The Retreat...Finally

I haven't been in the mood to blog lately, but apparently telling my blog readers that I was going to blog about the retreat is making me feel guilty for not actually doing it, so here I am. Blogging about the retreat. I should warn you that this might be a little long.

Our speaker for the weekend was one of Bethany's missionaries. He and his family are living in South Africa but are home until July, so they came to speak at our retreat. Josh mostly works with youth, so he is a very dynamic speaker. He taught three sessions that were all about Cultivating Everyday Faith.

The first session was from Psalm 111 and talked about seeing God work everyday. We first looked at defining God's works from the psalm. We then looked at responding to his awesome works. During this session I was most convicted of how little I tell about what God is doing in my life. I will often talk about what I am doing for God (I went to church. I am going to Bible study. I served in such and such a way.) but I rarely talk about what God is doing in my life, which is so much more important (God blessed me by giving me extra rest. God answered this prayer that I have been praying about. Did you see the awesome sunset that God painted tonight?).

During the second session we looked at the life of Abraham, focusing on questions to cultivate our faith. Questions we asked were: Am I where God wants me? Will God protect me and my family? Will God provide for me? Does God keep His promises? Do I love God more than anything else? As we looked at Abraham's life we found that sometimes he had faith in these situations and sometimes he lacked faith, but ultimately, God called him a man of faith.

During the third session, we talked about how God controls the unknown future as we looked at the first chapter of Ruth. We looked at how to find hope in our present circumstances for the unknown future. We talked about how we shouldn't allow human logic to control the unknown future. And how to recognize that God controls the unknown future. Josh did an excellent job. I had to review my notes over the weekend so that I could better process what I had learned. And typing this has again helped stamp the information in my brain.

What else did we do at the retreat, you might be asking?

We ate. The camp food was soooo good. I was pretty sure I gained about 8.5 pounds. By the end of the weekend, I was eating more per meal than I normally do, especially for breakfast. My last breakfast consisted of two pancakes, two bowls of Fruit Loops, some juice, some bacon, a banana, and an orange. And I pretty much made myself stop there, even though I was tempted to eat another pancake.

We played. Organized games. Free time. Group games. The first night I even willingly (and joyfully) participated in the getting to know you game. Ask Kari, I even mingled like I was supposed to! We played Family Feud and Jeopardy. And we played some minute to win it games. During free time I was talking to the girls who were planning the group games. They asked me what I thought of wheel barrow races. I told them that I would not joyfully participate in that game. As a matter of fact, I would loudly complain and moan and groan about it! Luckily, they didn't make me play.

We slept. Yes, we did do some of this, I promise! The schedule actually allowed for more sleep than past retreats.

We rode in vehicles a lot. 3 1/2 hour trip both ways. On the way there, I rode with a new friend in her car because she had to come back early. I know what you're thinking...she got to listen to 3 1/2 hours of Teresa's stories because they were still getting to know each other! Wasn't she lucky! :) On the way home I was able to ride in one of the vans. And I didn't make the van driver stop for a bathroom break!

There you have it, the retreat in a nutshell! Well in Teresa's version of a nutshell anyway!