that any "free-time" would be a bad idea, but the way they used their free time surprised me. They started their own "California vs. Arizona" football games, played Egyptian slapjack (group card game), and some just poked fun at our Seed Leaders (Steven, especially). Looking back, I realized that using "free-time" wisely takes a lot of leadership and self-starting attitudes, which will carry them far in their lives (this is how groups like Nazareth and Mustard Seeds start, people!) This bond and connection that I saw between the young kids just having "free-time" together will be the foundation of our future church communities, and this is why I have strong faith in the tradition of community that we all share.

Another thing that carried us through the retreat was the strong support from the older and wiser group, Nhom Nazareth! They facilitated so many things that we always had faith things would turn out well. When it rained, they made trash bags. When we were finished with activities, they waited with hot meals. When we informed them that our schedule for mass was changed, they even beat us to the church! Time and time again, our older brothers and sisters were there with genuine love and support. This element of SEED was again present when everyone thanked each other for their contributions and the phrase "We couldn’t have done it without you."

When we were wrapping up SEED on the last day, the kids kept thanking the leaders and parents, the leaders kept thanking the kids and parents, and the kept thanking the kids and the leaders! I realized that this endless circle of love and support was the key element to a wonderful and successful retreat. Still, in the end we were all humble and wise enough to know and thank the Lord for all of his blessings and guidance in this retreat, for everyone knew that it is Him who makes all things possible.

In the ten-hour car ride home, I kept thinking back about how truly blessed I was to be with such great people in one weekend. There are not enough words in any human language to describe the experience I had and how it resonated in me. I’m still in disbelief of how such great things came out of this retreat, even with the time and work we put into it.

In physics, the work done is never greater than the output. However, the fruits and rewards that were harvested from this one weekend outweigh a lifetime of any one man’s work in the entire world. For me, there is only one explanation for this, and that is that the Man Upstairs is the one behind-the-scenes.

With new insights about my calling in the world, I feel that serving the youth is definitely something I can spend an entire lifetime doing. Some people have told me that I have a child’s heart, and with this heart I plan to serve kids wherever they are and whenever I possibly can. Once again, thank you for your help in putting together such an amazing experience in my life. I pray every day that God will continue to overlook your families – and your children, especially.

In Christ,

Kevin Nguyen

written September 3, 2008

I had signed up for SEED III last year with a lot of excitement and full of dreams. I couldn't wait to see what we could do for the kids. There were nine of us total- Audrey, Chris, Dorothy, Frank, Kevin, Mary, Peter, Steven, and Vinh. And here is where the SEED III story begins.

With the help Chris and Frank taking charge, we got a lot of plans down the first few meetings. I loved working with the SEED team because I appreciated how everyone sacrificed their free time to come together and plan something so special for the kids. Together, we prayed about our dreams and goals for this SEED III and came up with a very important one- we wanted the kids to have fun and see God as their friend. We tried to keep this in mind all the times we were thinking and planning about SEED. The Stone Soup theme came from this prayer. Even though planning this retreat sounded like it would be so easy and fun all the time, we encountered a lot of tough times. Some where about the separate tracks and how we would do them, the SEED leaders that couldn't go and how we could take their place, and lastly was planning our talks. But as always, everything turned out even more fruitful than we expected.

I am a worrywart by nature, and so when we arrived in Arizona, I was really tired from all the planning that we had done and anxious about what was going to happen since it was my first SEED retreat. However, this all changed very quickly. I got very energized after having some bonding time with the SEED leaders and seeing the kids at the retreat site. They had so much energy and were always running around and laughing. It was so contagious for me. I learned to have fun and let go of my worries. The kids put their trust in us, and I learned to put my trust in God that everything would go well. The highlights of the SEED retreat for me were meeting the kids and spending time with them. I especially treasured my time with them during my talk. It was there that I where I saw God in their innocent and beautiful responses. I wish that I could have spent more time with them to be able to see their happy faces. I had a lot of fun singing, talking, and playing the games with them.

