Last weekend we helped pull off the Cru Nebraska Statewide Men’s and Women’s Retreats. These weekend events are always incredibly fruitful in the lives of our students.

The theme of the Men’s Retreat was “Man Maker”. Justin, our speaker pictured in the green vest, gave a powerful vision of what it will take for us to be the men God has called us to be 40-50 years from now. He emphasized the reality of our college years being the “defining decisions” stage of life, and challenged us with this: “until you let the gospel affect you as deeply as your masculinity you will never live out your true purpose on this earth.” Justin did a great job balancing going deep with lighthearted moments of physical strength based analogies. 🙂 I (Lee) will never forget sitting at lunch Saturday afternoon talking to students from all over the state pour their hearts out about how God was using the weekend to shape them into authentic, vulnerable, godly men.

The Women’s Retreat was about much more than just who had the best pajamas of the group. Their theme was “Beautiful Mess” and they dove deep into what it means to live as a godly woman in a fallen, broken world. Chelsea gave a talk titled “What to do when Life Stinks.” Her talk focused on what it looks like to grieve the little losses, failures, and hurts in life as practice for grieving the really big ones. Chelsea loved hearing one girl’s story about how the weekend made her recommit to building relationships with other women even though she has been hurt so many times, which has led her to only want to hang out with men. We praise God for changed lives!