Retreat

Let me just say, the retreat was amazing!

God is truly amazing. He brought this beautiful vision to a very dear friend of mine a few months ago. At first, she was thinking it would be a good thing to do with our college girls. We would meet with them once a week for 6-8 weeks, and then end the whole thing with some sort of all day or all weekend conclusion. She presented the idea to me and asked me to be praying about it. About a month later, it evolved into something much greater...an idea for our yearly retreat. The two of us met with another woman (who I happen to co-lead my Tuesday night Bible study with), and we started hammering out some details. We decided to meet with the college girls for the four weeks leading up to the retreat...and decided to go over those same topics briefly with the other women on Tuesday nights.
As time went on, we divvied up topics and responsibilities we would each be taking care of. And before we knew it, we had our retreat planned out...as well as those four weeks leading up to it.
And the most amazing part about it? There's no way we could have come up with this plan on our own. God molded it and shaped it...as well as us...into this perfect plan that touched many lives.
The retreat itself was amazing. The first night, many of the women just opened up and let out some very personal things about themselves. Major walls were falling down all around us. The second day, we all took the time to identify the things that hold us back from living a life of complete discipleship with Jesus. We spent two hours of quiet time with our Savior (some of the women even went down and sat on the beach to do so). We made jewelry together and shared many laughs. And, we came together Saturday night to talk about the importance of carrying each other's burdens and encouraging one another. It was phenomenal. Women started encouraging each other and sharing their testimonies and just being real. We ended our weekend Sunday morning with a wonderful time of sharing some of the things God did in our hearts that weekend.

We worshiped together.

Prayed together.

Cried together.

Laughed together.

It was a perfect weekend that only God could have put together.

18 women, from all different walks of life, discovered how much we all truly have in common. 18 women realized just how much we need other women in our lives. And these same 18 women left that crazy house by the beach with a word from our Savior...and things we need to work on to walk more closely with Him.
I have heard some amazing things in the last couple of days from some of these women. Ways that God has been working on them in their daily lives. It is so encouraging to me. I am so thankful that I was able to share a little bit of my heart about encouraging each other and sharing burdens...but most of all...I'm thankful I was able to share many verses from Scripture that speak that very same message.

My heart is full of the goodness and grace of my Lord.

We all need fellowship with other believers. I am so thankful for the beautiful women He's put in my life...those that went on the retreat...and those that didn't. I'm also thankful for the blogger "friends" I've come across these past few months. I love that He uses so many different things in life to encourage us to walk more closely to Him.
What has God been teaching you lately? What areas is He calling you to work on? Who is He using to encourage you...and who might He be calling you to encourage?

Be blessed this week, blog readers, and open your hearts to the things God might be trying to tell you.