Friday: So Nadia and I drove 2 hours (pitstop at CAVA in Bridgewater, Nadia said they did not fill the bowl to full like in NY) to Kutztown University, PA for our first retreat of Crossroads church. We arrive late at 9PM, as expected due to Nadia's work hours. So we missed the first large group session (The compelling love of Christ - 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, basically on double imputations) at 7pm, but I had read ahead earlier, I wonder what they talked about in breakup session at Rickenbach Learning Center. Got keycard (for Dixon Hall dorm entrance and code on card for dorm room door). Room 309A. Shared same suite with Elder J.S. (perhaps there's some wisdom in matching suitemates with couples of different generations) As for Teams, I'm on Pastor Jeff's team and Nadia's in Christina H.'s team. After checking in at dorm, Nadia went straight to bed while I joined the snack hour in community room 112. Chat with some college folks (John, Julian, Daniel), Sam and Tim. Went back to room, told awoken Nadia about the 김밥 (gimbap) and she had me went back down to first floor again to bring her some. It was crowded in Room 112 with about 40+ people I would say, then later to about 20 folks. Apparently the kids have a very separate program and some college kids help serve them without having anything to do with the adults side of program except for worship time (large sessions).
It's 12:41 AM Saturday now, and I can hear Nadia snoring as I type, so I'll study ahead the morning's devotion for a bit and sleep. They encourage unplug, so I printed out both me and Nadia, AI notes, 4 pages, to all large session devotions. Nadia and I both found the AI notes very helpful, especially during Team Breakout sessions.
Update 7/13/2026 Monday Nadia and I are obviously home now, since yesterday. But I will complete this entry from memory.
Saturday Morning, we had breakfast at the South Dining Hall with Dan and Helen. Both Saturday and Sunday Morning breakfast actually. Great time of sharing. Nadia certainly enjoyed talking to them.
I would have to admit that I don't find the large group sessions by Dr. Edwards any of interest. Very textbook. Despite having lively rhetoric. We were provided photo gallery and recordings of the sessions after the retreat via email so I stored them in my Photo drive, while the retreat brochure and notes in my Backup drive. I'll also move/store the Astronomy project (only the 2010 draft was 100% found, but the astronomy slides are incomplete as I tried building them from scratch) in the same backup drive under Crossroads folder. Astronomy project sides I did 16 years ago is likely lost, the Bible Survey and Apologetics slides I did for CCCNY kids also suffered the same fate. I wish I would have sometime to rebuild them.
During Group photo, Lois approached me about being an Ambassador for Christ for Nadia in encouraging her to pray publicly. My mind was miles away at the moment I simply smiled and nodded my head. But later I thought, the short answer could have been just "maybe public speaking is just not for everyone."
Then we had group game, called scavenger hunt, where they combined men's teams and women's teams into 10 teams with the respective matching team numbers. Daniel who's on my team was clever enough to answer most questions: riddle about library, pictograms of the book of Daniel, etc. I suppose every group figured out all the answers. After dinner (sat with Troy and the guys from Pastor Joe's small group from last season), we get to watch the slides of the scavenger hunt answer photos of all teams, before the large group session starts in Rickenbach Learning Center. They were mostly funny and rather creative. Troy's group won, must have been because of his bluemen group photo.
But before dinner, a bunch of us went to tour Crystal Cave, as we previously arranged. I slept through most of the beginning 15 min tour video intro. All I know about the tour is Stalactites and Stalagmites. Robin once tried to conveyed to me something about God's beauty in caves, I wasn't sure what to answer then, and couldn't really respond when she mentioned it a second time the next day after service. But thanks to her initiative in communication, I thought about it, the fact that I could only imagine God's aesthetic in caves to be not the pillars and columns of the caves but the understanding of the long process of their formations. Unlike Galaxies and Nebulae, where the beautiful colors are obvious. I even double checked this with AI: Beauty forged in silence. I wouldn't really call it beauty forged in silence, but the beauty of silent forging.
We saw some milky white stalactites, sparkling flowstone walls (water sheets formed by rocky walls), draperies (cave bacon - water minerals trickling down from ceiling creating wavy sheets that hang down like folded curtains), green mosses due to cave lightings. Too bad we were no longer allowed to touch it these "beauties". It was said that visitors were allowed to break pieces off and bring home as good luck souvenirs decades ago.
My team shared rather personal stuff during the breakout, Pastor Jeff, my team leader, always led the ending prayer. We never really went off topic (questions provided along with the large sessions, weeks before the retreat, another sign of Crossroads' very well organized mentality).
The last Large Group session and Breakout on Saturday night ends with a sort of prayer meeting. We take turns praying for the person to our right, in our own teams. Nadia did not like that. Pastor Dan gave the topics to pray for, which were relevant to the theme of the sessions ending with a less "selfish" prayer for Crossroads and her mission to reach the Gospel to the neighbors and beyond, which both Nadia and I concurred very much later when we talked about it.
I shared my thoughts with Nadia about this prayer thing. That it's a paradox. While I certainly would hate for churches to stop having prayer meetings or prayer groups, the reason I don't usually join these prayer meetings (if I have a choice, Nadia said that she would quit this segment if there's a next time and go to her room, I don't think I could do the same, unless we just leave the retreat at the time, like some, with the "reason" of having other things to do such as preparing for the Sunday Service in Somerville), is because of the lack of evangelism I sense as a whole in the group, which is not necessarily on the pastors, but I just don't get that good impression, not even from Crossroads, despite the fact that I sense Pastor Dan seems to have the desire for Crossroads to do better in that direction. I told Nadia that this prayer style of praying to the person to your right (or left) is just a method, therefore it could have good or bad value out of it. Just like Stephen Tong's praying in unison method, some people find it motivating, some people find it annoying and distracting. The only trick for me to go through this is to concise my prayer so noticeably short (I really don't care about judgment around me at this point) that it's really is like about a sentence long. That's how I would balance my principle of dealing with prayer meetings that I did not sign up for.
After Sunday service (sermon by Dr. Edwards), we lunched (with James and Henry), packed, checked out, and drove home (stopped by Starbucks), arriving home around 2:30pm. The whole trip takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Not too bad. I wrote in the survey that everything was great except that we need more interactive time with the speaker. I didn't put it down but I really didn't like the idea that Edwards just go back to his hotel every time he's done "preaching". I told Nadia that I think that if I were Edwards, I would insist on living with others in the dorms instead of hotel, even if all is provided. But that's just me. So I cannot blame the church for desiring to treat the preacher well, but I wouldn't accept this just as King David wouldn't accept the costly imported water from the well of Bethlehem his hometown. (2 Samuel 23:15-17). Members of this church are not just smart in general, but very caring or helpful for the church body. Johnny even heated a plate of Gimbap for me to bring to Nadia initiatively the next day after I had him helped me unlock the door to the fridge the first night, for Nadia. He's also the host of the group game, and who knows what else he did for the retreat. I'm sure many others assigned to the tasks served responsibly and caringly as well. Something for me to reflect upon.