Escape

On Friday March 20 and Saturday March 21, the Ottawa University Campus Ministries hosted their annual event called Escape.

The idea of Escape is to give college students a getaway and a refreshing of their faith. “It’s not just escape in that you’re getting away from your typical surroundings, but you’re escaping that typical routine,” said sophomore Jacob Martin. “You’re not going out with your friends on a Friday night. Rather you’re going to get to know God and strengthen your relationship with God.”

This year’s theme for Escape was commitment. On Friday, they provided the opportunity for students to come and worship, and had OU Alum Dr. Stanley Bettin speak about his faith and commitment to God.

They then held different stations to help demonstrate how one can commit themselves to God even more. It was truly enlightening.

Junior Garret Dragoo said he feels like as college students we have a lot of commitments but how full heartedly we’re committed to those things is what’s important. “Whether it’s a sport, a club, or school and then comparing those commitments to our relationship with God,” he said.

It’s a commitment to God himself and also realizing how God is committed to us. It’s a reflection on how God has followed through in different ways. “With everything we do commit to I think it’s hard for students to realize that the idea of committing to God doesn’t mean that they can’t do other things. By committing to God, they’re strengthening their relationship to him,” Martin said.

On Saturday, the students who signed up went and did community service. One group went to work with the people at COF Training Services Inc in Ottawa and the other went to a retirement home to work in the gardens.

The ministries organized this to take what they said and talked about on Friday night and put it into action the next day.

They want to shine light on the different aspects in which a person can become closer to God.

Junior and Student Body President Michael Jones said Escape, for him, is a time to reconnect, break away, refresh, and forget about all the chaos that’s going on in our lives.

Next year, campus ministries will be looking for a lot of student involvement and plan to continue to pursue and encourage students to commit themselves to God.

They hope to have a better turn out at next year’s Escape event.

To learn more about campus ministries, go check out and like their Facebook page: Ottawa University Campus Ministries!

https://www.facebook.com/OttawaUniversityCampusMinistries