One woman who was invited to the retreat by her coworker gave her life to Jesus on Saturday night. While the lip-sync battle was going on downstairs, she stood with two other women as they prayed for her and she surrendered her life to Jesus. Since then, she’s had excellent talks with her husband. When she told him how important this new decision is to her, he said, “We need to start going to church regularly.”
There were also two women from Idaho who often listen to our Village Church sermons and decided to drive up from Idaho for our Women’s Retreat!
It was incredible to witness 300 women gather in anticipation to lean into God. We cried together and laughed together!
I learned that the women at Village Church are up for a challenge. We are fierce and determined. Whether it was conquering a fear of heights on the zip-line, hiking up to the pinnacle while pregnant (yes, I said pregnant!!), doing 40 push ups, or devouring an entire apple pie in less than 2 minutes, our ladies were up for a challenge.
On the other hand, there were silent challenges that ladies were wrestling with. Is Jesus actually the Saviour? Can I really get through this difficult time? Is there hope for my marriage? Why do I even exist? How can I hear God’s voice directing me? And the results were astounding!
Women at Village are brave and radical! Some devoted their lives to follow Jesus, others made the decision to get baptized, and all of us left contemplating how we can each be pointing to Christ in our daily lives.
As we leave behind the serenity of RockRidge Canyon and return to the noise of our daily lives, I’m reminded of the words Erin Clark shared at our last session of the retreat. She spoke on 1 Peter 4:8 – “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
The retreat has impacted our lives immensely and intensely, and I’m grateful for the memory of an unforgettable weekend, and now the greatest challenge is, what’s next? How will we apply all that we learned and experienced? Maybe we need to laugh more, cry more, serve more, love more, be silent more, relax more. As Sue Dennison pointed out when she shared her story with us on the weekend, 1 Peter 4:19 nudges us to remember that no matter what’s going on in life “trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.”