Women's Retreat 2022

On Sunday, I returned home from our second annual Women's Retreat and it was even more amazing than last year's. 

The weather was TOTALLY amazing. I love driving through here -- I always say, "Hey God!" because it never fails. He is always there and I know that I'll not be distracted and can meet him there.

I set up the snack table. I laughed and said that I've been making too many charcuterie boards . . .I even set up the snacks in a "charcuterie" format!

After we got everything set up and put together for the next morning, we watched Hocus Pocus outside on the big screen and some folks had s'mores. Anna Leigh taught folks to make a split in your marshmallow and put your chocolate inside before placing on the fire . . .and the chocolate gets soft and warm!

The retreat is actually from 10:00 a.m. Saturday until 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. We designed it that way so that mothers with small children could run away for the weekend. Most dads can manage the kids for 24 hours. Those of us on the team went up on Friday and we opened it up to anyone who wanted an extra night. We had a nice group for Friday night!

Some of the folks put together "welcome" baggies for each bed and distributed them along with a bottle of water.

Normally, I don't end up in any photos and I decided to put myself out there this weekend so I'm in a few more photos . . .along with some other craziness. Here I am in the middle with Laura R. on one side and Anna Leigh on the other. Laura was my roommate and I work with both of them.

After some worship music, Jesslan opened the weekend with her story. She is an amazing young woman. The weekend was about different women in the Bible and their stories and about our own story.

So I was in two different skits. This is so far out of my comfort zone but I ended up having so much fun. The first skit was a "showcase" sort of like a Miss America pageant. That is me right up front and center on that stage and I am a very old and very pregnant Sarah. I borrowed a grey wig and a cane and we tied a pillow around my middle.

We did a silly dance. On the far left of the stage is Eve - wearing her high heels, greenery around her neck, gardening gloves, and a hat. I'm next with the cane. The next two women are Naomi and Ruth and they have sheaves of wheat along with clothing to be worn on the threshing floor or field. You can't see the next two but one is Mary (of Mary and Martha) and then the one in the long dark dress is Esther. On the front right is Martha with her serving apron.

Here I am backstage. I've laughed about the maternity top and here I am a Bible woman in shorts. At one point, I said to my friends backstage, "I think God is laughing so hard right now." That is my favorite image of Jesus - with his head thrown back laughing.

The second skit was on Saturday night. Do you remember the TV show "Cheers"? This skit was based on Cheers. Martha was working at the bar (of course she had to be serving!). Eve came in and everyone yelled "Eve" and she proceeded to sit at the bar and talk about being in the garden club. She ended up with an apple drink of some sort. I was next and came in talking about how you shouldn't be that old and pregnant at the same time and how even water made me nauseous. I then ordered a ginger mule. As we each got our drink, we moved to the area in the photo above (the seating in the bar). We yelled each name as the person came in and then at the end we sang "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came. You want to be where you can see our troubles are all the same. You wanna be where everybody knows your name."

We sang songs. We did breakout sessions with small groups. We did interest groups which ranged from painting with either acrylics or water colors, foraging for fall wild flowers and making an arrangement, learning how to play Mah Jong, chatting with a pastor, hiking, walking, napping, yoga, etc.

Our late Saturday afternoon speaker was Debbie who is in our Sunday School class. Her muse was Priscilla and she talked about how we are all teachers. She has been a teacher for over 30 years and was able to apply that to our spiritual journeys. She also talked about being an encourager for each other.

Saturday night after dinner, we had mocktail hour with four different drinks. We then had our evening session which was a short Bible study on different women of the Bible. We looked for new things about different women and we talked about what we wish we knew about each of them.

We then picked out different ribbons for the different encouragers in our lives and tied the fabrics/ribbons onto key rings as a reminder.

Sunday morning started with a devotion and yoga by the lake which was optional . . .and I didn't go. It was actually cold both mornings which was a wonderful change. We then had a quick breakfast and headed back to the main building for our closing session. We sang some great songs and then my friend Laura spoke. This is a different Laura from the one I roomed with.

After her wonderful talk, we remembered our baptisms. I'm on the other side of the font with the turquoise sweatshirt jacket on.

We then celebrated holy communion together. I haven't really cried since the house fire/surgery/etc. and I'm going to be honest, I did a little weeping during communion. I laughed a lot this weekend and I cried which was much needed.

We served each other communion which is always powerful.

It was a great weekend! I will admit that I have been really really really tired today and should already be in bed . . .headed there now! I'm ready for next year's retreat!