Free vacation attracts students

The Lilly Project is offering students a free opportunity to get off campus for a couple days this coming weekend.

The Deep Gladness Retreat, held at Highland Retreat Center, will focus students' attention on God's call and one's personal faith. Any student interested in discovering their calling is welcome, and the cost of the weekend will be paid for by the Lilly Project.

There will be four workshops held throughout the weekend. Judy Mullet, professor of teacher education, will lead the first on Saturday morning speaking about "Listening to Self." Saturday afternoon's session will be focused on the topic of "Listening to God," and Heidi Miller-Yoder, instructor of worship and spirituality at the Seminary, will be the speaker. A graduate of EMU's Seminary and pastor at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church, Beryl Jantzi will close out Saturday's workshops with a 6:30p.m. meeting concerned with "Focusing on Your Story." Following a time of singing and guided meditation, Campus Pastor Brian Martin-Burkholder will finish the weekend on Sunday morning with a message on "Deciding Wisely About Your Future."

Campus Pastor Julie Haushalter said, "The workshops are designed to help students reflect on how God may be currently moving in his or her life, how God has been involved in their personal story, and how to discern God's faith and vocation." The weekend retreat also includes times of worship and fellowship, as well as times specifically meant for personal meditation and reflection.

The Deep Gladness retreat is sponsored by the Lilly Project, which is a five year grant of $2 million that EMU received in December 2001. It is a private foundation that's purpose is to provide funding for programs and other opportunities that would benefit a student in their personal quest for identifying and responding to God's call. The project's focus includes three main areas, and the university has become involved in encouraging these areas by restructuring the general education programs to form classes that encourage students to establish a vocation conducive to their calling from God, which is the first focus. The second focus is on learning through practice, which has led to the establishment of EMU's Community Learning Center which places students in volunteer and paid positions off-campus which could be beneficial in their search for their calling.

The third focus that the Lilly Project is based on is a challenge for students to consider professional ministries as a career, and EMU has responded to this focus by improving and adding to the Ministry and Pastoral Assistants (MA's and PA's) program.

The endowment allows for programs such as the Deep Gladness Retreat to take place. The main focus of this weekend's retreat will be for reflection and education on how to interpret what God is calling each individual to do with their lives.

As Haushalter said, "One of the outcomes of this retreat is to discover life long tools that may be developed to better discern how God might be guiding us in our journey." The retreat is meant to benefit and guide students toward a life of serving God and the community in accordance with the spiritual gifts that they have received from God.