What do snow, sickness, sex, Sierra and salvation all have in common?

They were all themes that somehow related to our 4th annual Fall Retreat.

I know what you are thinking right now. You are looking at that word S-E-X and you are wondering how that could be a part of a Fall Retreat. What are Dave & Jen teaching those kids at UC Davis anyway? Read on and I’ll explain.

Our Fall retreat weekend actually started Thursday night when our speaker gave the first talk in his series “In Pursuit” at our weekly meeting.

He talked from Jonah 1 about how God pursues us and desires us to be in a relationship with him. As a result of his talk, about 15 students who were not intending to go on the retreat signed up.

That night, Jen, who had been sick most of the week, decided that she would not go on the retreat but would stay home with the boys. That decision turned out to be a good one, because the next morning, I was greeted with a phone call from the camp (Sierra Pines) alerting me that it was snowing up in Tahoe. The snowy, wet weather would have made it more difficult to watch the boys at the retreat.

Though the snow caused some delays in students arriving many students commented on how this was the best retreat they had been on. A big reason for that was our speaker.

Jeff Patton, the Vice President of Athletes and Action, spoke on Saturday morning about how we are to pursue God by practicing godly spiritual disciplines of Bible study and solitude.

On Saturday night, Jeff gave one of the most honest talks I’ve heard on Sex. He explained how God desires us to pursue relationships with the opposite sex that are in line with his design for sex and marriage.

Jeff’s talk set the stage for our men’s and women’s times, which many students commented were the highlight of the weekend.

During those breakout sessions, the men and women had an opportunity to get open an honest with each other and discuss areas that they are struggling in. Several students made decisions to break off relationships with their non-Christian dating partners.

On Sunday morning, before the retreat ended, we separated the freshmen from the other students. We have traditionally done this as a way to rally the freshmen class and motivate them to further involvement.

We started off with a sharing time. Most students commented on how the weekend was fun and exciting and how they got to know other students.

Many students also commented on how the speaker had impacted them.

One student in particular was emotional as she shared how she had been struggling with her faith. She comes from a Hindu background but was contacted earlier in the quarter by one of our staff because she had expressed a spiritual interest on a questionnaire.

After the women’s talk on Saturday night, Prachi, the Hindu student, talked at length with our staff woman about what it means to have a personal relationship with God. As a result of that conversation, Prachi decided to give her life to Christ. When Prachi shared her decision with the other freshmen, the group erupted in cheers and applause.

One of our freshman named Eddie, who became a Christian just a few weeks ago, summed it up best when he asked the other freshmen, “how many people here believe that they are here on this retreat for a purpose?” Everyone raised their hands. Eddie responded by saying, “$55 is not a bad deal for salvation.”

• Pray for the many students who have come to Christ so far this quarter. Pray especially for Prachi and Kevin, two students who came to Christ at our Fall Retreat.
• Pray for our ministry to continue growing and reaching out on campus.
• Pray for our Freshman class. We are praying for 100 freshmen to get involved in small groups. Right now, we have slightly more than 100, but please pray that we would not see a drop-off as the year progresses.
• Pray for our Destino ministry. Destino is a contextualized ministry to Latinos and Mexican Americans. This ethnic group makes up about 10% of our campus, yet in the past we have had very few Latinos and Hispanics involved. This year, we have seen a good number of Hispanic freshmen get involved. Several have come to Christ through our Fall Outreach. We now have a small group to get our Destino outreach started. Pray for wisdom, direction and vision as we chart our course to proceed.
• Pray for our marriage and our family.