I was really disappointed when SEED III was over. It was an enlightening experience for me and I was so touched when I listened to the sharings at the end from the parents and kids. I was also very appreciative of my fellow SEED leaders. Without each and every one of them, I know that SEED III wouldn’t have been as great as it was. As Steven predicted, I was on a SEED high afterwards. I constantly thought about the kids and still do. I know that the other SEED leaders felt the same way as me. We missed and still do miss our SEED kids!

This SEED retreat was the first time that I was officially called "Chò Mary" by so many younger kids so many times in one weekend. Even though I have many younger siblings, it was a new experience for me, and I'm glad that I was able to be a part of SEED III. I was able to grow closer to God through what the SEED kids taught me- letting go of my worries and having fun with everyone.

Dear Cac Anh Chi,

The seed retreat was one of the most refreshing, rewarding, and invaluable opportunities that I was blessed enough to experience. The sense of community was present in the union of the youth, young adults, Seed leaders, and parents. Cac Anh Chi’s generous hospitality and the genuine smiles allowed me to see what it is means to be a part of the Dong Hanh family.

The children surprised me with their enthusiastic desire to build their relationship with God. To see a child’s innocent yearning to know God being manifested is a beautiful and moving image that reignited a desire in me to grow closer to Him. The children’s laughter and energy rekindled the youth within me. I think what made this retreat so fruitful and energetic was because the children.

The past two Seed retreats that I have lead have taught me to trust and rely on God and others especially during times when things seem unsure. I want to thank all of Cac Anh Chi for giving us this opportunity to spend time with your children and to share our faith with them. This retreat instilled in me an inner peace that I have not felt in a long time.

I can get into all of the important points later. The best physical blessing I received on the retreat was the best Vietnamese food I may have ever had. I’m a horrible critic, simply because I love food, but that doesn’t change the fact that everything I ate in Arizona was AMAZING. Everything, from the rice (I had many bowls) at Chi Kim Anh and Anh Hung’s house, all the way to the sandwiches (I wish there was more) on the way home, I thought the food was simply amazing.

Alright, onto other things. I have no idea was I am supposed to write about so I might have written too much. I have divided it in a way to make it easy to skip the parts that don’t actually matter. I laid out this reflection chronologically. It starts as the beginning where we planned and ends with the car ride home. In each section, I tried to say what happened, what I thought we did well and what I thought we could have done better. If I left anything out, please tell me so I can add that in as well.

This was a very stressful time. I had no idea what the kids were like but I was glad I put a lot of effort in the small task that I had so I wouldn’t regret if my talk didn’t go well. Of all the material I had, I ended up using not even 10 percent of it, but my talk, in my opinion, went alright.

If I was to do this again next year or offer advice to those doing it next year, plan thoroughly but loosely. Try to maximize your options but don’t be too rigid in your talk because no matter how well you have laid out your talk, you can’t predict how the kids will react during the talk or how you will feel an hour before.

The ride was long, but I was comfortable and slept for a lot of it. I was glad that Vinh drove and got us everywhere safely. I thought it was a great decision to go early and enjoy the day at the river. I would love to do that again next year and maybe turn that into a tradition. It’s really peaceful, calming and relaxing which is good before the retreat. I don’t think I would change anything about our pre-retreat time in Arizona.

Day one was excellent. Chris brought the energy at the very beginning which I thought was very important. Having Chris motivate the kids made me feel more motivated as well. I think it is very important to have an enthusiastic leader. Our theme song was perfect. Any action song would do, especially one that is challenging that they can get better at towards the end of the weekend. If the actions are too easy, they may get bored. With our song, they always had the jumping to do which always made them rowdy but then took their energy away; perfect for leading into a talk when we need them to be calm. Next year, potentially have a song that speeds up so it’s harder and harder to do the actions. Opening skit was very good. It wasn’t too difficult which allowed us to concentrate more on our talks but the kids, as brilliant as they all were, got every message we hoped to receive. We ended with a beautiful examen, and went to sleep at a good time. If I changed anything about day one, it would have to be….. Nothing.

