All roads lead to Billy Dillard.

If you’re a teenaged boy in Conway, South Carolina or have been in the past 15 or so years, chances are you know exactly where Billy Dillard lives.

The joke is that if you want to find Dillard’s house, just find a male teenager driving around in a truck and follow him.

“Eventually, you’ll find it,” Ken Land says.

Land is the spiritual director for the Coastal Carolina Chrysalis Community, which bears a name that has become synonymous with Dillard’s. You can’t say one without at least thinking of the other.

Chrysalis itself is a three-day spiritual retreat designed to enable youth to learn more about the Christian faith and experience the love and grace of God. Billy’s Boys began in about 1989 as a reunion group by Dillard and three boys who had attended a Chrysalis weekend.

The trio decided they would meet every week. At the time, Dillard didn’t really believe it. More than 400 boys later, he has been proven wrong.

“I’ve done it every week since,” he said.

Well, almost every week – and sometimes twice a week. Dillard said he always makes sure he’s home Thursday nights in case anyone either misses the regular Monday night fellowship or just wants to come by again.

The current group has about 18 to 25 attendees that come together to share and keep each other accountable.

“It keeps you involved, at least in some degree, in God’s work,” Dillard said. “It keeps it alive - at least flickering.”

Dillard went on his own weekend spiritual journey, the Walk to Emmaus, about five years prior to beginning Billy’s Boys. Emmaus is very similar to Chrysalis except that it is intended for adults. Both retreats are focused on New Testament Christianity and are designed for spiritual renewal and formation.

Dillard believes the great thing about Emmaus is that everyone is treated the same regardless of background, economic status or anything else.

“It doesn’t matter who you are,” he said.

Dillard said the attitude of accepting people where they are helps make Emmaus work.

“I think God fixed it that way,” he said.

Dillard believes Chrysalis is also an example in acceptance.

“You can see it better in the kids,” he said.

Chrysalis brings kids together that probably would have never done so on their own because of social differences.

Dillard perpetuates this attitude by welcoming anyone to Billy’s Boys. Although the majority of Billy’s Boys have attended a Chrysalis flight, it is not a requirement.

“How do you say no? Why would you say no?” Dillard asked. “I couldn’t do that.”

He believes Billy’s Boys has lasted because it lets boys forget about looking cool and but just be who they are.

“[Billy’s Boys] gives them a place to go and be themselves and gives them a place to go and be good and it’s okay,” he said.

Another reason for the popularity of Billy’s Boys is Dillard himself. He has no hidden agenda and truly loves being around teenagers.

“Everybody loves ‘em, but not everybody likes ‘em,” he says.

Dillard does like them and says the boys keep him young, involved and interested.

“They’re good for me,” he said.

The First Leg

Rick Gaskin of Pawleys Island chaired the committee that brought the first Chrysalis weekend to the coast of South Carolina. At the time, his wife Terry was the lay director for the local Seaside Emmaus Community. The couple had been getting requests from parents whose lives had been changed after attending an Emmaus weekend. They wanted a similar experience to be available to their teenagers. Hence, the first Chrysalis flight took place in 1988 in the gymnasium of First United Methodist Church in Myrtle Beach.

Rick Gaskin says teenagers have responded well to Chrysalis because of the atmosphere.

“It was okay to talk about anything,” he said. “It was a place where they felt they could ask any question and not be judged by it.”

A Trip From Mind To What Matters

Scott Harrelson went on that first Chrysalis retreat held in Myrtle Beach when he was a junior in high school in nearby Conway. The 32-year-old says he came away from the retreat understanding more about the essence of being a Christian. Although Harrelson grew up in church and was always a believer, Chrysalis took his knowledge of the Bible to a more personal level.

“It kind of shifted by faith and beliefs from the head to the heart,” he says. “You realize the amount of love Jesus put out for you and has for you.”

Harrelson says the three days away from the pressure of work and/or school allows you to be in a worry-free environment. That atmosphere creates a setting where people are free to be in true fellowship and say the good things they know they should be saying, but outside influences somehow prohibit them.

“You here it there,” he said.

A Lighted Path

Rosalie Bellamy had no interest in attending an Emmaus weekend. She had always been a faithful churchgoer and didn’t see why she needed a spiritual retreat.

“I thought that I was just Miss Christian,” she says.

She also didn’t want her children involved in Chrysalis and feared it was a bizarre cult.

“I was sure it was the Moonies,” she said.

However, one of her daughters did attend that first Chrysalis weekend held in Myrtle Beach and returned with results not resembling that of a cult.

“When she came back, she was different,” Bellamy said. “She was a different child.”

That convinced Bellamy to give Emmaus a try. She’s been hooked every since.

“It was like my mind renewed,” she said after her 1988 retreat. “You just started looking at things differently.”

Although she didn’t learn any new information, she was deeply impacted and continued to grow and mature in her faith. Bellamy said a turning point of sorts came shortly after Hurricane Hugo hit the Grand Strand.

