UNLV group holds leadership retreat in Overton

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A group of 15 students from University of Nevada, Las Vegas spent part of last weekend in the Moapa Valley at a special two-day retreat event.

This visiting group was the leadership team of the UNLV chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, an interdenominational Christian campus ministry.

Hosted by the Lake Mead Baptist Church in Overton, the group spent the time planning activities and initiatives for the upcoming spring semester, honing their leadership skills and recharging their spiritual batteries. They held planning sessions, had time for personal reflection, did team building activities and even took a hike at nearby Valley of Fire State Park.

The group’s advisor Joseph Litto has spent nearly 20 years as an InterVarsity staff member, nearly 10 of that at UNLV.

Litto explained that InterVarsity is a national organization with around 700 chapters at college campuses across the country.
“Our goal is three fold,” Litto said. “First it is to love God. Second is to reach out to our University community. And third is to develop a generation of world changers.”

Litto said that InterVarsity is an entirely student-led organization. His function as advisor is just to add support to the students as needed.

The group organizes and coordinates regular bible studies with small groups on campus, holds prayer gatherings and plans weekly events called Encounters which are larger group gatherings which include worship, study and fun activities, Litto said.

Moapa Valley resident Dana Utgard, who has been an InterVarsity member for three years now, also serves on its leadership team. She and her family had coordinated the event being sponsored at Lake Mead Baptist.

A senior at UNLV and an active member of the Lake Mead Baptist church, Dana said that she had come to the University three years ago with a craving for Christian fellowship.

“I was at CSN before and I felt a little disconnect there,” Dana said. “There were no Christian peers there. So I came to UNLV looking for Christian groups and I found InterVarsity.”

Dana said that she valued the opportunity to have religious discussion in an inter-denominational settings where there may be disagreement on some of the details but a general agreement on the big picture.

“It is just a very cool safe place for expressing different ideas and then, at the end of the day, we are all still family,” Dana said.

Another member of the leadership team, Nick Dudgeon, grew up in Las Vegas and has never travelled far from there.

Nick admitted to being a “city boy” at heart. He said he had enjoyed his stay for a couple of days in the more open space of Moapa Valley. But he preferred the amenities of city life.

“The quiet simplicity of small town life is attractive,” he admitted. “But I just really like to be able to go down the street and eat at In-N-Out whenever I want.”

Nick said that InterVarsity had changed his life in many ways. When he first met Litto on the UNLV campus in October of 2018 he was an atheist, he said.

“But it was really good talking to Joseph and he really showed me a lot of love,” Nick said. “I started going to their meetings and for the next few months received a warm welcome in the InterVarsity community.”

Nick attended a special InterVarsity camp at Catalina Island in California in the spring of 2019. He said it changed everything for him.

“It was there that I had my big moment,” he said. “I was drawn to being a Christian and made a full confession of my faith.”
Nick has been on the InterVarsity leadership team since last fall.

“Being a part of this has filled me with peace knowing that there is One who knows and understands me,” Nick said. “Knowing that there is truth that exists and that I don’t need to struggle anymore to find it.”