I got to get away this weekend to go to a women's retreat up in the mountains at The Cove. It is so beautiful up here. The retreat's theme was "Get away with God" so that is what I planned to do. God has orchestrated every part of the weekend so the theme could not be more fitting.
First of all, I had an amazing Godly lady pay for me to be able to come on the retreat. You see as a new church planter you don't always have an extra $300 dollars laying around so I didn't even think that I would be able to come this year and then this amazing lady came and told my sister-in-law, Patti Jo, that she would love to pay for me to be able to go on the retreat this year. I am praying blessings down on this precious, precious lady for allowing God to use her to bless me. I SO NEEDED THIS!!
The only other way that I could come was if someone could watch my kids. Josh usually hangs out with them when I need to be gone, but we only had one problem...he was out of town this weekend too. So my precious family stepped in to help. My amazing mom, my wonderful mother-in-law, my grandmother, my dad, Libby, and my amazing nurse took wonderful care of them this weekend. I'm not sure that DJ has even missed me because he has had so many people to play with and Dawson probably has had so many kisses that his cheeks are rosy red.
Well the next thing God had planned for me was to be able to be "filled up". You see, normally when I come on this retreat I am ministering to others by being on the worship team helping to lead worship. This time I couldn't make all of the practices with everything that was going on with Element, DJ's adoption, and Dawson's health issues so I had to not be apart of the worship team. Well I have really enjoyed just getting to sit back and soak up our amazing speaker Brenda Blankenship. That is another God orchestrated thing because guess what she is...a church planters wife and get this, in Spartanburg. God is just so cool like that! Well our first session was "When the Gangway becomes a Gangplank"(Trusting God on the Journey) All of these emotions came rushing in with her first point...God doesn't call us to easy. Hello, that was the very excuse that I used with God when he told us to plant, "God can i just have something easy?" She told us that some legs of the journey are sunshine yellow (like a job with an established church and an established congregation), some are midnight blue (Infertility, Dawson's health issues) (they also come on suddenly and come in bunches), and some are multi-hued (like various trials, all different). I felt as if she was speaking right to me and then she came with the refreshing words straight out of God's word in John 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." WOW!!
During this session I had so many things go through my mind. I am going to split this into two because this one is getting long but I will tell you this, during this session God gave me some very specific things that I needed and gave me something for a couple of our Element ladies. I can't wait to get back to share with them. I MISS YOU ALL MY SWEET FRIENDS!! I truly love where God has brought us and I know this is exactly where God called us. I love our city of Woodruff, the people of Woodruff, the people of Element Church, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for us as a church in the city of Woodruff. God is faithful and I Trust Him!!
To Be Continued...
