Girl's Dorm students retreat from their phones

This past weekend was the annual Girls Dorm Retreat. The retreat started on Friday night with the new assistant LE director, Shayna, coming to the dorm to speak for Vespers worship time. The theme for the weekend was “Belong”. She started out by telling us the classic tale of The Ugly Duckling. She ended the worship by playing the guitar while singing us a song. The rest of the evening was capped off with delicious snacks courtesy of Mrs. Helm while we watched a christian romantic movie. The weekend was off to a great start and all the girls were enjoying themselves. 
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On Sabbath morning everyone in the dorm had the opportunity to sleep-in. Our day started with a delicious brunch of poppy-seed pancakes, once again prepared by Mrs. Helm. “The food was well-prepared and I’m glad that we got to have Mrs.Helm’s delicious food!” commented Melody, a freshman.

Sabbath worship consisted of multiple little breakout sessions that included games like Jenga, in which each block had a Bible question on it that we had to answer, charades, where we had to act out Bible stories and characters, and painting. The dorm chaplain presented a short film called “Noise”. Each group watched the film and then discussed how all the noise in our lives keeps us from our relationship with God. We discussed how we need silence for God to speak to us. We just have to sit and listen. 

On Sabbath afternoon, the deans took us to Benson Sculpture Park where we participated in a photo scavenger hunt. Everyone had a lot of fun running around the park looking at the different sculptures, and of course taking a lot of pictures. We came back to the dorm for Mrs. Helm’s big-mac sloppy joes. To end the Sabbath, Kelby Eickmann came to speak to us about overcoming personal obstacles in order to find where each of us belongs. We ended the weekend by watching the movie Aladdin, singing along to every song of the movie, and once again having delicious snacks. The dorm was never silent this weekend, and all the girls got to bond with each other and just have a fun time.

“I enjoyed bonding with all the girls in the dorm and also creating new friendships.” -Kylie Wehling, Sophomore 

“It was a lot of fun and I’m so grateful that I got to bond with everybody that came! This was a dorm retreat that I will never forget!” -Patricia Simamora, four year senior 

Bela Cinco, Student Editor
Photos by Patricia Simamora and Girl's dorm students

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