Focus 2024

The youth of today have so much to contend with and sometimes it is hard to pull them away long enough to quiet all the noise so they can hear God speak just to them. That is why once a year we host a Fall Focus retreat where we spend an entire 24 hours focusing on God and each other. This generation is experiencing things that prior generations never faced and so we wanted to show them that while some things are different, God has never changed. The giants of today are not more powerful than the giants of old and God has already defeated every one of them through the power of the cross. The teaching team (Jonathan Scheffrahn, Matt Kraehemann, Elijah Cavanaugh) shared how the common giants of today (anger, addictions, love of comfort, fear, and rejection) have all been defeated but can be still deadly in the life of a student if we allow them to have power over us. At the end of each session, a student who identified with that giant in their life would grab a hammer and symbolically smash that giant into a thousand pieces as they believed God for the victory over that particular giant.

Outside of the teaching times, it was truly wonderful to see the students bond with each other. Something wonderful happens when you shoot each other during archery tag and just have some fun together. The guys stayed up way too late on Friday night playing games and sports and bonded. The girls spent their late evening speaking life and encouraging each other through a canvas painting activity. Then, the next day, we went to Group Dynamix in Dallas, where we challenged our fear of heights on a ropes course as well as played tons of creative games with each other.

Everyone who went had a great time and made good memories we hope will last for a very long time.