Read a Student’s Story from Reset Retreat

We recently held the first Reset Student Movement event of 2020 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania and we have so much to celebrate!

200 students from seven local churches came together for an entire weekend of community, campfires, fun in the snow, worship, sermons, and discussion groups. Over 100 students stayed after the concluding message to pray with a leader over pain they’ve been processing and three students came forward to dedicate their lives to Jesus.

One student shared a particularly heartfelt message on social media after her time at Reset Retreat, writing:

“I have a nerve tumor in my mouth/jaw area that is going to be removed. The surgery comes with a lot of potential nerve complications that could impair my speech and eating abilities. I have been so scared, and now I’m just counting down the days to surgery, which I have been dreading the most.
I went into the Reset Winter Retreat expecting to live it up with my friends. I was in no way focused on what would happen spiritually because I had not really been close to God much before this weekend. I would like to thank Jackson Garrell for his message on Saturday night about pain. His messages have always spoken close to the heart of me and my friends, but I’ve never had a big “spiritual moment.” Near the end of the sermon, he starts saying that you should communicate pain; no one should have to go through heartbreak alone, no one should have to go through mental illness alone, and no one should have to go to the hospital alone.
At this point, I broke down. It was amazing the sheer presence of comfort and love I felt from the Lord at this moment. I started breaking down, not realizing how scared I have been and that I have barely told anyone about any of it. No one knew that I was terrified about a major surgery scheduled 2 weeks from the start of that trip. I had been coping by making jokes and laughing the whole situation away and that just fell apart in there.
This is not a pity story, and not meant to be preachy, but I wanted to share my experience of the comfort and relief that I felt by finally reconnecting. It was not only me who broke down during the message, afterwards the entire room was filled with people praying together. I have never felt such a pure presence of God at a retreat. It was an incredible feeling that it was okay to break down about this. Sorry for the religious post but I wanted to share that God IS with you and is fighting for you and there to comfort you when you choose to have a relationship with him.”

This is what Reset is all about. Students are finding hope in Jesus and their church family. Teenagers are growing closer to God and each other. Families and schools in this community are going to be changed by students like this who are sharing what God did in their lives at Reset.

Thank you for your prayers and support that allows LFC to provide leadership, programming, and curriculum for Reset Student Movement Events. Every student left Reset Retreat with a Reset Devotional book in hand and stronger connections to youth workers who we’ve equipped with discipleship resources to turn this incredible moment into a movement.