2005 Winter Retreat
April 4, 2005

     “The cross before, me the world behind, no turning back, we are the Resistance.”  This is the call to arms sent out this February to about 40 students.  For one solid weekend, we took these students, from three different regional high schools, out of their home environments, out of their social environments and showed them what a life lived hard after Jesus could mean to them.  They were challenged to give up the cares of this world, give up trying to fake faith to please people, and sacrifice all they have for the surpassing greatness of Jesus Christ. They were challenged to be the resistance to the forces at work in this world, in their schools and in every area of darkness in their life.  Each student was faced with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His call to be salt and light in this world.  They learned what this resistance fights for, what it fights against and why this resistance for Jesus, will not fail.

     With this theme of resistance and the commitments being made by students to stand up against the powers and principalities of this world, in Jesus Christ’s name, there was sure to be opposition.  Several times during the weekend we could feel the presence of darkness trying to creep in.  One particular night during the message, those who where praying in another building, truly wrestled in prayer and they experienced battle.  Afterward, as they made their way back to the chapel they described students as looking like they had “just gotten in a fight”.  That night several students got sick and there were leaders praying deep in to the night with students for Jesus to come and destroy strongholds in their lives and the lives of other students.

     In addition to that, we all had a ton of fun and more importantly there were decisions and commitments made that weekend that will echo in eternity.  Students knelt, some laid out, face first to the earth, in submission to God’s will for their life.  Now, two months later, after much hardship, many of these commitments still stand.  Something happened that weekend.  It was the start of something.  The start of the resistance.