My Retreat Experience: Areen

“Something like this had never happened to me…This was the first time I felt Jesus really touched me.”

Areen (3rd from right), a Bethlehem Bible College media alumni and 1st year BA in Biblical studies shares her experience at Bethlehem Bible College’s retreat in the Galilee.

The Student Retreat was a great time to build our Bible College community.  While I was there, I really felt like we were all one big family.

The best part for me, however, was the prayer meetings.  Each night, after our first prayer meeting, we had the chance to stay afterward and join prayers led by Saman Rafidi. You could sense the strength of his relationship with God.  During one of the meetings, I asked Saman to pray for me.  While he was praying, I suddenly felt someone physically lifting my arms.  I was so scared!  Something like this had never happened to me, but Saman told me that this meant Jesus was here in the room with us.

Since I started studying theology at the Bible College, I have felt God’s presence more and more each day.  This, however, was the first time I felt Jesus really touched me.  Now I feel God even more.  He is with me each day and I am moved to pray more and more to keep my relationship with Him strong.

Before the retreat, I would pray only during bad times, but these few days showed me that I must pray all the time, in good times and bad.  Now, I feel very encouraged in my relationship with God. I feel blessed and full of grace that my relationship with God is now strong.

Although I’ve heard it before, I have now fully realized that “God is good all the time.”