By Aaron Alumbaugh, junior

Breathe. Rest. Sabbath. Listen. Play. This was the focus of the Winter Breathe retreat, conducted at Camp Horizon in Arkansas City by Friends University's Campus Ministries.

The retreat occurred Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, Super Bowl weekend.

It was a time for students to get away from commitments and distractions. No cell phones were brought and no homework.

When the 82 students departed from Friends University, they left behind the worries and cares that stressed their lives.

The retreat included activities such as watching the sunset in silence as a group, worshipping, hearing the Breathe Retreat message, participating in silence, napping, trail walking, making smores over an open fire and playing games.

Night Ultimate Frisbee was the main game event. Others included the all-time favorite game Signs, numerous board and card games, coloring and bracelet making.

As always, plenty of hot drinks and snacks were available. This included multiple flavors of gum, which the Campus Ministries staff distributed by throwing at the students, a retreat tradition.

Patrick Sehl, Campus Ministries director, has led the Breathe Retreat for seven years. The biggest change to this year’s itinerary was that Sehl decided, along with his assistant directors Preston Todd and Carrie Mills, to bring in a fresh voice to present the teachings on the theme “Breathe.”

Campus Ministries picked Christopher Jason “CJ” Fox, Central Christian Church’s youth pastor, for the job. Fox gave the Campus Ministries staff a chance to breathe and to walk alongside the students and listen as well.

Fox presented the “breathe” message so that students could grasp its content in a more personal way. He talked about how his cell phone, Facebook, video games, multiple jobs, church activities, television, radio, movies and many other things prevent him from living and breathing life as God meant for him.

Fox also covered the topic of “our masks.” Fox explained that the masks come in the form of actions and attitudes. But the mask is not real. People are made in God’s image and are free to be how he made them, without the baggage of expectations and rules. People are free to be themselves, Fox said.

The results of what occurred at the retreat were what Partick Sehl expected for the most part. But one unplanned highlight occurred.

After applying the Quaker practice of silence for four hours, the students came together for a time of sharing what they had heard from God.

The majority of the students shared, and “they didn’t share kind of light things; they shared for real, pretty neat how God was working in their life things,” Sehl said.

Sehl said he expects that students will go back to their regular lives and commitments at school, jobs, family, friends and all of the demands.

The most challenging part will be for them to “once in seven practice heaven,” Sehl said. When they Sabbath, they will have the opportunity “to just relax and have a day where they do nothing and just get recharged.”

“Healing and Sabbath go together,” Sehl said. “That’s what our students miss out; that’s what I miss out on when I don’t Sabbath.”

Darin Lysaught, senior, said he went because he needed a huge break and “because it would teach me how to Sabbath better.”

Lysaught said he wanted to grow closer to God on this retreat, but his expectations were turned around. He learned that he shouldn’t “be afraid to enjoy life for what it is,” and that he should live his life for God. The teaching about “our masks” spoke to him a lot, he said.

The thing that meant the most to Lysaught was the time of silence.

“Being removed for four hours entirely from speaking to people was one of the most invigorating things,” he said.

This was junior Nate Williams’ second Breathe Retreat. He said the reason he went this time was because “I just can’t get enough of Jesus Christ.” Williams enjoys what Campus Ministries does and said that “anything they do, I’m there.”

Williams also mentioned how much he enjoyed the message about “our masks.”

“That teaching shatters everything that the world tells you,” Williams said. The ideas people always hear around them are that they have to look and be a certain way, Williams said.

“You can break out of that,” Williams said. “You can be you.”

During his freshman experience of the Breathe retreat, Williams remembers hearing that “God’s got you and he’s never going to leave you.” This year, Williams said he heard that again in a new way.

“I can rest in that,” Williams said. “I don’t have to have things figured out. I don’t have to know what the next day is going to look like. But just to rest, that’s what’s been my hope and goal, to rest in the truth of Christ.”

Williams said that there is too much in life that tears people down and brings them back to a place where they lose sight of the truth. That is why Williams plans to surround himself with people who uplift him and stay in a community where everyone fights for one another.

This will help him get through life and the hard times, known and described by those who went on the retreat as “dumpster fires.”

Williams wants people to know that “I don’t know what’s holding them back, or what’s got them tied, but I do know that no matter what it is, God is still God, and the truth is still the truth. He loves you. No matter what you’ve done, no matter where you’re at, that’s never going to change. So find rest and find hope there.”