On March 25-27 the UCSC had its first ever alumni retreat! When Katie Nabors approached Matthew Ferris and I with the idea in October, we were all in!  We had each graduated in 2021 and had been struggling with the transition from college to young adulthood, but in vastly different ways.  Katie was a newlywed in grad-school and had moved to Hattiesburg, Matthew had stayed in Starkville for grad-school, and I had started my first big-girl engineering job in Cleveland, MS.  We longed for the counsel of older Christians, who had walked through the same stages not long before us, that we had had such easy access to during our time at the student center, and we thought, “Maybe we’re not the only ones?” We sent out a flier to gain interest for the retreat and we were not alone in this longing.  But then came the challenge of how to plan a retreat for 40 adults who are spread out all over the country, and who are all in different seasons of life? The short answer – prayer, and letting God take care of the rest.  His ways are truly better than anything we could ever have planned, or created, or imagined on our own.  Katie, Matthew, and I, all were interns at one point during our time at the UCSC and have had our fair share of planning retreats, but something about this one was different.  There was stress at times and the idea of throwing in the towel, but we would take a step back, give it a few days of prayer, and somehow the pieces always fell into place. It was impossible to miss God’s handywork.  We asked Sunny Patel, Nick Renfroe, Daniel Tripp, and Matthew Houts to speak.  Getting to collaborate with them about ideas and discuss, even before the retreat, the challenges we were each facing and God’s never-ending faithfulness, was a tremendous encouragement.  God was blessing us before the retreat even began!  So many people stepped up in order to make this happen, and allowed themselves to be used by God, even in a small way like an encouraging and grateful text.

Within minutes of us all arriving in Mentone, AL, we all slipped back into the ease of the deep, yet silly, friendships we had left behind.  We were discussing jobs, grad-school, marriage, break-ups, babies, yet still talking about who was going to get obliterated when we played games later.  Something about the transition into adulthood allowed us to jump right into discussing the things that mattered most – what God was doing in our lives, here and now, in the struggles, and in the silly.  One of the scriptures we discussed in depth was James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” This healing was experienced by several, if not all, who attended the alumni retreat.  It was indeed a powerful thing to experience the blessing of God’s body, with all members striving to serve their purpose.  For many of us, myself included, the UCSC played a prominent role in establishing the foundation of our faiths and transitioning away from the UCSC can feel in some ways like you’re losing that foundation. God reminded me so profoundly that that foundation was not in a singular place, but in Him at work through the Holy Spirit in the lives of those I was surrounded by.  No matter where we had all gone out into the world, no matter what season of life we were in, we could come together and partake in the healing James speaks of, through the unity we have in an incredibly loving father, who is still teaching us and molding us in beautiful, yet sometimes very challenging ways. There were several times I had to take moment, like Mary in the gospels, to just treasure it all up in my heart to meditate on God’s goodness: in the burdens we were able to once again help each other carry, in the smack-talk during volleyball, in the deep belly laughter, in the beautiful weather in the mountains, in the passionate praise of my brothers and sisters, and in the confidence of God’s presence all around. This wasn’t just an alumni retreat, this was a family reunion, and with this small little taste, I eagerly await an even greater one.  

-Olivia Jewel Hill