Retreat

"So what did you do over Presidents' Day weekend?"
"Oh, I drove to Douglas, WY, played with puppets, sat underneath a giant jackalope, and grew more in what it means to be a part of God-honoring relationships."

UW students between sessions

This weekend we had our CV Spring Retreat in Douglas, WY. It was a weekend full of God and fellowship as we listened to our guest speaker Bobby Pruett (from Christian Challenge at the University of Colorado) give us input on the topic of God-honoring relationships. What I'm hoping to do here is give you a taste for what the retreat was like, a summery of what Bobby taught over, and how I would like to see God use this weekend for the betterment of UW and CV as a whole.

So I guess I might as well just take these in order. The feel of the retreat was that of a relaxing and challenging weekend to get teaching from God, have fellowship with other believers, and to just take time away from our busy lives and devote it to those two things in a fun and interesting way. And we went with a pretty interesting way. This year the emcees for the event were puppets, specifically George Washington and Abe Lincoln who acted as if they were surgeons in a medical drama. This allowed for some interesting interactions, with "surgeries" and "ailments" and also allowed us to put to practice some of the things Bobby was teaching throughout the weekend. Now, the idea for the puppets was the brainchild of Zack Eckerdt and I, and just so everyone knows, we weren't aware that it was presidents' day weekend until the Saturday of the retreat, so it just was a happy accident that we happened to have Presidents who were medical doctors. This added a fun feel to the retreat, giving people something to wake up with and get involved. We also had a pool party, board games, a skit competition where students and staff set bible stories to different TV genres, and lots of worship and fun. It's always fun to get together and meet people from the different campuses and to form bonds that can travel across Wyoming and South Dakota and that will continue to be connections throughout the rest of our lives.

A Group of students during the skit

Now, the bulk of the retreat was focused around Bobby's sessions, of which I will give the quick and dirty version (if you'd like more information about them, or just want to share thoughts, feel free to contact me). In the first session, Bobby set up what he was going to be talking about over the weekend: God-honoring relationships. He talked about how God, through the Trinity, has always been about relationships, and how that aspect transferred over when He created us. Bobby listed three reasons why people are important to God: 1)we are made in His image, 2)Christ gave His life for every person's redemption, and 3)the Holy Spirit can transform every person who commits themselves to Christ. He then ended the first session with the concept that "love" is an action word, not an emotion.

The second session was about God-honoring family relationships. He talked about how just about all families are screwed up in some fashion, including many of the biblical ones, but that families were meant to be the ultimate set up for discipleship. Throughout the talk he challenged us to clear up (as best we can) relationships within our families, and that we need to have our lives set on having Godly relationships with our family before we can really start to consider marriage and having children. He also gave us some things to chew over about the "one flesh" concept of marriage.

The third session was about having God honoring relationships with purpose, or within the context of the Great Commission. Basically I split this talks into two points. The first point is that our spiritual families are more important than our physical families. Many times they are the same, but he used the example of Jesus in Luke 2 where He stays behind in Jerusalem talking to the priests and scribes and causes His parents (Mary and Joseph) to worry. Jesus is about His Father's business first. The second point throughout this talk that I got was that there is a price to be paid for the advancement of the Gospel. Jesus had to sacrifice His divinity for our salvation, for the Good News, and we will have to give all of ourselves for this cause as well. We must devote ourselves fully to God's purposes and we must put nothing ahead of that devotion to Christ.

The last session was about how to have our relationship with God to be a God-honoring relationship. He asked a couple of questions to go off of. Do you know God? Do you love God/are you in love with God? Do you have God's heart for people? These were the questions that he really wanted us to ponder, to allow them to impact our lives and to allow them to shape us into who God wants us to be.

Now, the last part of this is about what I hope to see come from this retreat. I hope to see people emboldened to take the relationships that they have seriously and full of prayer. I pray that God will use this weekend to really get people thinking about the families that they want to have in the future, as well as the families that they have now. I also hope that people will take the idea of disciplemaking more seriously as an important aspect of developing relationships within their spiritual families.

This is just a quick rundown, there was a lot of video and stuff taken, so I will hopefully share those with you as they become available to me. Thanks for all of you who prayed over the event and have been praying for this ministry, God has truly been answering your prayers. I'll leave you with the promo video that Zack created. If it doesn't make sense to you now, know that none of the students knew that we were going to have Abe and George emceeing, so you've got one up on them. Thanks and God bless, Dustin.

Crazy "Coincidence"

So, I just want to share with you an experience I had of an awesome "coincidence" that occurred in my life, just to give you a testimony of how God is at work in my life and how He is providing for me.

So for the last couple of months I have felt a very strong conviction that I need to be giving some of my funds to missionaries that I know, to help support them financially. I have been pretty hesitant to do so because I have been pretty low on money myself since I moved here and I didn't want to put myself into further financial hardship. The conviction, however, has been growing and growing, and so I finally just gave into the prompting and contacted a couple I know who has just started doing campus ministry in Colorado and told them that I wanted to start giving them a monthly donation. They were kind of shocked, but after I explained that I was feeling this conviction and that if they would not accept my donation that I would be giving it to someone else, they gave me the information I needed and I told them that I would be sending them the money. When I went home that day, I had received in the mail an envelope that was sent but it didn't have a return address on it. Inside was $325 with a note that said "RENT $". That was all that was in the envelope, and I couldn't believe it. I have speculated who sent the money, but I know for a fact that it was from God because the fact that I received it the day that I committed to giving monthly was just to perfect. It was God reminding me that I am under His watch and His protection, and that when I follow after Him with everything I have, including the little money that He gives me, He will be faithful and will provide for my every need.

This was a very encouraging moment for me, but it would not have been had I not taken the initiative and done what God was asking. I believe that He is trying to bring me to a place where I will not wait months to start doing what He asks, but by having it be the same day He is bringing me to a place where I can fully trust Him the moment He asks of me. Lord, I pray that You would help me more and more to have the faith, the courage, and the trust to act on what You give me and to use the gifts You give me to bring You the glory and to make Your fame known throughout the earth. Lord, You are an amazing God, a wonderful Provider, and the only One that makes this life worth living. I love You, Father, and praise You for Your blessing and for Your name. And in that name I pray, amen.