2014 Women's retreat from Covenant Church.

 The Women's Retreat for my church was this last weekend. The Retreat was held at Lake DeGray lodge near Arkadelphia.  The folks there were outstanding!   The weather was very iffy. We had snow predicted for Friday night.  My goal was to make it down before the snow hit LR.  Above is KimT at the registration table.

My job for the retreat was to pray.  I was given a list of all the ladies that were planning to attend so I could pray for them.  As I was looking at the list, I realized that 9 mother/daughter combinations were on the list.  How cool is that?!?  A beautiful picture of Covenant theology in action.

 One of the mother's attending was my friend, Maury.  Maury and I met 28 years ago when we both lived in New Orleans.  We both attended the same church.  They were in New Orleans for her husband's medical residency.  Maury and I always shared lots of laughs.  Now her daughter, SaraM, and her husband, Hess, are doing their residencies here in LR!!!!!!  What a small world!  SaraM and her husband go to church with me here in LR.  SaraM brought her mama to the retreat.  It was so much fun to catch up with my friend, Maury this weekend.

After our session on Friday night we gathered to watch the snow fall.  It was beautiful.  Several ladies weren't able to make it down to us because of the snow and we were snowed in at Lake DeGray.  Several of the workers couldn't get in on Saturday morning but the staff that could get in took great care of us!

One of the many benefits of being snowed in was the wonderful visiting and laughing that went on because no one could go off site.  I sat by the big fireplace and visited with lots of folks.


 I am sad to say I don't have a picture of our speaker, Denise Richardson.  If you ever have the opportunity to hear her, I highly recommend it.

Here are a few things I learned about Rahab from the book of Joshua from our speaker-

-Denise wondered if Rahab was southern because all her family lived in the same town! ; )
-Rahab's evangelist was the Holy Spirit
-She had a choice between the spies or the soldiers both decisions could have led to death for her
-She looked at the soldiers and lied, just like the midwives with Pharaoh
-She hid the spies in her everyday work, all women spun flax-
-The sign for the spies was a red cord, like the blood on the doorposts in Passover, like the blood of Jesus, that is what saved her
-Did she marry a spy?
-After her story in Joshua we don't hear about Rahab again until we see her name in the genealogy in Matthew.  She was the mother of Boaz
-God is writing His name in your situation.  She said that we need to pray that God will write His name Big
-The best you will ever look is in front of you
-We need to hid God's word in our daily life, just like she hid the spies in her everyday life
-We are trained to not wait here in America but Rahab may have waited for the army of Israel for 6 weeks!  During those 6 weeks did her family ask her over and over and over again why were they all staying in her house.  As she told them over and over did that firm up her faith?  No one in her family told on her to the soldiers.
-Affliction is too much or too little of anything- this is a quote from Edith Schaffer
-Did she look out the window at the red cord for the spies?
-Did she and her family ride the wall down when the wall fell?
-Who else was shut up in a closed place waiting on God's deliverance - Noah in the Ark
-Pray that God will give us more opportunity to be obedient
-If you could bend yourself, there would be no need for Jesus to come, God bends you, satan tried to break you
-Your life is a visual aid to those around you
-Don't try to not have human feelings, Jesus didn't go to the cross skipping
-The story really isn't about Rahab but about God
-God saved Rahab not just from death but into a new family, culture and place to live.
-Rahab didn't know until she died that she would be in the line of Christ.
-She also didn't know that her daughter in law would have a book of the Bible telling her story.
-Was Boaz more open to Ruth the Gentile because his mama was a Gentile too?
-Rahab took care of her whole family, did she pass that on to Boaz and did he like that about Ruth?

ReneeR was our wonderful MC.  She did and amazing job!  Below she and Emily are giving away some door prizes.

 LauraL organized a flashmob during lunch on Saturday.  It was fantastic.  It was fun to see the looks on the ladies' faces when a small group just got up and started dancing!!!!  I was in that small group!  {Afterwards I kept saying that we did a flash dance, Kaitlin quickly corrected me, for which I am thankful}

 On Saturday evening we had a wonderful singing service.  It was very moving!  I was in the back praying during this service.  I had a bird's eye view of our group.  Several ladies were moved to tears and how beautiful it was to see friends offer comfort in the form of tissues and hugs and enveloping them in their arms.

 Saturday night was also BUNKO!!!!  I loved hearing the laughter, the screaming BUNKO, and all the smiles.  Prizes were given for most loses, most wins, and most BUNKOS.  After BUNKO there was some impromptu dancing, and those that were dancing know who.  I haven't seen the video yet but I have heard about it!

On Sunday morning after our last session we gathered our things and hugged and departed for home.  Our speaker told us all that what to expect when we got home.  She told us all to pick up supper on the way home, to expect carnage and that we would need to start three things, the washing machine, the dishwasher and the vacuum cleaner as soon as we walked in the door.  She encouraged us to listen to all that our families had done while we were gone and that maybe by Monday or Tuesday we could share our stories.  What wise advice!

It was a great retreat!