Washington and Lee student members of the Generals’ Christian Fellowship attended the annual Winter Conference hosted Jan. 29-31 at the Hotel Floyd in Floyd, Virginia. This year’s meeting focused on discussions about multi-ethnicity and God’s purpose.

President of the W&L Chapter of Generals’ Christian Fellowship Jinae Kennedy, ‘16, said this year’s topic was important.

“God created people with multiple ethnicities. It’s a beautiful thing,” Kennedy said. “And it’s an opportunity for us to learn from each other.”

The conference hosted members from a variety of college campuses. In between speakers, students broke into groups to discuss racial and ethnic conflict, prejudices, and racial reconciliation from a Christian’s perspective.

Sarah Shin is a regional coordinator for the New England InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, with which the W&L chapter of GCF is affiliated. Shin spoke at this year’s winter conference.

Shin is a Korean-American from Boston, Mass., and coordinated a large group gathering to give her own insight to the students. This was followed by smaller group discussions, personal reflection time, and participation in worship.

Nathan Brewer, ‘19, said his experiences at the conference taught him to embrace his multi-racial heritage.

“I look White, but my grandmother is a Dutch-Indonesian immigrant, and that’s actually a huge portion of my life and culture that I’ve ended up burying,” Brewer said. “But I suddenly realized, ‘Oh, wait, this is actually a good thing.’ And that it was okay to embrace that side of me. I found a lot of healing in that.”

The Winter Conference will be happening again next winter.

“Everyone should go!” GCF Member Mariana Baird, ‘19, said. “It’s a fantastic time.”