By Maureen Smith

College students play an ‘icebreaker’ game with marshmallows as part of their fall retreat at Tishomingo State Park the last weekend in September. (Photos by Dawn McGinley)

TISHOMINGO – Three dozen college students from Mississippi State University and the Mississippi University for Women spent the weekend of Sept. 30- Oct 1 in Tishomingo State Park participating in the campus ministry fall retreat. Father Rusty Vincent, diocesan coordinator for college campus ministry, planned the weekend around the theme GPS, guidance, purpose, sent.
“The way myself and the team came to the theme was a discussion about many of the students need help finding direction in life,” explained Father Vincent. “Guidance was about discernment and how God is seeking to guide us in our lives. For purpose we divided the students into men and women, and we had talks about who we are and how that comes together with our discernment.”
“Being sent was meant to show that once we get clarity with our purpose, we are called to go into our world and our lives and share that joy with others,” he wrote in an email to Mississippi Catholic.

More than 30 students participated in the retreat with the theme GPS, guidance, purpose, sent.

He said the retreat team was hoping the students would consider the idea of discerning God’s will as they make decisions about their next steps in life. Dawn McGinley, coordinator for campus ministry at Mississippi State, said she feels blessed every day to work with Father Vincent and was excited to present the retreat.