A Sunflower Mission's retreat was held during the weekend of July 10-11, 2004 in Galveston, Texas. The purpose of this retreat is to give the Sunflower Mission (SM) members an opportunity to meet new members; to allow sub-teams an opportunity to meet and to work on their assigned tasks; and most of all, to give SM members and families an opportunity to meet one another, socialize, bonds, play games, relax, …

This retreat was held at a beach house on the Galveston beach. Many thanks to Mr. Dung Dinh and family for their generosity for hosting and providing us a beautiful facility to work, enjoy and relax.

There was about 80 people (members and families) attended the retreat. There were plenty of foods prepared and donated by the SM members. All members were participated in the games organized by Mr. Tuan and Fr. Chinh. There were other activities such as volleyball games, basketball games, football, swimming, walking along the beach, Phu My and Binh Phu work-camps slideshow, …

All of the expenses for this retreat were donated by the SM members. The SM funds were untouched. As the matter of fact, there was some leftover money from donations received at this retreat which will be directed to our general donations pool.

While enjoying and relaxing, the sub-teams were also hard at work. Here's a summary of the works:

• The web team has put together some new initiatives to update and enhance the SM website. Some of the tasks identified during the retreat have already been done. Please check it out.
• The drawing contest team has gone thru about a hundred drawings from the students of Dong Thap province and selected winners. All participants received prizes. The top five winners received additional prizes.
• The scholarship team has finalized the SM Dao-Le Scholarship program. The budget for this year's scholarship program is $4500 and expected to double next year. This team has also gone thru hundreds of letters/essays from the students seeking assistance from the rural areas of Viet Nam. The team has selected and awarded 235 students for this year's scholarship. There's a possibility that 50 more students will be evaluated and will receive this year's scholarship.

Overall, the retreat was a big success. The biggest award came out of this retreat was to see our own children here in the US bond with each other and was introduced to the SM's hope thru the recent Phu My and Binh Phu work-camps slideshow. We had a chance to see the completed schools funded by SM, to see the less fortunate children in the rural areas of Viet Nam and to hear our own children who've attended the Phu My and Binh Phu work-camps share their own experiences from the work-camp trip. The next generation of Sunflower Mission has already coming together, with a common interest in helping their counterparts in a small country on the other side of the world.

Our gratitude goes to all members of SM who organized, cooked, cleaned, and entertained us. Most of all, thanks to all participants for sharing your weekend with us and for your interest / support of Sunflower Mission.