The College Retreat
Wow! I’m not sure that I can really convey my thoughts and feelings about my weekend at the Faith Builders Mennonite College Retreat. It was a really good experience.
It all started with Sara renting a car in Chattanooga, since we’re all car poor. We’d have had a better chance of spending the weekend beside the interstate than at the retreat if we’d taken any of our cars. She rented a Pontiac Vibe and drove up on Thursday evening and spent the night at our house. We got up around 4:15-4:30 on Friday morning and left for Franklin, PA.
Once upon a time, I would have considered buying a Pontiac Vibe, in all its cute ugliness. Or ugly cuteness, not sure which. But no more! It had the oomph of a hippopotamus when going up hills. After driving it for four hours, I had a backache. Of course, that could happen in any car. The back seat was not comfortable for lying down. There were some other quirks that sealed the dislike of the vehicle; I just can’t remember what they were. Anyway…
Our first stop of the day was the Bowling Green Airport. Since Kris and I had not been with Sara when she rented the car, we had to stop at the Hertz place in Bowling Green to show our drivers licenses and be put on the approved driver list. When we arrived at the airport, there seemed to be no one around, not surprising considering the size of the airport. We looked around for a bit and finally a guy came in from outside and asked if he could help us. We told him what we were there for, and he said we’d come to the right place. He’d never completed the procedure that we were there for so he had to call someone to find out what he needed to do. It took a little bit but we finally accomplished our mission, and after getting some breakfast, we hit the road.
Our trip was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that we had bad luck in choosing exits with decent looking places to use the bathroom. We rejected several exits before finding a bathroom worthy of use.
The whole prospect of meeting new people had been gnawing at me for several days. It seemed that the closer we got to The Castle where the retreat was to take place, the funnier my stomach felt. As we entered the town of Franklin, Kris suggested that we just abandon the whole project and go back home. Rather than succumb to the chicken feelings within, we forged our way up the mountain to The Castle. I was imagining coming to the retreat to find a bunch of Brainiacs discussing Theories of Who-Knows-What or expounding on the Hypothesis of Never-Heard-Of-It. There may have been some of that going on, but for the most part, the people were surprisingly normal.
The Castle is a nifty place located on a mountain above the town of Franklin. It is a huge place. There were bedrooms everywhere! I think that most of the guys slept in the same dorm room since there were significantly fewer guys than girls. The girls also had a dorm room as well as bedrooms off a hall that went back into what they referred to as the servant’s quarters. I think the guys only had one bathroom and the girls had three bathrooms. One thing that helped keep the girls from jamming up in the bathrooms was the fact that most, if not all, bedrooms had a sink in it. And there was no curfew, so people went to bed as they pleased instead of stampeding to the bathrooms all at once. The bathroom situation actually went smoother than I thought it would.
When we arrived around 4:30 EST, we were fortunate to be greeted by cousins that had been on the planning committee. We registered and took our bags up to our rooms. We then went out back to wait for supper, which was to be served at 5:00. After supper, we all gathered in the living room, which had been set up as our auditorium.
Introductions were strikingly like those of a normal college setting. In this case, everyone had filled out a slip of paper when they registered with their major, place of residence, and one interesting fact on it. They passed the papers out, and everyone had to go looking for the person whose paper they had. I was lucky enough to have a person who was from Virginia…seemingly half of the people there were from Virginia. After everyone had a name to go with their paper, we sat back down and had to introduce the person whose slip we had. It was an effective way of mixing people up and breaking the ice.
They had a guest speaker to speak to us on Friday evening and again on Saturday morning. On Friday evening, he spoke on knowing who we are and where we are going, and on Saturday morning, he gave another presentation. It did my heart a lot of good. My nugget for the morning was “All life is ministry.” I can try to impact the place that I’m involved in, even if it’s only an office environment. Another quote he used during both presentations was
It all started with Sara renting a car in Chattanooga, since we’re all car poor. We’d have had a better chance of spending the weekend beside the interstate than at the retreat if we’d taken any of our cars. She rented a Pontiac Vibe and drove up on Thursday evening and spent the night at our house. We got up around 4:15-4:30 on Friday morning and left for Franklin, PA.
