Retreat

This last weekend was our church's first women's retreat in 2 years. Much has changed in the last three years - we lost our pastor to cancer, gained a new pastor, he was called away, and less than a year ago, God gave us another pastor and his family. So, our retreat was much different than they had ever been before. Our pastor's wife, Kathy, felt that God was leading our leadership to step up and teach at the retreat rather than have us bring someone in to speak. So, in January, we were given our "assignments" - I was asked to speak for a session on Saturday morning of the retreat. Our retreat theme was "Moments With Our King". Each session's theme was King of (kings/my mind/my heart/my soul) My session was King of My Heart, on the life of David. I have never taught something like this before, and it was quite intimidating, but I knew that God had been speaking to my heart about His desire for me to speak out to these women about what He would show me.

I studied here and there throughout the last few months, and then I really got down to it in the last two weeks. God spoke much to me, but it was very difficult to get it all in order and in notes to speak it. It didn't happen as quickly as I had planned. I was confident that God would do the work, I just needed to be faithful to what He asked of me. I finally got my notes in order, but they still seemed like so little to me. The Lord reminded me of a song, through Zoe (she simply brought me a little dandelion from outside), Dandelions, by Five Iron Frenzy. You can hear the song on YouTube by clicking here. I really felt like my notes were weeds! I continued to have faith that my Lord and my King would use me to glorify Him...

...and I am still blown away at His hand, at what He has done. Each of us who were asked to speak felt so inadequate for the task, but we all stood up in faith and our God certainly did the work. WHAT a blessing the weekend was! I am so honored to serve my King. I cannot express the joy and awe that I feel. I am brought to tears at the thought of what I have seen - at what He called me to be a part of as His servant. My God is amazing! My God is worthy of all honor and praise!

We had 60 women there. All but a handful of them were from our church body. Several were burdened by the enemy just to get to the site on Friday. I saw hardness that I have never seen - but they were there, God brought them there! OH, to see that hardness fall away...to see the release of burdens in so many women. To see the women all over reaching out and praying and loving and ... It was amazing! Here's a photo of most of us:



I am blessed to be a part of this amazing fellowship of women, of an amazing leadership team that works as a body to fulfill each task flawlessly - by the hand of our King. I had never been on the planning/serving side of a retreat, and I had no idea what my experience might be, what I would bring home from it all. I know that His word tells us that it's better to serve, but I so wanted to feel the same kind of refreshment as I had experienced in the past - would I? I knew that I would be blessed, but would it be as good as when I didn't have to work so much? Would I be exhausted by the end? Oh, how silly and selfish I was! What a joy to serve Him! YES, I was exhausted (I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep), but oh so refreshed and blessed! And the "work" was so very worth it all. My favorite part of it was seeing God's hand work in us, in His children. He is all power and wisdom and might. He is EVERYTHING!

For those of you who were praying for me...thank you for you faithfulness! The Lord answered mightily!

All glory to the King of Kings!!!