The Exchange Retreat
“The Exchange is a place for American and international students to learn about each other’s culture—things like language, food, and tradition. I am so blessed to have gone. I met Emily who will always be there for me. She is not just a friend to me, she is my family. This program is memorable, and my favorite part was when we all played games together and sang around the camp fire.” -Asri June
What and Why
The Exchange is a three day two night retreat for International and American students to connect, have a vibrant cultural exchange, experience defining moments, engage in deep conversations, and start relationships that will continue for the duration of their time in Auburn.
This world is not our home. In Christ we are sojourners/pilgrims/foreigners in the world. As such we should love the physical sojourner/foreigner in our midst. This is a natural outflow of a life changed by the gospel, it is obedience to the Scriptures (Leviticus 19: 33-34,Exodus 23:9, Matthew 25:35, Romans 15:7, Hebrews 13:1-2), it is loving our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40), and it is simply following the “Golden Rule” in Matthew 7:12 to do for others what we would want them to do for us.
On top of that is our call as believers to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). At American Universities the nations have come to us and we have the opportunity to lead them to our Savior while they are in our country so they can take it back to theirs or to wherever the Lord leads them after college!
