God B In My Head
by Barbara Chadwick



What kind of stories have you heard about college students: College girls getting murdered in Aruba, students on Spring Break in Florida and Freshman Orientation at various Universities - sex orgies, drinking capers, shop lifting, devil worship, trying to out-speak each other with cursing, on and on ad nauseum. I was despairing of this tribe of animals!

Our six grandsons in college who are growing in Christ and ministering in His Name and 20 college students from the University of Northern Colorado have restored my faith in young people.

The 20 UNC students began arriving at our mountain home about 6PM on Friday; seven cars winding up the mountain road. After grilling hamburgers, lots of jokes and kidding they sat around on the floor, the stairs and few chairs to have a devotional time. They sang as *Robert and Greg strummed their guitars. Samuel read scripture and told of how God had become real in his life. Then they began looking for places to put their sleeping bags. Some had brought tents. I, a 69 year-old grandmother, and Kenneth, a 74 year-old grandfather, went on to bed upstairs.

At breakfast Julie shared her story of her first time of sleeping in the mountains in a tent: She got into her sleeping bag in her tent. Almost asleep she turned over, encountered a spider and started screaming. Paula jumped out of her tent to help and her tent blew away down the hill – (where were the stakes?). Then Bill tumbled out of his tent to take care of the situation.

After pancakes and fruit they sang together; Give us clean hands, Give us pure hearts. Let us not bend our hearts to another. O God let us be and generation that seeks, that seeks Your face O God of Jacob… David read Psalms 24:1-6 The earth is the LORD”S and all it contains…Who may ascent into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood…He shall receive a blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Thy face – even Jacob. (NAS)

Then they went on a three mile hike. At nine thousand feet. Came back and played games! Oh to be young again!

The name of this group was Christian Challenge and it was their Fall Retreat. As they interacted with each other and with us we heard:

As Mike led the devotional time this morning he talked about the hurt of his parents divorcing when he was 10 years old and how emotionally crippling that was. Through scriptures he showed how God began to heal his heart and how all of us can experience renewal in forgiving others as God has forgiven us.

Charles told of growing up in a non Christian home. His parents argued, cursed and were unfaithful to each other. When he went to college he met some friends who invited him to Christian Challenge where he learned about God’s love and forgiveness.

Doug and Danny told of adventures on mission trips to Indonesia and Africa to help others.

As they were preparing to leave I saw part of the message on Sara’s Tshirt – GOD B … I asked what the rest of the words were. She pulled the shirt straight out so I could see. GOD B In my Head. Sara said she wears the shirt because that is what she wishes for.

Sir Henry Walford-Davies wrote these words in 1559:
God be in my head and in my understanding
God be in my eyes and in my looking
God be in my mouth and in my speaking
God be at mine end and at my departing

Over and over this week-end we heard these sentiments from these college students. They voluntarily joined together to pray for God's Blessings on our home just before they departed. May their tribe increase!

*Names were changed