I love it!
So, I decided to devote my entire blog post today about Weekend 31 - the Fall Women's Retreat of Journey Christian Church.
The retreat was held at the Solomon Episcopal Retreat & Conference Center located in Loranger, Louisiana on November 12-13, 2010. For our last session - we met in this beautiful chapel!
We had a WONDERFUL leadership team who started planning way back in the summer. This retreat and these ladies had the hand of God upon them from the very beginning. We knew we wanted to have our retreat at this specific location... however, the earliest opening for our group was 2013!
We met & prayed and within days they called to announce a cancellation! And so it began!
WEEKEND 31 is based completely on Proverbs 31 and the entire weekend was centered around what we read about this wonderful woman!
Our t-shirts were purple - from verse 22, "her clothing is fine linen & purple"
Our table decorations in the conference room had purple table runners with little lanterns on each table - from verse 18, "her lamp does not go out at night."
Surrounding the centerpieces were red & white "jewels" from verse 10, "her worth is far above jewels."
The leadership team had special things for each & every lady from the moment they arrived - in order to make everyone feel special & loved.
As they arrived at the conference center each lady was given a personalized embroidered retreat bag - with all kinds of fun goodies inside.
Then... as they signed in at the registration table they were given a uniquely designed name tag & a t-shirt.
When they found their room - each lady found a scrolled "welcome letter" along with a diamond shaped purple cookie on their bed!
Friday night was all about how we, as women, were created to be beautiful! Mainly because we are created in the image of God - and the Bible is filled with descriptions of the beauty of the Lord.
Friday night we had a wonderful time around the bonfire! We sang songs & one of our seminary students led us in a very insightful devotional!
Saturday we dove right into Proverbs 31... with a new twist!
The entire retreat was designed to dispel any thoughts that this "woman" is fictional or unattainable - but rather... not only is she attainable - but God created us to be this woman!
We can be
godly, energetic, wise, graceful, active, trustworthy,
profitable, industrious, watchful, influential
content & confident!
....Just to name a few
We covered a little history of this great chapter...
Solomon is known to have written most of Proverbs. In fact, Chapter 31 is no different. It has been said that "King Lemuel" is in fact, King Solomon. Verse 1 of chapter 31 tells us these are the words of the King's mother. This means these are the words of Bathsheba!!!
The key message of the entire weekend was this...
When a precious jewel is found in nature, it is no where near ready to be made into the jewelry we wear. There are a variety of processes which first must be applied to this precious stone. The first one is removing, knocking off, or cutting away the rough limestone or marble that has grown around the stone. Once the stone has been cleaned it then must be faceted. But the need for these processes doesn't make this jewel any less valuable. It doesn't make it less a diamond, or a ruby, or a sapphire - just because it's dirty on the outside.
We are much like this jewel - actually we're better, because verse 10 says that we are worth more than jewels. But sin has entered our life and has covered our beauty. Sin has covered our ability to reveal just how valuable we really are deep down.
God has made us to be a treasure! We only need to clean up a bit - by applying the characteristics of this godly woman to reveal our God-given beauty!
This retreat covered the first process - "knocking off the rough" - part II will be "building the facets"
A special thanks goes out to my husband and one of our deacons for helping with the sound & lights all weekend! What a team!
A special thanks goes out to my husband and one of our deacons for helping with the sound & lights all weekend! What a team!
I can't wait until next year!!!
Here is a slideshow of our time together!
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