WHY ARE WE HERE? This question is raised by Fr. Aurelius Pati Soge, the chaplain of International Pastoral Community, Batam, to inisiate the week-end retreat of altar servers, Saturday-Sunday, 15-16 November 2014, at Bukit Karmel Centre, Rempang Island. Twenty one boys and girls attend the retreat, accompanied by Ms. Carmen Guibac and two other Mondial School teachers, Ms. Rosalina D. Villones and Ms. Glaiza Marie M. Navisa. Designed as a mixture of games, recreation and spiritual exercise, children are guided to see the virtues for altar servers, which they can implement as individual and as a group.

To begin with, Fr. Pati Soge asks everybody to recall any prayer that they can say instantly. Eventually all of them know quite wall all basic prayers in Catholic Church, such as Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, I Believe, I Confess, etc. Some of them, because of family regular practices, move to different stages of devotions, such as Divine Mercy, Mother of Perpetual Help, Catena, and so on. Considering that they have average knowledge of prayer, they are then guided to see the necesity of bring up certain intention in every prayer, such as prayer before exams, prayer for a sick friend, prayer for parents, prayer for neighbours, etc. The virtue raised in this session is actually how to see prayer as a medium to communicate with God and to be united in spirit with other people. They should be aware that prayer could picture one's egoism when he or she does not want to pray for other and just focus on his or herself.

Morning has broken

After spending the night, all children are present at the morning prayer, a mixture of music, meditation and recitation of rosary. Initially it was designed for outdoor meditation which is cancelled due to early morning rain. Yet the morning prayer is powerful and touching. Some of them spontaneously praye for parents, friends, teachers and others. Breakfast takes places right after the morning prayer, followed by Sunday Mass at 8.30 am. In his homily, Fr. Pati Soge reminds all children to see their ministry as altarservers as a blessing. Here they have chance to do ministries that other people have no privilege to do. Therefore, it should be a source of joy. Serving the altar is not just an act to make liturgies beautiful but an exercise that will lead them closer to God.

Time to enjoy the nature

Finishing all programs at Bukit Karmel Centre, a compound owned by a Pentecostal Evangelist, all participants then head to Mirota Beach for relax. Everybody instantly jumps into the see, swiming or riding banana boat, building sandy castles, etc. Exploring the nature is actually their favorite, because they can freely express their feeling in doing such things without much control from other. The smallest boy, Darren, for instance, enjoys being burried in the sands. Timothy never comes out from the sea until luch time. Unfortunatelly, Annabel gets stung by jellyfish, which makes her swear not to come to beach anymore. It is so enjoyable, that Gabriesky and Phil propose to do it every month. Wooo....