Students and staff from the Globalscope El Oasis campus ministry in Santiago, Chile, enjoyed a challenging and inspirational retreat at the ocean in late May.

Lukas Fortunato, a member of the CMF Globalscope team, says that although they have been doing these retreats every year since 2003, “this retreat ranks up there with our best. In the past month it seems like lots of new students have been coming through these doors (at the campus ministry site) and staying and inviting their friends. As a result, this retreat had a lot of new faces, and a retreat is the best time to really begin to feel like you belong.”

The highlight of the weekend occurred on Saturday afternoon when the group gathered in a circle on the beach, sang songs, listened to some stories, read Scripture and then baptized three of the students.

“Rodrigo, Flavio and Jonathon left their old selves behind and came out of the water brand new,” said Lukas. “The Pacific got its name for being calm, but on Saturday, maybe it was excited along with us, because it was as choppy as we’ve ever seen it. But nothing would stop these three guys from completing this journey.”

The three young men braved the wind and waves and took a big step of faith, while the rest of their community applauded them from the shore. “This is why we do campus ministry,” said Lukas.

Students in Globalscope’s El Oasis campus ministry in Santiago, Chile, were challenged to become more aware of the needs of under-resourced people around the world during “A Week of Poverty” held in November.

Led by campus ministers Lukas and Danielle Fortunato, the group focused on five needs that millions of people face on a daily basis: the lack of clean water, food, clothing, electricity and a home. They kicked off the event with a special Bible study to present the theme, and then divided the students into small groups to discuss the issues in depth. The following week, the group focused on one of the needs each day. On Monday, they did not use any electricity; on Tuesday each student lived on only five liters of water. They gathered clothes to donate to others on Wednesday and fasted from food on Thursday, then took food out to the homeless that night. On Friday the entire group spent the day outside to simulate homelessness, then took the donated clothing to needy families.

Lukas Fortunato reports that the experience was a powerful one for the students and team leaders. “We had our Monday night devotional dinner by candlelight (no electricity), weren’t able to wash anything on Tuesday (no water) and had to hold all of our meetings and groups outdoors on Friday (no homes). We hoped these little discomforts would lead to action, and we challenged them to keep finding creative ways to respond. It was just one week, and just a small snapshot of the realities so many are facing, but it was a wake-up call to many of us and was definitely an inspiration to find ways to be part of the solution.”