Retreat to Climb Upward

This past weekend, I reconnected with women from the Evangelical Free Church of Hershey, Pennsylvania where my husband and I attended when we were first married.  The ladies retreat was a rejuvenating weekend geared toward propelling women upward in their lives.

About seventy-five women, including young singles, moms, middle-aged women, and grandmothers embraced the weekend's theme: Thriving While Surviving.

From a feminine perspective, we talked about the walls humans face in life: problems with finances, children, health, relationships...  By looking at two biblical biographies, one about Job and the other about Ruth, we focused on the Lord's mercies in difficult climbs and his amazing, abundant, gracious provision for those journeys.

My Friday evening talk was titled "God's Merciful Rock Holds for Life's Steep Climbs"and Sunday morning I spoke on  "The Complete Equipment the Lord Provides for the Climbs of Life."

The retreat was held at Kenbrook Bible Camp in Lebanon, Pennsylvania about half an hour from Hershey  

 and was organized by Donna Nilson, director of women's ministries.  

Amanda Fletcher, the church's executive secretary for administration and discipleship, helped with logistics--printing handouts, coordinating publicity.

Karen Kennedy, an administrator in the worship and music department at the church, together with her team led the women in music and worship.

Joan Sproul (whose husband, Bob, is senior associate minister for music and worship at the church) played the keyboard, and her daughter, Gretchen, sang.  (Seeing Gretchen, now married and all grown up, was especially fun for me, because I taught her Public Speaking  at Lancaster Bible College  when she was a senior in high school, taking a college class.)

The summit of the weekend was communion on Sunday morning,

when we thanked the Lord for his death and resurrection, for it is because he lives, we can face the climbs ahead.