Re­cap­ping Bethel’s An­nual Spir­i­tual Re­treat

MISHAWAKA—This past week­end was the an­nual Spir­i­tual Re­treat.  

Kris­ten Koteskey, one of the lead­ers on the Spir­i­tual Life team said, “The pur­pose of the Spir­i­tual Re­treat is to get away from cam­pus and to in­ten­tion­ally get off of the phys­i­cal pres­ence of cam­pus but still en­counter God’s pres­ence in a com­mu­nity style. It is a chance to re­con­nect by dis­con­nect­ing.”  

The event was held at John Kaehr’s house, with Laura Bul­grien as the speaker. The week­end in­cluded times of wor­ship, prayer as well as chal­lenges from the speaker.  

It was an overnight event, go­ing from Fri­day to Sat­ur­day last week­end. The event was open to all stu­dents and the ones who at­tended seemed to en­joy it. 

Emma Green, a stu­dent who at­tended the event said, “I got to spend time in fel­low­ship with oth­ers who love the Lord, and I was given the time and space to slow down, sit in si­lence, and ‘waste’ my time with God.” 

Hunter Mart­solf, also a stu­dent who was able to at­tend said, “It al­lowed me to con­nect on cam­pus with peo­ple in the Bethel com­mu­nity, and peo­ple who are want­ing to take steps to­ward Christ. Real re­la­tion­ships were cul­ti­vated, peo­ple were be­ing real and peo­ple were be­ing hon­est with the strug­gles they have about grow­ing in their faith. Per­son­ally, it con­victed and chal­lenged me to be more in­ten­tional with the time I spend with God and not make it out of oblig­a­tion but just en­ter­ing His pres­ence. There was just a lot of time with God and I got to share that with other peo­ple.”