On Friday Sept. 20 through Sunday Sept. 22, Chaplain Doodle Harris and Kathleen Lorenzen took 12 students to The Crossing in Lexington, Neb. for the 2024 Fall Chaplain’s Retreat.
The retreats are held annually, with this being the third, and are focused around a specific part in the bible. This year, the five bible studies were all centered around the “Book of Joshua.” These studies were also tied to “The Lord of the Rings.” Harris showed clips of the popular science fiction movie to help students understand certain ideas from the bible.
Although the Book of Joshua and “The Lord of the Rings” seem unrelated, Harris found it easy and exciting to plan the studies as soon as she got the idea for this retreat. Some past retreats have been harder to plan for, depending on how much she knows and likes the material, but this retreat kind of planned itself. A student that went on the retreat last year compared the bible to “The Lord of the Rings,” and Harris loved the idea so much, she planned an entire retreat around it.
One of the bible-study-related clips she showed was when the “fellowship” assembled in the beginning of the movie. This was to allow students to see a group of people who are extremely different from each other come together to reach a common goal.
Along with using “The Lord of the Rings” to help connect teachings of the scriptures to real life scenarios, each bible study had an activity to go with it. One of these activities included painting rocks of where the students have come from in regards to mental health, spirituality, or however they may have interpreted it, as well as a rock of where they’re going. In the “Book of Joshua,” the Isrealites crossed the river of Jordan and built an ebenezer, a carefully stacked tower of rocks, with their stones of remembrance. The goal of this was to help the students relate the bible story to their own struggles and ‘stones.’
The retreat also featured several recreational activities, including go karts, an indoor swimming pool, a campfire with s’mores, escape room board games, hide and go seek, puzzles, basketball, and four-square-ping-pong. Some of these activities were planned, and others were a result of the students getting to know each other and thinking of fun things to do together.
The retreat allowed the students and chaperones to get to know each other, but also allowed for the exchanging of cultures and ideas. “You grow up a certain way, you learn a certain thing, and you don’t realize that people in other parts of the country or other parts of the world had a totally different experience,” said Harris.
Sam Acosta Castellanos, a freshman from Grand Island, also attended the retreat. He signed up for the opportunity to relax and do fun activities, but also because he’s new to the college and wanted to make lasting friendships.
Although the retreat provided a much needed break for the students, it was still valued for its opportunity for worship. “I’m Christian so I really enjoyed the religious aspect. For me, I feel like the bible is one of those books that teaches people how to be better versions of themselves for themselves and others around them,” said Acosta Castellanos. “We talked about uncertainty and fear, and talking about your own experiences in relation to what happened in the past really helps out. You can hear other people’s stories and find them relatable.”
The retreat helped give students a place to socialize and relax over the mid block break, but also provided a place to learn about the bible and connect with each other spiritually.