Pre-Term Retreat

The weekend before the start of Rotation, CCF had a pre-term retreat to get to know some of this year’s prefrosh and start the school year off on a good note. We camped for two nights at Malibu Creek State Park. Three prefrosh attended, Vivian, Grace and Daniel, as well as seven returning CCFers. We arrived on Friday afternoon, and spent the evening setting up camp, eating together, and singing around the fire. Saturday morning we hiked to a nearby pond and climbed around its perimeter on the rock faces that rise out from the water. After returning to camp and eating lunch, we went to the beach in Malibu for the afternoon. That night a group of students from BIOLA joined us for worship and prayer. All too soon it was Sunday morning, and we had to pack up and return to Tech. We all had a great time together. After the jump, read what one prefrosh, Vivian, has to share about her retreat experience.

When Sam asked me to write about my perspective of pre-term retreat, I thought, “Great! I loved it, and I want to share my experience with others.” But I will try to limit my use of superlatives (even though I still think they apply) so I can explain why I enjoyed it so much.

And I hope you’ll see why you should go next time!

I’m a prefrosh, and I was stressing myself out about starting school the whole week before anything actually began. I felt supremely unprepared (I still am, really) but I guess that’s kind of okay (at least for now). Everybody I met at the retreat was so laidback, easy to talk to, and fun to be with; I found myself loosening up throughout the weekend even as the first day of college drew near.

Here’s part of what made the retreat so much fun for me:

- Making new friends! Really, really good friends who I feel privileged to consider my family in Christ

- Upperclassmen: big brothers and sisters who take extra-good care of you!

- Other prefrosh: hey, I’m not the only clueless one here after all! Let’s be clueless

buddies together!

- Camping outdoors in the open air

- Learning why geology is really the story of the earth

- Worship and s’mores around the campfire

- Climbing rocks while trying not to fall into the lake

- Giving Miceála a piggy-back ride

- Building Tim’s castle on and around him

- Playing Frisbee on the beach (and everywhere else)

- Eating a pint of pistachio and chocolate malt crunch ice cream with Sam

- Fellowship with Biola, prayers and blessings

- Etc.

The people in CCF are really cool and collectively know a lot about almost everything, but at the same time, they’re really nice too. So to me, CCF is a bunch of close friends who won’t let you down, as well as a reminder of God’s grace and love. And the retreat was a wonderful way to get to know and hang out with people you’d love to be with always anyway.

Among other members of CCF, I experience living proof that “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up […] Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). Together, I feel that we better find joy in fellowship and delight in the word of our Father God. I know I do when I’m with friends from CCF!

Whether you are a Christian or a seeker, I hope you join us next time!

Vivian Huang

An Enthusiastic Prefrosh in CCF