Colorado Retreat - Hope Guan (Class of ‘07)

Dear GLDI ALUMS!

Hello! This is Hope. I just wanted to give a testimony of the Colorado retreat.

A lot of us were very skeptical and unwilling to come to this retreat. I’m sure many of you can relate. We all had crazy and exhausting schedules and to fit one more retreat seemed just didn’t seem possible. However, by God’s grace 7 out of the 9 alums came. It was a very encouraging retreat.

Colorado is known as the “burn out” state in the realm of spirituality because everyone works so hard to plant seeds, yet it takes awhile for those seeds to be sown. Regardless, the alums all came to the realization that Colorado is the mission field that God has placed us in. The majority of the alums actually go to the same church, yet through this retreat, we felt God telling us in reality none of us have been serving in unity. We were heartbroken by this. Even though we learned at GLDI how Christianity is a community effort, we all reverted to the, “I’m alone in this walk” mentally- which has been very damaging.

Therefore, we made a commitment to reach out more, contact each other more and be more broken before each other. We all sense the urgency of uniting as one-to unite NOW, in order to be ACTIVE agents of change for our state. We are praying that Colorado will no longer be known as a “burn out” state, but a state where people come to witness the Holy Power of Christ moving because we are being His active hands and feet.

We hope that within this next year, we can change how we serve in our own churches. That we won’t serve quietly, but boldly with God’s full power. We hope to meet more frequently to pray for each other, our state, and the nations. We are also going to be more active in contacting other alums from our classes to find out how they are doing. So await a phone call or a text! We also hope to host a nationwide GLDI alum winter/snowboarding trip this December! We hope you all will pray for us and keep us accountable! Also, attend your retreats! You really, never know what God wants to share with you!

Your sister in Christ,

Hope