Haverford Christian Fellowship Retreat

Hey everyone!

I know I haven't written anything in awhile, and I missed my regular Friday post. But I was extremely busy this week doing extra homework so I could afford to take some time off. This weekend I went to the Haverford Christian Fellowship Fall Retreat!

Though I wasn't sure what to expect, I ended up having a great experience. Friday I was having a bad day and didn't feel very well, but the retreat gave me exactly what I needed. It gave me time to stop and breath. It gave me time to focus on things other than work. It gave me time to get to know my bible study mates better. It gave me time to have fun. It gave me time to refocus myself and my priorities on God, and I learned a lot about myself.

As far as the structure of the retreat, students from Haverford, as well as Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore, spent the majority of our time intensely studying God's word. It's hard to describe how this could be relaxing, but I think for the most part the change of pace from the college grind did the trick. We studied the stories of Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Jesus. We took small passages one at a time, beginning with the passage that helped me get through my exam a few weeks ago, Luke 10:38-42. Though it's only 4 verses, we 2 hours dissecting this passage! It was hard to believe, but we did.

This is typical of InterVarsity, the Christian college ministry that organizes the retreats. We had several other sessions on Saturday of similar length. With each session, we began the next passage in the story. These included Lazarus' death, his resurrection, and Mary pouring the oil on Jesus' feet and washing it with her hair. They printed out the passages on plain paper double spaced so that we could annotate them. We had time to study the passages alone, in small groups, and with everyone together. It was really amazing what there was to be learned by looking at passages in so many different ways!

We studied intensely, but we also got to have fun too.

We played an Amazing Race game, where we had to make M&M elevators, spray a can of whipped cream into a bowl and eat all of it as a group, pass a frozen banana down a line with our feet, make a marshmellow toothpick tower (above), and much more.

Overall, I had a great time!

How are your bible studies going? I hope learning as much from them as I learned this past weekend!

(pictures taken by Erin Kennedy!)