This weekend I went to one of the inter-varsity's events: Fall Conference. Inter-varsity is an inter-denominational, evangelical Christian campus ministry founded in 1941. There is a division planted here at Whitman led by staff members Vincent and Sarah Le!

Every year Fall Conference is hosted at a camp--this year, the camp was located in Western Oregon. It took six and a half hours of driving to get there, but it was definitely worth it. I experienced a spiritual high there such as I have never experienced before.

The students in attendance from Whitman were Fresh(women) Erina Horikawa, Georgette Lugalia, Freshmen Segun Sodipo, Tyler Landau, Sophomores Megan Gleason, Aly Counsell (Theta), Juniors Laura Laguesse, Me, and last, but certainly not least, the Senior, Annie Boyenneh. The two leaders in attendance were Whitman Christian Fellowship's staff, Sarah and Vincent Le.

Our little racially-diverse group bonded over all the activities we did. At the camp, there were athletic fields and a game room with Foosball, ping pong, and cards. There was a lot of free time to do these fun activities with each other and not be on phones. When it came to structure, we did one bible study session and listened to three speaker and worship sessions which were also very powerful.

This year the speaker was a woman named Marshae Sylvester. She is an African American woman who currently leads Inter-varsity's black campus ministries at the University of Washington. Marshae had her own personal singer who performed during her sessions, and there was a talented worship band which played afterwards. Their songs consisted of genres which expanded all across the board from gospel to Spanish to contemporary! These sessions were my favorite part because I learned so many strong messages.

A striking lesson that I learned at one of her talks was that it is important to see the humanity of victims on the news, and not always focus on politics. For example, when eight students and one faculty were killed at Umpqua community college, most people did not even focus on the stories of the individuals who were killed, but instead automatically argued about gun control issues in America. Another example is when the nine black churchgoers were killed at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in North Carolina in June. People shared articles which complained about how soft the police were handling the killer because he was white before they shared any articles about who the victims were. It is good to discuss the issues of police brutality and gun control. However, we need to look into the lives of the victims to mourn properly, respecting the lives of our brothers and

sisters and their humanity

Not only did I learn, but I was proactive with the information I learned at Fall Conference. A very freeing experience for me during the sessions was when I confessed to doing a specific sin. This brought me to a spiritual high when I worshipped with the band with this heavy load now off my chest. I never thought I would be able to confess lying to my leaders for eight or nine months, so I felt very relieved once I did and excited to start taking on this challenge of repressing this sin. It was also amazing seeing the vulnerability of other Whitman students that also confessed and that experience brought us together as a community in Christ.

Last but not least, a very visible lesson that I will take back with me to Whitman is my willingness to be uncomfortable. I know that God is watching over me so I will try to follow his word and reach out to groups that I am not used to because you never know where you might find a partner in discipleship. This parallels how Jesus had twelve disciples which had nothing in common but were an unstoppable force when they were able to learn how to work together.