Freshwater Retreat

Hosea 10:12 "Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, til he comes and rains righteousness on you."

The 2009 PEARLS retreat finally arrived! We had 21 ladies and two baby boys attend this year!
Once everyone found their room, we began our evening by filling our stomachs with great Chili, White Chili, and Chicken Noodle Soup with all the toppings and GREAT desserts! I can't think of a better way to begin:)

Our gathering time began with Felicia passing out packages of M&Ms (plain & peanut). Those who took plain later found out that they could only use 1 word to describe their self, while those with peanut M&Ms could use 5 words! Let's just say that it was hard for some to only say one word, while others had a hard time coming up with 5 words. It brought lots of laughter and warmed up the room (which you can tell by the pictures was a little chilly at first). During every session we spent some time in worship led by Heather H. & Stephanie. Thanks, ladies for taking care of the music.

Our speaker for the weekend was Wendy H. from Green Bay. Wendy's connection to RHC was partly through her son Peter who attended while he was in college. We were so excited to have Wendy come and share. She worked hard to study through the book (more than once), and did a great job expounding on some of the key topics. Wendy has a passion for studying the scriptures and teaching them to other women and it showed through the sessions she prepared. God used her words to share His truth to us.

The first session came from Psalm 69 and she titled it "Portrait of a Woman Who Seeks God". She broke the Psalm into 7 different parts describing a woman of God.
1. She seeks God as her salvation.
2. She is hated without cause.
3. She confesses her sin.
4. She cares about the spiritual welfare of other believers.
5. She knows and depends on the character of God.
6. She trusts God to be just.
7. While yet in trouble, she anticipates the salvation of God and praises Him for it.

After Wendy painted that picture for us we took a break, changed into our Bible costumes, played some crazy games and carved pumpkins (Check out the book The Pumpkin Patch Parable for a great teaching tool of salvation).
Those who dressed up (back row L-R):Wendy (Pillar of salt), Joy (Woman who killed Sisera w/ a tent peg), Rachel (Plague of Frogs), Julie M. (Martha), Abbie (Roman Soldier), JeriAnn (Rainbow), Maggie (Angel), Heather H. (Mary, Martha, Ruth...any woman in the Bible), Juanita (Peter)

Front Row: Lori (black socks = sin, red pants =Christ's blood, white shirt=washed white as snow), Julie J. (new man), Felicia (Nehemiah), Stephanie (Angel), Rhonda (Queen Esther).

Others who were there: Julie H., Dani, Karen, Heather R., Ellie, Jenna, Sue

Our first game was to represent "Freshwater" and was a water guzzling relay! There was lots of cheering and the one team won hands down with more people.

Next, the ladies carved pumpkins and boy were they creative.

This group was the winning group with their "Freshwater" pumpkin. They carved the clouds and then used toothpicks to hold the seeds or "rain" into the pumpkin. Pretty creative!

As everyone was finishing up carving, the ladies had the opportunity to try "bowling with gourds" ...

and seed spitting.

After a fun night, some sat around and chatted for awhile, but eventually everyone was in bed shortly after midnight! We all needed some rest to be refreshed for the day!

Saturday dawned cold, cloudy and a little windy, but the sun did eventually shine. We began with session 2: Discussion group on Humility. We divided into small groups and read through Luke 18:9-14 which is the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector. This is a great passage on humility and pride, and verse 14 summarizes the end result well..."Everyone who exalts himself will be judged, but he who humbles himself will be justified."

Session 3 was a quiet time on Honesty and "Two coverings". Genesis 3:6-13 is the passage where Adam & Eve realize that they are naked and hide from God then lie to God. Wendy reminded us that when we are aware of our sin we often try to cover our faults and failures on our own. Through this passage we see man's inadequate attempt to cover sin and God's adequate covering (Jesus' death). We also read through Psalm 32:1-5 which is a writing of David where he tired to cover his sin by keeping silent and this only caused "wasting away". When he acknowledged it before God then he became blessed because his sin was covered.

Session 4 was on the Holiness of God from Psalm 99. Wendy divided it into 3 sections...

1. Worship our Holy God (1-5)

2. Relationship with God (6-8)

See Ephesians 1:1-8

3. Learn to reflect holiness in your conduct

See 1 Peter 1:14-16 * Read scriptures with a God-centered perspective not man centered.

We talked about the character or work of God and man's responsibility.

Our last session of the day was on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. John 16:7 says, "However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say, it is profitable-good, expedient, advantageous - for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you - into close fellowship with you. But if I go away, I will send Him to you - to be in close fellowship with you." Amplified Bible

We went through the definitions of the words that are used to describe the Holy Spirit and it was a great reminder that God promises us that He will never leave us or forsake us and that the Holy Spirit is that promise.

This blog doesn't even begin to touch the tip of the iceberg of what happened this weekend. Everyone came with their own problems and difficulties in life. God never promised that it would be easy to follow Him. God did promise that He would always be with us and He was there at the Freshwater Retreat! It is up to us to hold our cup under Him, The Source, and allow His love to overflow from us keeping us full and never drained of Him!

Thanks to Wendy for teaching and for her friend Rachel to drive her down from Green Bay! Thanks to Julie M. for all of the meal organizing and thank you to all who brought food! It was a great time and am looking forward to next year!

Accessories Swap

Sexual Purity: The Joy of Moral Freedom
1 Thessalonians 4:3 "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality."

It was a very windy night, but a group of us gathered anyway to hear God's truth and to help rid our closets of unwanted items while others snatched up the opportunity to have something new.

