From Tuesday, October 12th to Thursday, October 14th the CFB Kingston Chaplain Team assembled at Griffin’s Lodge, Gananoque Lake for their first Exercise Robust Padre.
Base Chaplain Padre Dwayne Bos, 2 IC Padre Felix Tachie and Administrative Assistant Dan Menard spent many hours on detailed preparations that made our stay go so smoothly and enjoyably. Our facilitator, Mental Health Chaplain Captain Robin Major from Halifax presented “Care for the Caregiver” and fit in to our team marvelously. We were very blessed to have him with us and profited from his levity, expertise and sound judgment. The Staff at the cottage were super friendly and hospitable and they went the extra mile to accommodate us. The cottages that housed three team members each were comfortable and clean, situated right next to the lake.
Our days began with a community breakfast, followed with Padre Major taking us through some very important concerns for us serving as CAF chaplains with all of the significant challenges that present themselves to our personal care, our interpersonal relationships and the richness of our care for those entrusted to us in ministry. Padre Major adjusted himself well to us who liked to chat and digest every nugget of wealth that he shared with us. We appreciated his humour, the professional and well-articulated content of his presentations and the way he engaged himself in every one of our Team activities.
Chaplain Anne Hanley treated us to a fine Indian curry lunch that she cooked right on site; and dinners were enjoyed together in the lodge hosted by Bob and his staff.
The campfire by the lake provided the venue for guitar music and animated theological debate into the wee hours of the night. Although we differed in opinion, we were all symbolically united by the one spirit as we generously shared stories with each other. Many thanks to Bob, our host, who noted the importance of this activity and made sure to cart wheel barrows of wood for the fire.
Our Base Chaplain led us through Strategic Direction of Called to serve 2020-2030 and we worked together on adapting our economy of efforts in the lines of operation of, 1) “Care for All”, 2) “Develop the spiritual resilience of the Defense Team”, and 3) “Invest in our people”.
One very important activity was allowing each member of the Team to articulate their giftedness. This helped us to get to know one another. The CFB Kingston Team is poised and ready to serve with much enthusiasm and energy for this upcoming year.
Our Retreat ended with lunch at the Maple Leaf Restaurant in lovely, touristy Gananoque. It is family run and known for its Czech Schnitzel and draft beer. We bade farewell to Padre Major and to Padre Bos who then drove to Ottawa as we returned to Kingston.
Written by: Anne Hanley
Edited by: Padre Bos