Intern Retreat!!

Today we got back from the intern retreat. It was awesome!!! We were in Yamanaka Lake which is one of the five lakes that was created by Mt. Fuji 200 years ago. We were basically at the base of Mt. Fuji. It was so beautiful. The lake was spring fed so it was so clear and awesome! We went swimming in it for a few hours yesterday; it was quite chilly but still refreshing!
We left early Thursday morning and had a competition to see which teams could get there first. It was sort of like "The Amazing Race". My team tied for 2nd place with two other teams....there were only four teams total. :) When we got there Mt Fuji was behind us so at first we didn't know it was there. We stood there in awe of the little mountains around us and then we turned around and BAM. There was Mt Fuji. It was so crazy. We go back at the end of July to climb it and none of us can wait.
It was so good to just get out of the city for the first time in a month. A month doesn't seem that long, but to us, it has seemed like an eternity. The city is so big and bright we hadn't seen the stars in a month! And there are trees and flowers at the parks but it isn't anything like the nature we saw these past few days. We got to ride bikes and swing on swings from trees, and play basketball and volleyball, and just have fun. We fellowshiped and worshiped the whole two and a half days and it was wonderful. We all got closer to each other and now it feels like we are truly brothers and sisters. We are all energized and ready to go out in these last few weeks and give it all we got!