FFI - First Weekend

The first weekend at Focus Institute is crucial to setting the tone for the rest of the semester, both for the faculty and the students. I can tell you that something happens in the first few days at Focus and then the next 3 days on the "base-camp retreat" that is hard to describe. (It's called base-camp because climbing a mountain was the metaphor used for the journey of the semester and the retreat was the beginning/prep stage; hence, "base-camp").

85 college students and post-grads load up with 10 to 15 staff members and make a trek up to 9,000 feet and Horn Creek Retreat Center, for a life-changing retreat. The crazy thing is that the 85 Institute students are basically strangers, having only known each other for 3 days. But the mountains + God changes a lot of things.

During those three days we grew closer together than is humanly possible. Through all kinds of ice breakers, staff testimonies and challenges, seminars, and opportunities to chill with peers in the great outdoors or inside with a warm cup of hot chocolate we left a different kind of group. To be honest, as we left it felt like a True community of believers and one could share deeply from their hearts with many brand new friends. This type of vulnerability set the stage for the most incredible 3 1/2 months of growth in my entire life.

Here are some pictures of us tubing that first weekend at the base-camp retreat at Horn Creek.