She and her husband Bill were members of a golf club at the time that was asking for $2,000 from each of its members to make repairs to its course. During the same period, their church was in need of substantial repairs to its roof. The couple was just about to give the money to the golf club when they were hit with a revelation.

“All of a sudden, a light bulb went off,” she said. “All of a sudden, (I decided) I don’t care about this.”

The 60-year-old says the Walk to Emmaus really brought the Biblical story in the Gospel of Luke to life for her and her husband. The story begins…

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

Luke 24:13-16 (NIV)

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

Luke 24: 28-31(NIV)

Bellamy believes she and her husband’s eyes were opened because of their modern-day trip on the road to Emmaus.

“I guess that’s really what happened to us,” she said. “It was like we saw Him in action. We just saw it in the love of those there.”

In addition to continuing to stay involved in Emmaus functions, Bellamy also leads a girls’ Chrysalis reunion group called Beach Butterflies.

“They are absolutely precious,” Bellamy says. “[We] have breakfast and talk about how we’ve seen Jesus this week.”

Each of the Bellamy’s three children have journeyed through their own Chrysalis, which gives their mother a sense of peace and contentment.

“The seed has been planted. They know Jesus…They’ve met Him,” she said. “You just know they’re gonna be all right.”

The Rhythm Of The Flight

Twenty-four-year-old Scott Johnson received his call to the ministry on a Chrysalis weekend during the fall of 1997.

“Chrysalis has been one of those mile markers in my life,” he said.

A lot has happened since then, including a three-year round of preaching at three separate Sunday services at three different churches. He is now a student at the Emory University Candler School of Theology in Georgia. He is seeking a master of divinity degree to pursue work in the area of adolescent pastoral counseling.

Johnson’s own weekend retreat was about two years prior to his call. He has served as a leader on about a dozen or so teams since then, usually in the area of music, which plays a huge role in the weekend. Ask any of the kids and they’ll tell you, Johnson’s the man with the music.

Johnson says while much of the talking done at the weekends is meant for individual reflection, the music is designed to build community.

“Music is a corporate action,” he says. “Music is that one thing that has been the common theme and brought them together.”

Johnson says one of the best aspects of the weekend is the seclusion from the outside world and that being set apart for three days makes Chrysalis effective in reaching people. He believes it’s easy for people to get complacent when they get too busy. He says a spiritual getaway helps participants “take their eyes off the world and put their eyes on God.”

Johnson calls Chrysalis a good opportunity to review and renew faith.

“It’s Christianity 101. It’s a refresher course for Christians,” he said. “It never hurts to be reminded of where we came from.”

Johnson also says the weekend is not a magic formula, but that it does give people a chance to take time out for God.

“You could never go wrong with that,” he said.

The Journey To Grace

The Rev. Dr. Jeff Dunn agrees with Johnson.

Dunn believes he may have learned more on his three-day Walk to Emmaus during his late teen years than in his four years of seminary and three years of studying for his doctorate. The current pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in Myrtle Beach says Emmaus gives people the basic goal of the Christian life – to love God and love people.

“It just made it real simple,” he said. “It’s like a 101 course in Christianity.”

Dunn says Jesus was a simple communicator and the Emmaus experience focuses a lot on God’s straightforward gift of grace.

“It’s hard for us to just accept a free gift,” Dunn says. “We have a tendency to believe we need to do more to feel worthy. In reality, it’s all about what He’s done.”

The Greatest Race

In going back to the beginning, we come again to Ken Land, the spiritual director of the Coastal Carolina Chrysalis community.

Land says so many negative things are competing for a teenager’s time and energy. He says today’s teens face tough decisions on a regular basis. He believes we deceive ourselves to think otherwise.

“This secular world is gonna put its stamp on ‘em,” he says.

Land says if teens, or people of any other age group, are told they’re worthless enough times, they’ll start to believe it. Efforts like Chrysalis, however, tell people the truth.

“It doesn’t matter what the world says about them, it’s what God says,” Land admits.

He says virtually everyone is searching for something, but many haven’t found out what it is.

“I know I’m hungry, but I don’t know what I’m hungry for,” Land believes we all say at some point.

He says finding out that only God can satisfy that hunger is the key to unlocking the good life.

“That’s the coolest thing there is going,” Land said. “That’s just the best thing in the world.”

The Final Destination

It really is the coolest and best thing out there. And Land really does complete the circle.

Not only does this story begin and end with Land, so does my personal experience with Chrysalis and Emmaus retreats. Land was the spiritual director for my Walk to Emmaus in May of 1993. It was held in the low country region near Summerville, S.C.

In reviewing my notes from an 11-year-old talk Land gave about God’s grace, I realize I can’t really remember any of the specifics. I’d like to say he wowed me with his words, but I can’t because I can’t remember.

But what I do remember is the atmosphere and attitude of people who were there, including Land. I remember it was the first time I ever felt complete acceptance from those of the “church” crowd. I remember it as being the start of a new life. I remember it as the weekend when I became a Christian.

That’s what I remember.

Written by Tina Anderson. Used by permission. Reprinted from GoodWorks Magazine. Copyright Page Publishing. All rights reserved.

Anderson can be reached at .