This and That....About Women's Retreat!

I'm sharing today about a special group of women that I am lucky to know. In fact, I spent the weekend with these powerful women enjoying our annual Christian Spiritual Retreat. We go on retreat about this time every year to a retreat center about an hour's drive from where we live. Sometimes it's September, sometimes it's October, but whenever we get together we enjoy so many special times.  Here's an overview of some of our fun!

Communal meals are a big part of our weekend. We're wearing party hats because our theme for the weekend was "Happiness" and we wanted to have a happy, party-like atmosphere. 

We work as partners and each cook team takes responsibility for preparing and serving one meal during the weekend. Here a cook team is happily working in the kitchen.

All of the meals were AMAZING, but I snapped a photo of this lunch. This was the best vegetable soup topped with couscous and cilantro. And that homemade pimiento cheese on warm homemade bread was some of the best I have ever tasted! Yum! My compliments to all the chefs who prepared meals this weekend!

We created "Happiness" collages that helped us to think about things that make us happy.

And we shared our collages with the group. Here, I am explaining my Happiness Collage. It's amazing how God can speak to you through art and spiritual direction exercises like this one!

We had heartfelt discussions and prayer and devotional time together. 

And time to just laugh and be silly together! We laughed a lot!! You should have seen us playing charades! Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures while we played. Next time!

Although we only go on retreat once a year, our group actually meets monthly. This group has taught me how important it is for women to have connections with other women. Over our almost nine years together, we have laughed, cried and prayed together. Strong bonds have been forged in our group over the years. We sure missed a couple of members who were unable to be with us this weekend.

This is a strong group of amazing women whom I am blessed to spend time with throughout the year. 

Proverbs 17:17 says, "A friend loves at all times." I am blessed to experience the love of these special ladies! I will end this post with a scripture from Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man (or woman?) who falls and has no one to help him up!"

So until next time,  may you have friends who bring love and joy and a helping hand when you need it to your life! 

Linking to Imparting Grace