The auditorium is silent. Classmates had spent the day growing closer to God as well as one another on a deeper level.
To conclude their NET retreat, freshmen and sophomore students entered the auditorium for a prayerful reflection.
CMT director Bill Creach works with NET every year to provide a spiritual retreat for students and allow them to take a step back from their day-to-day lives.
“It’s good to take a timeout when things are crazy especially during a pandemic to just get your barring, to catch your breath and to kinda pause,” Creach said. “And remember what’s important in life and also to get closer to God, to get closer to you yourself and also get closer to people in your class.”
The idea of having retreats this year was up in the air due to COVID-19. According to Creach, the faculty worked with NET to create a safe way for students to experience a retreat this year.
“We just had our first Kairos retreat. It gave me confidence we can pull it off,” Creach said. “I was happy with NET making the adjustments to going to half day, I was happy with the administration going with the idea of remote learning — that frees up the whole building.”
Sophomore Anna Albers said she felt excited for a chance to get closer to God and her classmates — even more so than she did as a freshman.
“I think as high schoolers we all try to be independent and walk away from God and be like ‘I got this, I can do this,’” Albers said. “The retreat grounds us and brings us back to the reality that we do need Jesus and we need other people to make us be closer to him.”
NET missionary Tallia said she hopes that these retreats will show God’s love to others and transform their lives.
“My favorite part is probably being able to see God in the people I meet,” Tallia said. “To just see their joy and to see their love really impacts me and helps me grow in my faith, because I’m able to see the love of God in other people.”
According to Tallia, NET’s mission specifically this year is to guide students to hear God’s words and to know that with God they are going to be okay.
“I think the retreat really did shine a light on my prayer life with God,” freshman Ben Frey said. “It has encouraged me to connect with him more and grow in my faith.”