This past weekend I worked at a retreat with about 220 high school girls who have just finished a program called Cherish. The purpose of the program is to learn that you are a child of God, cherished and loved, and you  have a precious treasure that is meant only for your husband.

Overall the weekend went great, for a lot of the girls this was there first time not at home. I had seven girls in my small group discussion, they were pretty shy at first, maybe one or 2 would even make full eye contact with me, but as the weekend went on and I began to share about my life they started to slowly open up. By the end of the weekend when I asked what they had learned and how they would apply it, all of them committed to abstinence before marriage or to restoring their virginity now until marriage.

 

Many came with burdens we cannot even imagine and left them at the foot of the cross.