USC Cru Fall Retreats have a tradition of being awesome weekends where students really get to grow in their spiritual journey with God and develop a tight community of fellow Christians to live life with at USC. And they each have their own special nuances that make them stand out. But in my six years involved with USC Cru, I have never experienced so much satisfaction and awe at watching God work at a Fall Retreat as I did this year. There was soooo much that happened that I could write about, but what really blew me away was how God answered specific prayers that Christina{1} and I were praying as we planned the retreat.
**-Side Note- Speaking of our planning, Christina and I had three major planning meetings for Fall Retreat, and each time, one of us fell pretty ill. Whether it was sudden digestion problems, nausea and vomiting, or a debilitating cold, at least one of us was always feeling really unwell. It wasn't until the day before Retreat that my friend Beau{2} told me that it was probably spiritual attack and that God was likely planning some big things for our weekend. So once I had my eyes open to that perspective, I got so much more excited for what was about to happen!**
Prayer #1- That not everybody at Retreat would be a Christian
I'd met Andrew Chen (AC) at the Involvement Fair where he stopped by the Cru table. It was after Fair hours, and all the other groups had packed up and left, but because it was such a miserably hot day, and we'd brought a tent for shade, we were feeling far too lazy to pack up and leave. AC and I only talked for a little bit, as I gave him all the main info for Cru and said that I hoped to see him at the Wednesday night meeting. He came to Wednesday meetings on and off, but showed up in one of the first cars to arrive at Fall Retreat. The first night, as discussion groups were going on, he explained to his group that he wasn't really a Christian but was checking things out. One of the girls in his discussion group came and told me that right after, and Christina and I rejoiced that one of the prayers was already answered!
Prayer #2- That people at Retreat who don't know God would enter into a relationship with Him
After the meeting on Friday night, my buddy Derek took him aside to explain things about God to him. Another guy, Jason, joined the conversation, and soon they were sitting outside at a table on the porch, talking the evening away. Jason eloquently explained the full Gospel to him, and AC was ready to accept it, so he prayed right there and invited Jesus into his life, to be his Lord and Savior!!
Prayer #3- (Ok, so this prayer was more personal, and wasn't exactly about Retreat, but I was just praying it for myself, four days before Retreat, as I was on a prayer walk with two of my staff teammates) That I would soon have the opportunity to baptize someone
I don't know why I prayed it. But it was a desire God placed on my heart and so I verbalized it. Well, two girls from Christina's sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, were planning on getting baptized{3} at Retreat during Saturday afternoon free time, and so we announced at men's time on Saturday that if any guys were interested, they could be baptized too. As we were hiking (sliding) down the hill (near vertical slope of soft soil and leaves haha) Andrew Grace, a junior in Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, approached me and said that he wanted to be baptized, and asked me if I would do it. WOW. A few minutes later, Derek (who had just helped lead AC to Christ the night before) also decided to get baptized, and when we were by the river, asked me to baptize him! So Saturday afternoon free time turned into a blessing beyond blessings as Kelsey, Holly, Derek, Andrew, AND AC decided to be baptized. Most everyone who was at Retreat left what they were doing and came to the river to watch the five of them be baptized. People spoke words of encouragement to the students who were about to make this public declaration of their decision to follow God. The five were baptized one by one.
Kelsey
Holly
Andrew
Derek
Derek, a minute after getting out of the water himself, turned right around and helped baptize AC.
AC
Kevin (the worship leader during Retreat) brought his guitar and we all worshiped for a long time. Then during worship, three more girls decided to be baptized! So Kristy, Annalisha, and Cassie did!
Kristy
Annalisha
Cassie
Kristy also got out of the water, turned right around and baptized Annalisha. More worship. It was a most beautiful afternoon- lots of beaming smiles, tears of joy, voices raised to our King...
Prayer #4- That students would be excited about the adventurous life God has called us to
I guess you kind of have to have been here for the last few years to realize the true bigness of this prayer being answered- but our students were at Retreat so excited about God, and so excited to bring His Kingdom to our campus. On Sunday morning we had an "open mic" time of sharing what God's doing, and we found out that freshmen are getting together at 1am on Thursday in the main quad to do some worship, that Greeks are getting together and praying for the row, that students are pairing up and going out on campus talking to people about God, that our students led 4 people to Christ the previous weekend, crazy stuff! AND on Saturday, when we found out that USC had lost to UW, we were in the middle of worship following the baptisms, and everyone decided to keep on partying! Greg, our campus director, put it best on Sunday morning when he said to the group, "You guys were more excited about 8 people getting baptized than you were bummed about a USC football loss!" That is a MIRACLE here.
It was an amazing weekend, full of God's blessings- big and small. But the best part about it was that we knew it wasn't going to be a mountain-top experience where everything we learned gets left up in the mountains. The students came back excited to take on the campus and impact it with Christ's love, and they are still doing so.
Christina and I, having planned and run the Retreat, couldn't be happier with how things went- because, in the end, it was ALL God. :)
Group Pic
Footnotes:
{1}- Christina Carey is one of my best friends at USC. She is a Senior in ADPi, and serves on Shepherd Team. We got really close when we both went on Tokyo Summer Project back in 2007 as teammates, and ended up being assigned as the team leaders for one of the campus teams, and so we bonded a lot through that.
{2}- Beau Wirick is one of my best friends. He was in AGO with me, we were roommates our Senior year, and we also both went on Tokyo Summer Project back in 2007 and were roommates there as well.
{3}- Baptism is a symbolic ceremony where one declares his choice to follow God by being immersed in water. The dunking symbolizes a "death" to our old ways and our sins and our old life, and the coming back out of the water symbolizes the new life we enter, as we let Christ's sacrifice wash away our sins and our old selves. Of course, baptism is not saying that we will never ever have a single sin again, but it is a way of publicly declaring that we are repenting/turning from sin and turning towards God and accepting His free gift of salvation. Wanna know more about that gift of salvation and how you can have it? Interested in learning more about being baptized? Talk to me! :)
ALSO, special thanks to Andrew Chia for his awesome photography at Fall Retreat. Check out his Fall Retreat album on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=108609&id=504471444
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