We began our evening by sharing something that we are thankful for this year that we did not have last year. Since our group was fairly young with quite a few newlyweds, that was one of the common (yet exciting) answers! Others were thankful for new friends or new jobs.

Next, Julie M. led us in a time of being in God's word and reflection on how to stay pure whether single or married. She shared a story dealing with her & Craig's family and how an affair caused great harm to not just the couple, but to extended family, church members, and a close-knit community. A lot of the discussion focused on the "making it personal" part of chapter 10. A key point was that "Every Christian needs to be intentional about safeguarding his/her heart and mind against immorality." There were 12 principles for sexual purity that were discussed.

1. Recognize your potential for moral failure. (1 Cor. 10:12)

2. Realize that you don't have to give in. (1 Cor. 10:13)

3.Resolve to stay pure. (1 Peter 1:13-15)

4. Remove all bitterness. (Hebrews 12:15-16)

5. Restrain your fleshly desires. (Romans 12:14)

6. Reject anything that could lead you into moral bondage. (Proverbs 7:7-9)

7. Run from every form of evil. (2 Timothy 2:22)

8. Renew your mind with the Word of God. (Philippians 4:8)

9. Recruit help. (James 5:16)

10. Remember the consequences. (James 1:14-15)

11. Refuse to remain in defeat and depression. (Proverbs 24:16a)

12. Rely on the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:16)

Unmarried or Married, Satan still will try to persuade you that it is ok to disobey God's command on sexual purity. We need to stay in His word, be on our knees, and encourage one another!

The second part of our evening involved shopping!!!!! Juanita and Meliza did a great job putting together our accessories store! Thanks to all you brought in their unwanted jewelry, purses, shoes, and scarves for this event! I believe everyone had a great time browsing over the items and I even heard a few ladies doing their Christmas shopping! $44 was received to go toward helping someone attend the retreat and lots of ladies now have new accessories!

The evening finished up with apple pie and apple crisp with ice cream, hot chocolate, and hot cider! What a fun way to spend a windy and cold evening!

Heather and Ashley enjoy some of the yummy food!

Don't forget about the Freshwater Retreat on October 30 & 31! Registrations must be in by Sunday, October 25, but the sooner the better!

We will not meet in November because of the retreat being so late in October! Watch for details about Decembers gathering!

Spa Day!

Forgiveness: Setting Your Captives Free
Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

We gathered tonight for a "Spa Day" to relax, rejuvenate, and to set our captives free. What a challenge! If you have ever been held captive by not forgiving, then you know the burden and unrest that your soul has. Why hold yourself captive, though, when Christ has set you free?

Our evening began with "Silky hands" which was wonderful to feel hands soft and silky after a hard day of work. Then we went around and shared two services we would receive if we went to a spa. Most ladies would do a massage and a pedicure, but here are some that stood out (I'll probably mess these descriptions up)...

Laurie would have an earwax removal by candle.
Juanita would bath in chocolate:)

After we all started dreaming, we came back to reality with a devotional led by Karen on Forgiveness. This is a GREAT chapter...if you would like a copy, please let me know. Karen shared with us a quote from the opening story..."I realized that God takes all sin seriously an that for me to judge one sin to be greater than another was...well I was playing God. God is not partial, and He hated my sin just as much as He hated my husband's sin. I am a sinner saved by grace, nothing more. If I truly accepted who Christ is, then I had the ability to forgive."
Jesus shared the parable of the king who forgave his servant's huge debt, but then his servant would not forgive the small debt of his fellow servant. The king, in his anger, delivered the servant over to the jailers. "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." Matthew 18:23-35.
Joseph, too, Karen shared had to forgive his brothers. Joseph could have resented his brothers and used his power to harm them, but he remembered that God is sovereign over the hurts that were inflicted on him and that God used them for redemptive purposes...saving his entire family.
God has forgiven us through Christ's blood, we too should forgive those who have sinned against us. "To forgive is to set the prisoner free, and then discover the prisoner was you." Author unknown.

The Holy Spirit truly worked during this time at PEARLS.

Next, we set about rejuvenating our bodies (ok, our feet, but that works its way up our body). A woman is often on her feet all day, whether it is chasing after children, cooking meals, cleaning house, doing laundry, walking around the office, the list goes on... Our feet and our bodies get tired, so how about a little pampering! Karen & Felicia showed us how to pamper our feet. We headed out to the deck to enjoy the beautiful, yet chilly evening. As you can tell, Stephanie was a little cold, but we quickly warmed up with some really HOT WATER! The first thing we did was to soak our feet, but it took most of us a few minutes to actually submerge our feet because the water was SO HOT! Once in, though, it felt GREAT! Then "foot fizzes" were put in the tub to help us thoroughly enjoy the soak. After that we had to rub lotion on our feet, place them in plastic bags, and submerge them again. Once we allowed them to soak for awhile, we them put a foot scrub on them rubbing it in really well, and then rinsing it off in the foot tub once again. Finally, we were given another lotion to finish out the foot bath!
It was a lot of fun, VERY relaxing, and we now had silky hands and feet!

We topped the evening off with HUGE ice cream sundaes!

What a fun, challenging, relaxing night! I was very blessed by the evening and I hope many others were too! Thanks to Karen & Felica for sharing this great tip with us, and for Karen in allowing us to meet in her home! Also, thanks to all who provided food.

Our next PEARLS is Tuesday, October 6 at Felicia's home! This will be an Accessories Swap. More details to come! Hope you can make it!

As a reminder....PEARLS Freshwater Retreat is October 30 & 31...save the date! You don't want to miss an opportunity for God to work in your life!