Retreat!

     I really appreciated the retreat this year.  The weather was less than cooperative, but all we needed was a little bit of flexibility and it turned into an awesome weekend.  The weekend opened up with a worship session.  The theme was "All Things New" and I'll admit I was a little skeptical at first that they would be able to get past the clichés.  
     They did.
     Someone put a LOT of thought into these three worship sessions.  I particularly enjoyed the first one because David Balzer talked about the risks involved in forming new connections and how it makes us vulnerable to do so.  I remember my first retreat when I hardly knew anyone and I can't think of a better speech for the first year students.  Owning the fact that meeting new people and making new friends can be hard, David encouraged us to take the risk because God has created us to be social and God has created us to be in community with each other.  I stayed up late into the night at the campfire, and then spent some quality time chatting back at the cabin.  
     The next day was packed.  After the morning we had some free time.  There were a lot of activities that people could choose from, including trail rides and wall climbing.  I appreciated the hot tub!  
     One of the main highlights for me was another coffee house that evening.  Now people had had more time to prepare.  I wasn't going to do anything, and then a good friend of mine suggested that we sing the classic Veggie Tales song "Cheeseburger".  Yeah we did!  The main thing I remember about Saturday was how good it was to have a whole day to chill with my friends in a place that wasn't CMU campus.  
    Oh, yeah.  And that night around the second camp fire, we definitely spent half an hour belting out Disney songs at the top of our lungs.  And had several theological discussions taking place partially IN the fire pit because the fire pit was so large that we could have a few people inside without problems.
     Our school puts an intense amount of work into these trips and I think it really helps to set the mood for the year.  Now all we need is a hot tub at the school...!