Spiritual Life Retreat

This is the highlight of my past week...quite possibly a semester highlight as well.

This is the group of us that went on the 44th annual SLR (spiritual life retreat, although we don't like that name particularly because it makes it sound like all we do is get up early, sit in silence and read our bibles like monks, eat rice and beans, and then have theological conversations long into the night.
Yes, this is a conversation we had.."the connotations of 'SLR'" :)

We took off from campus on friday afternoon, and spent our weekend just doing life together. Worship, meals, four-square, naps, hikes, teeter-totters, homework, devotions, bonfires, canoes, donuts...you name it.
I got quite a bit of homework done, which was nice, but the fresh air and emotional space were very, very much what I needed.
I didn't know all of these people coming into the weekend. I don't know all of them incredibly well now. But I did get to meet a couple people, and I did get to worship alongside each of them. Stories and testimonies were shared openly, transparently. It was honest and beautiful and probably the most real, grounded weekend I have had in a very long time. I think it was 18 people that ended up being baptized in the lake on Sunday (there may or may not have been tears).

I'm so thankful that I get to call this campus home, that I get to live and learn and worship with these people on a daily basis. I'm glad I was able to go to my second SLR, and I look forward to next year doing the same(: