Frosh Get-A-Way

Last weekend I attended Frosh Get-A-Way, a retreat put on by the school for incoming freshman. We left on Friday afternoon in three buses destined for the Tall Oaks retreat center in Kansas. Once there we were organized into groups that we stayed with throughout the retreat. My group was dubbed the "flaming ice cubes" and we fearlessly led by Jacie, an awesome upperclassmen who helped us to acclimate to each other during the first few awkward hours. All the retreatants participated in several icebreakers to get us acquainted with each other Friday evening then we ate dinner, went to prayer service, and afterwards had a bonfire. I spent the night will all the other male retreatants and male leaders in the Delaware cabin. We awoke the next morning at 7:00 to Fred (one of the several awesome leaders besides Jacie) banging something metal against a table to get us out of bed. I would also like to note that our cabin had been air conditioning the entire night and it felt about 43 degrees getting out of bed.

Saturday centered around a low ropes course. Pictured below is our group for the course plus Bill from campus ministry (center) whose last name I will not even attempt to spell. The course consisted of many small challenging activities that required teamwork and cooperation to complete. My favorite was a fourteen foot high wall that our entire group had to get over. Bill was most impressive in the "human spider web" which required bodily contortions and the optional rolling up of shorts for increased agility. Our group passed all of the obstacles with flying colors.

On Sunday we had our final prayer service after a sumptuous breakfast provided by the Tall Oaks staff. I would like to give a special shout out to them for their home cooking all weekend. The retreat was a great experience and I hope to come back as a leader next year. After about a half hour of pictures we had our last group meeting and packed back onto the buses. By this time I was entirely exhausted and managed to sleep the entire ride home.