CRU Fall Retreat 2012

Now I may be biased since this was my very first CRU fall retreat, but it was AMAZING! Thankfully, Southern Miss' fall break fell right around the time we were planning on having our fall retreat this year so we were able to spend 3 glorious days and 2 nights down in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Gulf Shores Beach Retreat Center

Since we are studying the Sermon on the Mount this semester in our weekly meeting, we decided to spend the retreat studying and meditating on the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15). We kicked off the extended weekend Wednesday night, October 10th, with a night of studying the attributes of God and praising Him for who He is; focusing on "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." 

Day two started off bright and early with breakfast cooked by our staff team (mainly the Andrews), followed by our second session where we studied "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." After Andrew H. talked, we had 4 mini break-out sessions where we shared different ways that students & staff had gone to the world to share the gospel through word & deed. The students got to spend 15 minutes at each of these stations hearing testimonies, seeing pictures, & hearing about opportunities for them to go (or stay) and make a difference. Our 4 stations were East Asia summer project, South Africa summer project, International Justice Mission (IJM), and the USM campus. Each of these places have a need to share the gospel and a desperate need for laborers and it was awesome getting to share those needs with students who are willing and eager to go. 

After a time of devotion & a quick lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the beautiful, and overly-warm October weather on the beach. That night, we headed to dinner and then split into guys' and girls' time for our Thursday night session: "Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We spent the night in great discussion, teaching, & encouragement about the specific sins that we each struggle with as men and women. To end the perfect day, we capped out the evening with a bonfire where we roasted marshmallows, ate (one-to-many) smores, and had great fellowship. 

Awesome bonfire photo thanks to Marshall's new phone!

The final morning, we ended with another great breakfast and a whole lot of cleaning up! After we had finally packed up most of our things, Andrew H. closed out the retreat with a great time of reflection over all that we had discussed over the past two days. In addition, he also surprised everyone with our spring break trip location: New York!! Although we do not have too many details yet, we know that we are going to New York City to share the gospel with college students on the many college campuses they have in the city (more details to come!). 

The whole group!

And of course, what's a good fall retreat without a couple of group pictures? In all seriousness, we could not have asked for a better group of students nor better weather for our fall retreat. God has blessed our ministry so much & we are so thankful for the time we got to spend in Gulf Shores studying His word, admiring His creation, and fellowshipping with His church!

Southern Miss CRU Staff Team

Catching up with the Jaegers!

Surprise! Once again I have allowed our crazy fall schedule to get in the way of my blog updates. On the bright side, this will be an interesting & event packed post!

Looking back on our fall semester last year, we are amazed at the things God has done in and through our ministry in just a year! When Mitch and I arrived in January, there were only a few community groups meeting through out the week but our goal as a ministry was to change that. One of our biggest prayer requests last semester was that God would accomplish this goal for us by creating community groups (bible studies) all around the USM campus. And just as He promises, God has been answering this request in bigger ways than we could have hoped! This fall, we have witnessed a HUGE need & desire for community groups in all different places. Several of our male students have begun community groups within their fraternities and have seen a great turn out. In addition, several of our female students have also begun community groups within their sororities and on Tuesday nights there is a catch-all community group for all sororities to come together and study God's Word. Along with these communities, we have a women's group, men's group, apologetics group, freshmen girl's group, freshmen guy's group, & a leadership group. God is doing such amazing things through our students and we cannot do anything but give Him all the glory for answering our prayer requests!

Eating the top of our wedding cake!

On a personal note, Mitch and I celebrated our first anniversary on September 24th. In honor of our anniversary, we spent the weekend in Decatur, Alabama, visiting family, friends, & places that we habited while we dated (including the 5 Guys where we met!). In addition, we decided to act upon a conviction that we had been having for awhile & finally have a believer's baptism. Although we were both baptized as children, Mitch and I both felt that we wanted to publicly share our testimonies with the church and symbolize our commitment to Christ through a water baptism. Although the water itself does not save a person, baptism is a symbol of the change Christ has made in a believer's life- death to our prior lifestyles & selfish beliefs and the beginning of a new life grounded in believing that Christ died for our sins and acting upon that belief. So, a year after we were married, Mitch and I were baptized! It was such an amazing opportunity to share our testimonies with the church & publicly symbolize the wonderful things God has done in our lives since saving us.

In the midst of celebrating our marriage, Mitch and I have also had the honor of celebrating the new marriages and weddings of our friends and family. The past couple of weekends, we were able to witness my (sponsor) brother Emmanuel marry his beautiful bride Lauren as well as my long-time childhood friend Jennifer officially become Mrs. Carver. Both were beautiful weddings and wonderful weekends spent catching up with friends and family!

Last, but certainly not least, we've added a new member to the Jaeger household. Don't get too excited-she's a dog not a baby :) Meet our newest pound rescue Weagle!

Stay tuned for our next update- we just got back from our Cru Fall Retreat and I cannot wait to share it with you!