Last weekend both the men and women left campus for separate manhood and womanhood retreats. Though the men headed for the woods and the women for Atlanta’s metropolis, both genders had an incredible time learning how to glorify God in their own unique fashions.
Where we went….
The men travelled about twenty minutes away from campus towards Columbus—or at least it would have been twenty minutes if we hadn’t taken several wrong turns. When we finally did arrive, we discovered a wonderful little cabin tucked back in the woods next to a small, placid lake. The inside was pretty small, but it was filled with guns, skins, and other trappings of manhood. All in all, it was a wonderful setting.
The women spent the night at John and Trudy White’s house. John and Trudy are the founders of Impact 360 and it was such a blessing to be able to stay in beautiful home and get to know them better. The Whites believe in using what the Lord has given them to bless others and they definitely blessed the Impact ladies over the weekend with delicious food, soft beds, and a cozy home setting!
Fun things that happened….
The ladies had a lot of fun over the weekend: doing nails, having long conversations, and playing silly games. Some of the women had the privilege of meeting Mrs. Cathy. They visited the house that the Cathys have lived in for 57 years and where Mrs. Cathy still resides. Mrs. Cathy is an excellent painter and happily showed the women all the paintings hanging on her walls, all while sharing life lessons and Biblical truth with them.
As soon as we arrived, all the men headed into the woods to play an intense game of manhunt. A small boat by the lake was base, while the hunted took to the surrounding woods. Stephen was the first hunted to reach base by sliding just under the reach of one of the guards. Everyone cheered. But the highlight was when the final hunted ran for the boat and Ben, a guard, slid straight into the cold lake trying to catch him. Extra man points for sure.
What we learned….
Our teacher was Pastor Greg Brown from Western Heights Church in LaGrange. Using the first three chapters of Genesis, he taught us about the four faces of a man, the four wounds of a man, and a man’s “ezer kenegdo” or helper and mighty warrior, designed by God especially for him. Above all, he taught us the definition of manhood and that “Biblical men are active and not passive. They accept responsibility and lead courageously.”
The ladies were blessed by Pastor Greg’s wife, Sherri, along with Dana Bort as they led our Bible Study time over the weekend. We, like the men, studied the first few chapters of Genesis. It was really interesting to dig deep into such a familiar passage and find so many new truths, while also discovering many new questions (if you haven’t carefully read Genesis 1-3 lately, I encourage you to do so). Over the weekend we had many discussions about what a godly woman looks like. We learned that when God said he was going to bring Adam a help mate the Hebrew word meant mighty warrior, so our view of women and what God intended for us to be changed from a “helper” to a “mighty warrior”. We learned that we, as mighty warriors, need to be fighting for the advancement of the kingdom in our specific realm of influence.
The manhood and womanhood retreats were very beneficial, and they came at such a perfect time. With so many projects and things demanding our attention right now it was quite refreshing to spend 24 hours growing closer to each other and to the Lord. Our prayer is that we take the things we learned over the weekend and apply them to our lives, and that as the year continues we would continue to become even better examples of Biblical men and women.
(Contributions to this blog post by: Ian Maupin & McKenzie Sutton. Photo by Grace Croley)