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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Talitha Koum! (Get Up)

Mark 5:41 Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, "Talitha Koum!" (which translated means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!").

"Get Up" was the theme of our Women's Retreat. I will never be able to describe or express what an emotionally, wonderful, moving time I had during the retreat. I went to the retreat with one of my best friends, Sarah. This in itself was a treat! We were so excited to have the chance to have some quality time together, away from all of our responsibilities. We had no idea what to expect. We came prepared with lots of snacks and games to have a good old fashioned slumber party. When we arrived, we checked into our FABULOUS room, dropped off our stuff and went downstairs for dinner. We met some really cool ladies at our table! One of which was pregnant with twins. I made a lot of new friends this weekend. Then we moved on in to our conference room for our first night or worship and fun. We sang songs, listened to our speaker, broke into small groups and ended the night by playing bingo. Let me tell you... even the shyest of women get pretty rowdy during a game of bingo!
We headed back to our rooms after 10 PM. Sarah and I got into our pjs and started out our evening by cutting my hair. I haven't had bangs in years and decided I wanted a change! Thank you Sarah for cutting my hair:) Then we put out a bunch of snacks on the coffee table, listened to music and just talked and talked. We finished our evening by watching tv in our most comfortable beds! Wow - they have really comfy beds!
The next day we had breakfast and then went back to our time of worship and praise. The message was all about true life and living a "truly" life with God while living your "true life". Our wonderful speaker pointed out that you never know what is going on behind closed doors, in every one's "true life". It is a challenge sometimes to live a "truly" life. At the end of the day, they welcomed people to stand up at the front of the room and share some personal stories. It was amazing to see the variety of experiences in our room. We listened to stories about recovering drug addicts, recovering alcoholics, financial troubles, extra marital affairs, loss of a child, suicide, cancer survivors and people living with cancer knowing their time is almost up... so many stories. So much crying! We started out as a big room of strangers (with some people knowing each other) and ended up feeling so close to one another. We laughed and cried together. The message was strong and we left knowing we had to go back to our "true lives" while striving to live a truly life. Again, I feel like i am not doing a good job of explaining the experience! There is so much more that what I am saying. I will just conclude my post with some pictures:)
Sarah and I

Jessica was there too! (Braedan's mommy) Isn't she pretty?



Check out our room. A living room area plus a separate bedroom. AWESOME!


The beds were so cozy.


We had an extra long lunch break on Saturday - but we were checked out of our rooms. So, Sarah and I went for a walk and found a coffee shop. We each had a latte and shared this little piece of Chocolate Heaven. OH my goodness, was it good.




Here is the conference room. We sat at round tables according to the color of ribbon on our name tags. This was so we could get out of our "comfort" zone and meet new people. Ironically, I was given a pink ribbon! I thought that was pretty cool. The ladies at my table were great - and I made friends with a woman that I have seen a lot of at my Church, but never really talked with until this weekend. When we saw each other again on Sunday, we hugged and talked for a while. So I say again, I started some solid friendships at this retreat!


The inside of the hotel.



Looking down at the atrium... the is where we gathered for all of our meals. In addition to the meals provided by the Hotel, each person contributed a snack, dessert or beverage which gave us LOTS of yummy treats! Yet Sarah and I thought we better bring our own snacks? Next year we might pack a little lighter:) We brought chips and dip, bread and butter, cupcakes, strawberries and chocolate... we never went hungry.


I am going again next year!




3 comments:

Courtney said...

Sounds like a wonderful retreat, I'm so glad you had a great time!

jennbecc said...

So glad you had a great time. :) How nice to have a sleep filled night! Your bangs look nice!

Angel said...

Sounds like lots of fun! :-) Glad you got to go.