This past weekend, I went on a church retreat that some of my friends have attended before. This weekend was a thriller for me. Jesus had made a way for me to attend and I knew that this was the path that I was supposed to go on, but, for some odd reason, I was hesitant. I had already made the commitment and I couldn’t back out of it, but I wanted to. They sent out emails saying what to bring and it stated not to bring a phone in bold letters. How could one live without their phone? We wouldn’t be able to tell the time or play on our phones when things got boring. I was very hesitant about this. I made the commitment earlier last week and then I figured out that there were so many different activities going on here at school that I knew that I couldn’t miss. I just knew that it would be the end of my social life if I missed certain events. I was caught at a crossroad.

In the midst of my doubt, I got a text message from Tiffany Uke–who was the one who told me about the retreat–and Melanie Ronoh–who also helped to tell me about the retreat. Basically, the text was just calming any doubt that I had about not wanting to go and I knew that it could be no one other than Jesus answering me when I didn’t even have to ask Him a question. They were both excited that we are able to experience this journey together and that they had been to an awakening before as well. So, who was I to say no to two of the most amazing people in the world?

The day of the trip, I was having a lot of doubts. I didn’t want to leave and I sure as heck did not want to pack. I paced in my room after class and tried to redirect my thoughts. I was nervous. I was usually nervous when going to places like this that I had never been to before, but I put my faith in God and prayed about it. Getting to the church and meeting everyone was awesome. I didn’t know what to expect and none of them knew what to expect either. We were going to a place where no one would tell us anything and they were all being completely sketchy, but I trusted God with everything that He would do for us this weekend.

It is now Sunday, I am home typing this article, and I couldn’t be happier. I had an amazing experience. I got close to a lot of people and I feel that my connection with God is even stronger. My faith has placed me in different places and I now understand what it means to be a follower of God. It is not just a religion, but a relationship and a lot of other people also understand the amazingness of who He is. God worked in so many ways this weekend. Even though I missed my phone and all of the activities that I was supposed to attend this weekend, I’m glad that I got to be with people who love Jesus as much as I do and that all that we had in common was our love of Jesus.

If you’ve never been to an Awakening or a Church Camp, I highly recommend that you do so because you will not regret it at all!