Women's Retreat

I'm a little late is posting this blog, but decided I'd go ahead and post it anyway. A couple of weekends ago, I was able to go to my first ever women's retreat. David graciously agreed to keep Gabriel while I was gone for a couple of days. The Brazilian women were impressed that David knew how to handle Gabriel on his own and I was thankful to be able to get away for a bit and rest.

The theme for the weekend was "Beautiful in God's Eyes" and our speaker was a pastor's widow. Her testimony was powerful and the challenges she brought us in the morning and at night were convicting and much-needed.


During the day, we had a lot of free time and I was able to get to know some of the women from our church better. We had a good time sharing stories and laughing. There were a couple of seminars in the afternoon and early each morning, before breakfast, several of the women would get together to share testimonies of God's grace in their lives and to pray. It was encouraging to hear how these women have stood faithful in spite of very difficult situations.
Each of us received some pretty note paper on which to write encouraging notes and give to whomever we chose. These notes were placed in a box and at meal time, they were read out loud by this lady, Jeruiza.

It became one of the highlights of the day as we all sat there and listened. She was so expressive in the way she read each note and we couldn't help but laugh.

I had a good time and am glad for the chance to go. Oh, and David and Gabriel did just fine without me. They even went to the beach together! But I think they were both glad to have me back home with them. :)