Tests, homework and projects are things that encompass college students’ lives, and many struggle to incorporate spiritual formation time on their own.
With that in mind, Milligan’s SGA created a short, 24-hour retreat on March 22-23 that was centered around teaching students to spend quiet time with God.
“Chapel was centered around praying last semester, and so we wanted to apply how important rest and talking to God is,” said head of SGA’s spiritual life and service committee, Isabel Siegel.
“With school and technology the way that it is today, we wanted to give students time to rest and rest in God. This, for many of them,” Siegel said, “was an experience that they may not have had before or haven’t had in a long time.”
15 students accompanied Siegel and campus pastor, Brad Wallace, on the journey to Fairhaven Ministries in Roan Mountain.
“We hope to start doing this more often and have more students come, though we may have to charge a small fee.,” Siegel said.
The teachings for the day were focused on John 15 verses 1-17 while Wallace and Siegel set the premise of rest by teaching students Lectio Divina.
“It’s a way of reading scripture where students would read a passage 4-5 times and pick out a couple words that stood out. They would ask God why those words were important,” Siegel said.
“Wallace reminded us that we didn’t always have to find a word, and we could just learn to sit and become comfortable in an uncomfortable silence.”
Siegel explained that the spiritual life and service committee started planning the event back in the fall and would have liked to put on the retreat earlier in the semester.
“We had a great turnout for only advertising one week in advance, and the feedback was very positive,” Siegel said. “Many of the students honestly didn’t want to go back to campus.”
Due to unforeseen circumstances, they had to postpone the retreat until later in the spring, but ultimately students were still rejuvenated by the experience.