On Friday, the entire BFA high school went to Lenk, Switzerland for the annual retreat. I shared a room with 15 high school girls. This was the view outside my room:
Friday evening we had an icebreaker game with our small groups called Minute to Win It (based on the TV show). There was a set of tasks involving useless skills; after failing twice to complete these tasks within 60 seconds, a group would be eliminated. My small group made it through “knocking a bowling pin over with a tennis ball,” “kicking your shoe onto a mat across the gym,” and “shooting over 3 cards with a rubber band” before getting our first strike on the “spin around while holding on to toilet paper so it wraps around you without breaking.”
Then we had worship time with Dennis Jernigan, and our first session with Rod Taylor. Rod opened up by giving the kids a chance to ask him anything about his personal life. It was heartbreaking to hear that 13 of his spiritual mentors had fallen into moral impurity that had ruined their ministries. He was honest with his own struggles and the disillusionment that often comes in Christian ministry. After gaining their trust with his honesty, he confronted them with some spiritual attitude issues the student body is facing right now.
We broke into our small groups to discuss the message. Laurie Evans and I led a group of 7 girls, 5 of whom are in a regular small group together. In a weekend setting like this, it’s hard to earn the trust of the girls, especially when most of them are already comfortable sharing with another leader.
Saturday was a day mostly free for skiing for those who wanted to fork over lots of money (it’s Switzerland and therefore expensive). I decided my ski skills are limited enough that it would not be worth it, so I found a couple people to climb up the nearby grassy hill and sit in the sunshine.
The three of us walked into town and had ice cream, also. The day was very relaxing, which is wonderful after the wild pace of normal BFA life.
Saturday evening was another session of Minute to Win It (spin streamers around your arms, keep balloons in the air, and try to make your 4 pedometers add up to the highest number of steps). We were eliminated on the first one.
Then there was another session with Dennis Jernigan; he led us in a few songs, then shared his powerful testimony of how God rescued him from a homosexual lifestyle.
Rod Taylor’s next session touched on several topics, but here are a couple important things he said:
– People wanted to know if it’s possible to prevent falling the way his 13 mentors had fallen. His response: “You can’t live your life to prevent a fall; but you can fall more in love with God.” Those guys all had the same characteristic of being walled up with cynicism. They wouldn’t let people into their lives. So one thing to help: don’t get walled off.
– You have to be honest about where you’re at before you can be set free from persistent sins.
– In order to forgive someone, you must count the cost. “Forgiveness is taking upon yourself the consequences of someone else’s sins and giving up the right to vengeance.”
Small group discussion followed the session.
Sunday morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, packed up, and cleaned out the cabins. We had our closing session of worship time, a message from Rod, and communion.
Rod gave BFA 6 random but related words of advice. In some ways, it was more valuable for the students to hear it from someone outside BFA. I think the things he said were exactly what the students needed to hear, but it will take some time for them to put them into action.
I wish I had more time with my small group! We had some good discussions by the end; it felt like there was a lot more to be said, though.