Once upon a time, I would have considered buying a Pontiac Vibe, in all its cute ugliness. Or ugly cuteness, not sure which. But no more! It had the oomph of a hippopotamus when going up hills. After driving it for four hours, I had a backache. Of course, that could happen in any car. The back seat was not comfortable for lying down. There were some other quirks that sealed the dislike of the vehicle; I just can’t remember what they were. Anyway…
Our first stop of the day was the Bowling Green Airport. Since Kris and I had not been with Sara when she rented the car, we had to stop at the Hertz place in Bowling Green to show our drivers licenses and be put on the approved driver list. When we arrived at the airport, there seemed to be no one around, not surprising considering the size of the airport. We looked around for a bit and finally a guy came in from outside and asked if he could help us. We told him what we were there for, and he said we’d come to the right place. He’d never completed the procedure that we were there for so he had to call someone to find out what he needed to do. It took a little bit but we finally accomplished our mission, and after getting some breakfast, we hit the road.
Our trip was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that we had bad luck in choosing exits with decent looking places to use the bathroom. We rejected several exits before finding a bathroom worthy of use.
The whole prospect of meeting new people had been gnawing at me for several days. It seemed that the closer we got to The Castle where the retreat was to take place, the funnier my stomach felt. As we entered the town of Franklin, Kris suggested that we just abandon the whole project and go back home. Rather than succumb to the chicken feelings within, we forged our way up the mountain to The Castle. I was imagining coming to the retreat to find a bunch of Brainiacs discussing Theories of Who-Knows-What or expounding on the Hypothesis of Never-Heard-Of-It. There may have been some of that going on, but for the most part, the people were surprisingly normal.
The Castle is a nifty place located on a mountain above the town of Franklin. It is a huge place. There were bedrooms everywhere! I think that most of the guys slept in the same dorm room since there were significantly fewer guys than girls. The girls also had a dorm room as well as bedrooms off a hall that went back into what they referred to as the servant’s quarters. I think the guys only had one bathroom and the girls had three bathrooms. One thing that helped keep the girls from jamming up in the bathrooms was the fact that most, if not all, bedrooms had a sink in it. And there was no curfew, so people went to bed as they pleased instead of stampeding to the bathrooms all at once. The bathroom situation actually went smoother than I thought it would.
When we arrived around 4:30 EST, we were fortunate to be greeted by cousins that had been on the planning committee. We registered and took our bags up to our rooms. We then went out back to wait for supper, which was to be served at 5:00. After supper, we all gathered in the living room, which had been set up as our auditorium.
Introductions were strikingly like those of a normal college setting. In this case, everyone had filled out a slip of paper when they registered with their major, place of residence, and one interesting fact on it. They passed the papers out, and everyone had to go looking for the person whose paper they had. I was lucky enough to have a person who was from Virginia…seemingly half of the people there were from Virginia. After everyone had a name to go with their paper, we sat back down and had to introduce the person whose slip we had. It was an effective way of mixing people up and breaking the ice.
They had a guest speaker to speak to us on Friday evening and again on Saturday morning. On Friday evening, he spoke on knowing who we are and where we are going, and on Saturday morning, he gave another presentation. It did my heart a lot of good. My nugget for the morning was “All life is ministry.” I can try to impact the place that I’m involved in, even if it’s only an office environment. Another quote he used during both presentations was
“We believe that an individual’s talents are God-given;
therefore, no one should be praised if he is an easy learner
nor condemned if he is a slow learner. These differences
in talent are God’s will, and there is a place for each person
God created.” ~J.A. Hostetler.
I guess to sum it up, it’s okay to be yourself. God has a purpose in mind for everyone. My head heard it, now if I can just get my heart to believe it.
The coordinators split us into pre-assigned small groups with designated group leaders. I think that all of the group leaders have either attended college or are college graduates. The small groups met four times over the course of the weekend, with the first meeting being more of a get acquainted kind of meeting. They assigned a location to each group.