Day two was the main day. I, tired, proceeded to wake up the kids at 6:30 but to my surprise, I entered a loud cabin full of kids running around with a lot of energy. I didn’t have to wake them up, clearly, so I sat down with one of the groups and played cards. To my surprise, I lost, to a girl named Phi, and I hope I get a chance to play her again. More importantly, I started stretches and opening prayer at 7. Some of the kids came late, and there wasn’t really enough room to stretch out so hopefully the room is bigger next year or the person organizing can do stretches that don’t require a lot of space. I did not plan which stretches I would use since I took two semesters of yoga a couple years ago. That didn’t help. I made up a lot of stuff, general stretches I use before tennis, a few things from yoga, and just stretches I thought would be difficult. I think I could have done better and planned a set of stretches that would compliment each other. Next year, the person who does stretches should consult someone who does a lot of them and find a set that works well. After that, we did a short opening prayer, tai chi to the song "Song of the Cross" and then closed prayer to start breakfast. That was my favorite part of the morning. I took the Tai Chi movements from Cha Tri, and I would recommend that next year as well, since it also calms down the kids a little bit before breakfast. I feel I can do morning exercises better if I had just planned a bit more.

When the day started to rolling, I didn’t have a large role for the rest of the day. I helped Mary with her skit, helped Vinh with the relay race, and helped Kevin with the scavenger hunt. Although it started to rain, the scavenger hunt was a great success from what I saw, since it didn’t rain during the actual scavenger hunt. I came up with the skit idea and although it seemed like a great thing in my mind, it didn’t turn out as well as I wanted. The saints’ lives are pretty difficult to act out. Although I thought it was a disaster on my end, a lot of the kids evaled that they liked that part.

Our strengths of this day were that we were organized. The day went really smoothly and besides for a bit of rain the changed our schedule a bit, we were right on time for everything.

If I would change something, I wish that we, the leaders, either did a skit or split up and participated in the other kids’ skits. One of our main weaknesses this year was that we spent too much time planning and not enough time interacting with the kids. It would be better if we were less organized and spent more time with the kids. It would be even better if we were more organized before the retreat so we wouldn’t have to sacrifice anything during the retreat. For instance, next year, we should scope out the scavenger hunt on the first day. Next year, we should set up and organize things only during talks or other activities when we are not needed. I think it would be very beneficial for us to eat and enjoy free time with the kids and teens. So next year, try not to plan or organize during the free times.

The third day was much shorter, just a half day but the mass thing was confusing. The day before, we should agree on which mass we should go to, and if possible, go to mass 15 minutes ahead of time to give the kids a good seat and to give them a chance to sit in front of the Blessed Sacrament. It is one of the easiest graces we could give them; a chance to think about what they had learned thus far on the retreat and tell God about it.

When we came back, it was time for my talk. I ended up exploring a song and creating hand movements to keep their attention. To my surprise, they captured the message of the song, simply by reading it. Although I elaborated a little, the kids knew already what I wanted to say. Thus, my talk was short, the shortest of all the talks. Once again, I wish I was better prepared but a part of me felt that if my talk was any longer, they would have been bored and they would have left with less of the message I wanted to send to them. Next time, I might include a game or an activity specifically catered to my talk. Since I thought Stone Soup activity would do that, I didn’t create one but Stone Soup was more so the final activity to summarize the whole weekend, which is more important than just summarizing my talk.

When we said our goodbyes, I was in awe at how much the kids enjoyed themselves. I have never done something like this for kids and after leading a confirmation retreat where all of the kids just wanted to leave, it was shocking to see these kids wanting to stay. I couldn’t believe how much of a positive force we were to them until that moment.

The drive home was great. I was most grateful for the delicious sandwiches that we brought with us so we wouldn’t have to buy lunch and God’s grace of letting us drive on an empty gas tank for a few miles. When we got back, I was still in awe of how well the retreat went.

Truthfully, the most shocking aspect of the retreat was how much grace I received. I took on this retreat thinking I could do some good and teach these kids a little bit of what Cha Tri and other Dong Hanh members have taught me, but I feel that I left the retreat learning much more than any of the kids could have possibly learned. I am most thankful for all of the trust and love the kids have shown me and all of the support from the parents. Without all of the help, the retreat would not have been what it was. Thank you so much for letting me experience God through you.

We would like to give a BIG thanks to all the parents, children, family, and friends that have supported us through this journey. Without you guys this retreat would not have happened!

THANK YOU!