Women's Retreat, Mar 16-18, 2007

This past weekend was our church's Women's Retreat at Camp Arnes. It was a wonderful weekend spent enjoying God's beauty through creation outdoors and his creation of beautiful women in our church. On the way out, Jess, Kristy, Steph and I decided to stop in Gimli for supper cuz by 6:00 we were all getting very hungry. We ate at this little diner (I can't remember for the life of me what the name of the restaurant was called) that had some pretty good food and VERY LARGE portions. It's a good thing we were all wanting to share the poutine because it was the biggest plate of fries I had seen. I would not recommend eating it by oneself, but rather share it.

The theme of the weekend was entitled "Finding God through Fairy Tales". I wasn't sure what to expect with a title like that, but it turned out to be pretty cool. I don't know if I'll be able to read a fairy tale like I used to. A lot of them hold much more meaning to them than what I initially thought.

Friday night's session was entitled "A Princess Party" and looked at some classic fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White. Then we were all paired off to dress up another woman (our princess) and we were the fairy godmothers. It was a very fun job. However, Lavonne, Catherine and I all did not have fancy dresses to put on, so we made do with whatever we had at camp. I had brought a tiera from home (we were asked to bring this stuff prior to the retreat, just so no one thinks that I normally bring tiara's and high heels to a retreat) and some high heels. Other than that, we had minimal materal to work with. But we came up with quite the princess dress for Lavonne in the end. We were especially impressed with her wand and skirt. The wand was a toilet plunger and her dress was a shower curtain.


"We desire to possess a beauty that is worth pursuing, worth fighting for, a beauty that is core to who we truly are. We want beauty that can be seen; beauty that can be felt; beauty that affects others; a beauty alll our own to unveil" (Captivating by Eldredge)

"Beauty is essential to God. No that's not putting it strongly enough. Beauty is the essence of God". (Captivating by Eldredge)

"You will be called my Delight...God delights in you...and as a bridegroom is happy in his bride, so your God is happy with you". ~ Isaiah 62:3-5

Friday night was a VERY long night. Our room was filled with the very loud noises of some snorers. So loud that some of us could not fall asleep. It eventually got to the point where Deanna and I just started to laugh out of the craziness and randomness of the situation. We ended up getting ourselves a little wired so we went downstairs to the meeting room to do some puzzling in hopes of making us tired. At this point it was 2:00 am. Puzzling did the trick and we became very tired, so instead of going to our room we went to the empty prayer room to fall asleep. Despite the lack of sleep, I can't remember a time where I have laughed so hard. Whether it be watching Deanna try and hop up the stairs in a sleeping bag or cuddling in bed just laughing. Deanna, you are a wonderful friend and I adore spending those crazy moments laughing with you. It has been far too long, even if it was in the middle of the night!

Jess brought these wonderful light up roses that we used as flashlights to find our way in the middle of the night. They came in very handy.

Saturday we looked through fairy tales which provided us examples of women of great strength through some seemingly "tough" times such as Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. We then looked at people in our own lives who have displayed incredible strength, whether that be ourselves or someone else. It's neat to see how God uses us and our "yucky" moments to bring beauty and joy to ourselves and to others.

Saturday night we looked at recapturing our childlike faith. That's a hard one for a lot of us. We get caught up in our busy day-to-day tasks that we forget how to trust and believe like a child so easily does. It is sort of like being tossed upon the waves in the middle of a storm. Everything around you seems to be crashing in front of you but then you receive moments of peace and rest when God reveals himself in all of His glory. That was something that really stuck out with me this weekend and that I need to be more willing to give up control in my life and give that over to God so that I may too have the faith like a child. There were moments throughout the weekend where I thought I should really be at home right now studying for my big exam, but a friend told me that God was delighting in my playing this weekend and it's so true. What could be better than playing in the presence of Jesus?

Saturday afternoon Aimee and I decided to give Louise a little makeover. She normally has very curly hair, so we straightened it. She look pretty hot hey?


So that was the weekend in a nutshell. It was a really good weekend spent with friends and other beautiful women in the church who I maybe don't always get a chance to talk with on a Saturday night.

"Fairy tales aren't about moralizing, they are about appreciating the mystey and the wildness of God-appreciating the beauty of the story and being terrified by it at the same time, about almost but not quite getting it, about appreciating and delighting in the wonder of Jesus".

(God of the Fairy Tale, Ware)