Reflections by Naomi Chua

A father, watching his wife and daughters sailing a boat themselves for the first time, said with tears in his eyes,

‘This is freedom like we could never have experienced in our home country.’

W fled Afghanistan in 2019, his wife and 4 children were evacuated when Kabul fell to the Taliban at the end of 2021.

Sanctuary Family Retreat was filled with moments such as these. Little glimpses of light and hope. So much so that one participant described the retreat as ‘a little piece of heaven’. As the first big activity of Embrace Sanctuary Australia, this retreat far exceeded all of our hopes and expectations. In partnership with SU Australia, we were able to bring together the team of our dreams. Each of our team members were incredibly skilled and gifted in so many ways and brought to this experience years of experience and wisdom, and although they all may have struggled to completely conceptualise what this retreat would look like, they each caught enough of the vision to commit wholeheartedly and with unreserved passion to this project.

Alongside this incredible team of volunteers was a rich cohort of participants, who also exercised a huge amount of trust in coming along to this retreat in a location that they had never been before and with only a sketchy understanding of what it would involve. This trust was a gift born out of deep and long term relationships, I had the privilege of having with the majority of those who agreed to come along. Those I had the most shared history with, I asked to come along in the capacity of community connectors. As leaders in their various communities, these individuals played an invaluable role in explaining different aspects or the retreat, acting as cultural bridges and often translating into their respective languages. A retreat of this nature, that brought together those forcibly displaced from their homelands and local communities could not have happened without the generous, gracious and tireless efforts of these community connectors.

**Connection**

Every person on retreat had the opportunity to design their own calico square, capturing something about what ‘connection’ meant to them. Because we had a number of people who spoke little to know English, we used a number of art activities, that were not language dependant, that families could work on together to explore the various themes.

Our aim with the Sanctuary Family Retreat was to create a community of WELCOME, SAFETY, CONNECTION and HOPE for the 46 participants and 32 team members who attended. These values formed the themes that we organised activities around each day. Songs, picture story books and people’s personal stories provided the locus for these themes to be explored and experienced together. The retreat community shared language, culture, meals, games, karaoke, a women’s-only dance night, and some competitive games of soccer and volleyball(aided by the presence on retreat of 2 young members of the Afghan National Women’s soccer team in exile). A theme song entitled “Welcome, we’re welcome here” was co-created in 5 languages, as well as a mural composed of calico squares drawn by every retreat participant reflecting their experiences of connection. Participants were also able to partake in activities such as sailing, canoeing, rock climbing and archery, many for the very first time. Post retreat one team member created a symbol out of clay of what the retreat meant to him. He created a brick wall that had been broken down, symbolising breaking through the barriers of culture and understanding, to a place of deep connection.

“‘It has profoundly affected me. I think it will take some time for me to process the impact. I do believe that the veil between heaven and earth was very thin on this retreat. I have been on a zillion Christian camps but nothing as profound and exciting as this one. It is a privilege to have been part of it.’

”

— Rev. Peter Carolane, Team volunteer