Operation Dominate
Frisbee Tournament
AKA Fall Fellows Retreat
Mission: Fellowship and Edification (and play some serious
Frisbee)
Location: the beautiful Camp Oakhill
Time of Occurrence: 7 November- 9 November: 2014
Theme: Justice-- Micah 6:8
Status: Completed
Results: SUCCESS
Earlier in November, the Raleigh Fellows had the opportunity
to hit the road with the Crutchfield family and head to Camp Oakhill in Oxford,
North Carolina for the annual Fall Fellows Retreat. The weekend was amazing.
For starters, we got to meet the other Fellows groups! As you can picture, it
was wonderfully awkward at first then incredibly fun and interesting. It was
nice to get out of our Raleigh bubble, meet all these incredible people, and
remember how big and widespread God’s kingdom is. The other Fellows programs are all over the
place and more are popping up each year, what a cool testimony in itself. As we
were taken out of Raleigh, we were able to hear and see what God is doing all
over the States. Then to top it off, we were taken out of the States and
mentally transported to India when we spoke about the abolition movements
there. Talk about broadening your horizons. The focus of the weekend was Micah
6:1-8 and specifically about God’s call “to act justly and to love mercy and to
walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8b).” I personally have heard sermons and
conferences on justice many a time, yet I gained fresh perspectives on justice
and great insight from the weekend. We had the privilege of hearing from John
Richmond, a passionate follower of Christ, previous director of IJM’s slavery
work in India (aka a man risking his life to free slaves), and now federal
prosecutor serving as the Special Litigation Counsel with the U.S. Department
of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit. He was a truly great speaker
and story-teller, and what he had to share about Micah 6:8, his personal
experiences working with slavery in India, and now in the States was 100% a
blessing and 100% convicting.
As you can see, we learned tons and talked about some
difficult topics. We also had a ton of fun and got to be silly and ridiculous
(a Raleigh Fellow specialty as the other groups learned quickly). We made a
camp fire, played corn hole, took crazy golf cart rides, took walks around the
camp, jump-roped, etc. Saturday afternoon was the infamous Frisbee tournament
that our lovely and talented director, Ashley Crutchfield, looks forward to
every year. There is this wonderful, playful (yet actually semi-real) rivalry
between the Raleigh Fellows and the Trinity Fellows in Charlottesville, VA.
Lets just say that they often beat the Raleigh Fellows in this highly
competitive tournament. Let’s also just say that the Raleigh Fellow’s class of
2015 does not mess around and we brought our A-game. We beat Trinity 15-2 and
it was a highlight of the weekend no doubt.
We also just had a really great time working together as a team,
encouraging each other and sharing together in victory and loss. The weekend
was short, but super sweet for sure.
Over and out.
Kelsey Riggs.
If you could live life in reverse…if you could undo past things you have said, done or left undone, what would you undo? This is the question we will consider this Sunday as we delve into one of the most famous songs in the Bible, the Magnificat, sung by Mary as she joined her cousin in celebrating God’s favor in choosing her to be the other of Jesus the Savior. The Magnificat has been called “the most revolutionary” of passages in the Bible. The words celebrate a great reversal engineered by God. 
