Glorieta 2014

Group shot at Glorieta: Campuses represented include Portand State University, Clackamas Community College, Eastern Washington University, Multnomah Bible College, and University of Oregon, as well as students from Northwest Contexture Church.

Some of you have been asking about Glorieta. I wanted to share briefly about this experience with our college students. Glorieta is a Christian camp in the mountains of New Mexico; every August, ~2000 college students and their leaders from all over the country gather for Collegiate Week. Ken and Dondi (my pastor and his wife) and other long-term collegiate ministers in the Northwest have been making the drive to Glorieta from Portland for over twenty years. As they spoke all year of this long-standing tradition, I was excited to experience it with my own college students. Two of my leadership students, Cody and Jason, were able to attend this year. I am grateful for this incredible week with them and the others from Northwest campuses.

Each day at Glorieta is set up with large group worship times, small groups, recreation times, and breakout sessions. Breakout sessions ended up being my favorite time of all. For these, directors and students were typically given different options. This ended up being a huge blessing for me, as each of the director's sessions addressed various topics that will assist me in weeks to come. I gained much helpful information and training from sessions on topics of importance in this era of campus ministry such as planning and leading effective small groups, dealing with issues of sexual identity (including homosexuality and pornography) with gracious Biblical conversations, investing into and choosing a student leadership team, building much-needed relationships with university staff, etc. Learning from campus ministers who have been in this ministry for 20-30 years was incredibly valuable!

Our students also enjoyed their breakout sessions, which were practical in nature and addressed such topics as "How Can There Only Be One God?", "A Biblical View of Homosexuality", "What Does Commitment Look Like in the Life of a Believer?", "How Should a Christian Respond to 50 Shades of Gray?", "Christ-centered Dating", and other issues and topics our college students face on a daily basis as they live and interact with a community who doesn't know our Jesus. I was thrilled to see them discuss the concepts they learned and further research together what scripture has to say about these matters so they would be "ready to give an answer."

Worship each morning and evening also presented much food for thought. The speakers all encouraged us to be bold in sharing our faith and ready to GO each day as the Lord revealed how and where. I was encouraged in further conversations with our students to pinpoint specific people in their lives in need of the gospel, as well as share with them people God has put on my heart. Pray for us as we seek to be obedient in sharing with these specific friends in the days and weeks to come.

Recreation provided spiritual lessons, also. One of the girls in our group was terrified of the 4-story slide into the lake and said she would not do it. After much convincing that she could indeed be brave and that this would be a first step into getting out of her comfort zone, she conquered this fear. To see her confidence boosted and her apply how God was with her in that moment of discomfort to changes she needed to make at home ("God will be with me then as He was with me on the slide.") was worth the time and energy invested, as well as having to conquer my own fear of the fish in the lake (I HATE FISH) so I could do it with her! haha... :) I love how God uses the little things to show us huge spiritual truths!

Glorieta was an encouraging experience for us all, and I am looking forward to taking more students along next summer! Thank you to all who prayed for us as we traveled, counseled students as they heard from the Lord, and heard from God in specific ways ourselves!