Purim Celebration

Reading the book of Esther together

This last week at Impact St. Mary’s (SMiCpact), we continued our study of Women of the Text by looking at the life of Esther and her courageous obedience to risk her life for the sake of saving her people. This Saturday was the annual festival of Purim where Jews across the world celebrate God rescuing his people through Esther. As part of our study, I invited the entire SMiCpact gang over to my apartment to celebrate Purim.

It was a great night of celebration and reading the Text together. We ate way more food than we probably should, read through the book of Esther, had great conversations about the Scripture, and made gift baskets. Part of a regular Purim celebration is to share what you have with neighbors and those who might not have all that they need.

During a previous weekly study, our students decided to use this idea as an opportunity to reach out to fellow students. We filled our baskets with some good study snacks and school supplies and wrote notes of encouragement to fellow students who needed to be reminded that God loves and cares for them. The girls took their baskets back to campus and the stories have begun to pour in about how other St. Mary’s ladies were encouraged by what seemed to them like a random act of kindness.

 “If I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16

Winter Retreat 2013

Small Group Time

Last weekend, campus ministries from across the states of Indiana and Kentucky gathered at Camp Illiana in Washington, IN for this year’s Winter Retreat. We made the trip with 14 students from our ministry and had a wonderful weekend. Tom, one of our associate campus ministers, and a handful of students lead worship through music for a couple sessions and did a wonderful job. Our students were able to connect with other college students from different campuses and we even met some students who are from South Bend and excited to come hang out with us while they are home for the summer.

During the five-hour drive to the retreat, I had the opportunity to ride along with some ladies who are newer to our ministry and begin to get to know them better, which I thoroughly enjoyed since they are from campuses other than St. Mary’s. The focus of this retreat was centered on how to build deeper, more authentic relationships in the midst of our crazy schedules, long to do lists, and a culture that doesn’t always encourage this. On the drive home, we had a great chance to unpack this idea and discover some great next steps about how to live out the things we learned over the weekend.

I really can’t explain the importance of retreating and how weekends like this do so much to help us connect with students and challenge them in their pursuit of God. So many of you helped provide funds to cover travel expenses and registration costs for students who could not. Thank you for helping us provide this space for our students. You are making a difference in the lives of these students. I love partnering with you!