My group got lucky with the location we were assigned. We were sent to the Prayer Tower, a room in a tower on the fourth floor. The room had windows on three sides and had an excellent view. The Castle does not have air conditioning so the open windows were helpful in at least allowing a breeze through.
The purpose of the small group meetings was to allow each person to have twenty to thirty minutes to talk about whatever they wanted to talk about. Our group leader introduced himself as a professional counselor. I was thinking to myself, “Oh boy! He’ll have a field day with me.” And he did.
The prospect of having a window of time in which to talk about whatever, along with the general nervousness of meeting new people, wreaked havoc on me. I really hated it, but the entire weekend I was afflicted with Dry Mouth Syndrome, although it abated itself somewhat after my sharing time was over. I never was able to complete an entire meal. By Sunday afternoon, I was beginning to relax, but then it was time to leave. Go figure!
I managed to make it through my session of sharing, but not without losing my composure, much to my mortification. Our group leader was very good at what he does. The prayer that he prayed would have had me in tears if I hadn’t already been there. It was a good experience for me, even if it wasn’t easy.
My mind has been working furiously ever since the weekend. I’ve been replaying conversations in my mind. I’ve been second-guessing myself. It’s a little freaky that there are people that know some of my inner workings.
The thing that was so unique about the retreat was that it was okay to voice your uncertainties, doubts, worries, and concerns because a lot of them had experienced or were experiencing the same feelings. People understood the feelings, the busyness, the loneliness of a college student. I’m lucky that I have sisters going to college and that we can hash out the things that happen during the school year. A lot of people don’t have someone that really understands. There was plenty of encouragement and affirmation doled out to those who needed it. People were encouraged to dream. It made me wonder if accounting is actually my dream or should I go into the dental field? Lots of food for thought.
It was really a great weekend. Kris thinks that I got my Love Tank filled.
I think…maybe she’s right.
The coordinators split us into pre-assigned small groups with designated group leaders. I think that all of the group leaders have either attended college or are college graduates. The small groups met four times over the course of the weekend, with the first meeting being more of a get acquainted kind of meeting. They assigned a location to each group.
My group got lucky with the location we were assigned. We were sent to the Prayer Tower, a room in a tower on the fourth floor. The room had windows on three sides and had an excellent view. The Castle does not have air conditioning so the open windows were helpful in at least allowing a breeze through.
The purpose of the small group meetings was to allow each person to have twenty to thirty minutes to talk about whatever they wanted to talk about. Our group leader introduced himself as a professional counselor. I was thinking to myself, “Oh boy! He’ll have a field day with me.” And he did.
The prospect of having a window of time in which to talk about whatever, along with the general nervousness of meeting new people, wreaked havoc on me. I really hated it, but the entire weekend I was afflicted with Dry Mouth Syndrome, although it abated itself somewhat after my sharing time was over. I never was able to complete an entire meal. By Sunday afternoon, I was beginning to relax, but then it was time to leave. Go figure!
I managed to make it through my session of sharing, but not without losing my composure, much to my mortification. Our group leader was very good at what he does. The prayer that he prayed would have had me in tears if I hadn’t already been there. It was a good experience for me, even if it wasn’t easy.
My mind has been working furiously ever since the weekend. I’ve been replaying conversations in my mind. I’ve been second-guessing myself. It’s a little freaky that there are people that know some of my inner workings.
The thing that was so unique about the retreat was that it was okay to voice your uncertainties, doubts, worries, and concerns because a lot of them had experienced or were experiencing the same feelings. People understood the feelings, the busyness, the loneliness of a college student. I’m lucky that I have sisters going to college and that we can hash out the things that happen during the school year. A lot of people don’t have someone that really understands. There was plenty of encouragement and affirmation doled out to those who needed it. People were encouraged to dream. It made me wonder if accounting is actually my dream or should I go into the dental field? Lots of food for thought.
It was really a great weekend. Kris thinks that I got my Love Tank filled.
I think…maybe she’s right.
posted by Sharon @ 9:32 PM
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